"I need some AIR!"

SO I'm sitting at the Portland Airport, slowly, painfully making my way from Oakland to Camp Sherman. Well not so much Oakland as the Bay Area. Ok, not so much the Bay Area as the EAST Bay area...San Ramon/Danville, my new kinda home. I'll get to that part maybe later but this post is more about returning home. Back to a home that you didn't even really realized you missed. Tom waits says "I never saw my hometown until I stayed away too long". When I flew in to Portland just now I fell in love with that green river bound city again, like it was for the first time.

Make no mistake, It's the Metolius River I'm on my way to... and it'll nurture my soul with what I need to heal, but Portland is just ok with me. Better than ok...it's familiar; it's home.

Hard to explain to someone else how much work it is finding yourself in unfamiliar surroundings. It's just more 'work'. Oh, I like the excitement of everything being new, but returning home is like being embraced by your mother; a warm embrace that says 'Everything will be alright'. You so want to believe it will.

But on the Metolius, even there things change. My unchangeable place changes. Good friends you thought would always be there each summer, pass on or move on. It's ok, right even that they should. Because EVERYTHING is constantly changing, to return to the theme of a previous post. Still, there is so much good in returning to a familiar place. It's good to be home, if only for a short while.

'Cause I'm a road warrior now...at this late stage in my life. Rushing to tilt with windmills at my brother's firm. Feels good to be trusted that much. Feels better to know you can deliver what's needed.

So here I sit with my friend "Sapphire", on the rocks w/ olives, awaiting my plane to Bend/Redmond. Julie will meet me; isn't that sweet?

I had a the luxury of an unhurried meal at my favorite airport restaurant, Good Dog/ Bad Dog. I paid for it and Ill probably pay for it again later. But it's all salve for the wounds of being a roadie.

I like my life.