November 21 - Going to the Sky

The social visit has become a viewing and a wake, and we head on this gloriously-clear-day-between-storms over the Sierra past Yuba Gap -- the Central Valley fog having started in Dixon and fled



by the Foothills



approaching Auburn.



The late fall colors



and early early snow



are stunning



up close and



afar all the way to



Truckee for



brunch



at



Coffee And with


views south and



west past



other familiar locales.



Back on the road,



through Truckee Meadows and



down



the



steep-walled,



precipitous



Canyon,



we are soon amongst the desertic, dusted domes near Verdi ("Vurd-eye," the composer notwithstanding), and on to


Reno and



Sparks



where



Megan and Dawn await,



then off, back to Reno's



Mountain



View



Cemetery (map above has west at top), specifically the



Masonic /



Final Wishes



Chapel.



We are all briefed as to the viewing, and there is



Mike at rest (a big man with a big heart, that suddenly gave out on him prematurely at 50),



overlooking the prospect of downtown Reno and the distant eastern mountains.



Mike's brother Roger and his wife are there, as well as their



son, daughter-in-law, and



granddaughter (Samuel Becket - Waiting for Godot: "Astride...");



Mike's son (called Mikey by some) and his wife;



Dawn,



Harriet, and



Megan.



The wake is back at Megan's, then we head, after dropping Dawn off near



Mike's notorious truck, into that good night, back over the Sierra, with only a bit of fog on a fuzzy, moonlit, bonny night that may presage more storms to come.

November 19 - Walking Afar

Arrive home to the stunningly sad news from Harriet that Megan's husband Mike has died, all of a sudden, of a heart attack, at 50. Surreally, we have been planning a visit to Reno to see them this Saturday, and now that visit will be a wake, and the viewing has been independently yet serendipidously scheduled for 2pm, within an hour of our planned arrival.




Beyond, it's another semetrical day, this one with the orchestration of The Gospel According to St. Matthew: XXXIII. Walk On Water; plus Quiz 14 for the Theoreticians (a summing up of the semester's work, with excerpts from Philip Glass's Satyagraha and Akhnaten, and Sting's King of Pain); the overland-and-water to Marin and paper grading and postbox; and again to


safe harbors, meditating on the brevity of a breviary.