Family Threads

 As I look through the photos it seems the place to start is with Fathers' Day. Orien was home and we celebrated with Michael and Sheldon and Penny. Family is so precious. You always think you have time but then sometimes you don't. This last week we took advantage of a little window of time we had. My only sibling, Warren, came out to California with his wife Carol. We had almost six days together after almost five years apart.

 They met us up in Healdsburg and we visited friends of Orien's in Dry Creek at the Hawley Vineyard and also at Bella Vineyard. Friends Ross, Lauren, Meagan and Paul are with us in this photo. (Michael stayed home to keep working away.) We had an ideal day-- tasting first at the Hawley's, then at Bello, where we also  had a picnic lunch and then finished up, for comparison, at Coppola Tasting Extravaganza where their friend Remi was pouring.

 We then went to S.F. and Orien put us up in style near the Asian Law Caucus where she is currently working.

 After we parted from Orien we came up to Chico for some toasty days of bike riding, eating out, etc, then headed into the Gold Lakes Basin. Some very kind friends loaned us their cabin and Warren, Carol, and Michael summited the Sierra Buttes and then we walked out to Big Bear Lake... in 47 degree weather with a stiff wind. This morning when we left for the airport it was raining!

It's all a whirl to me now. Part of me is sort of mourning a loss but its hard to say if it is for my brother and sister-in-law or my friend Ed whose memorial I went to on our return home, or if it is for a little girl I used to know who now has a provisional schizophrenia diagnosis (I just found out.) Again, life is short, sweet and the transitions momentous. Live fully and not so much in the rear view mirror. Love your family and friends as if you may lose them.