A week ago Thursday was not a bad morning to set out,

after nearly six months away, so after breakfast on the porch I

went to the gate,

down the desert,

over Sand Pass to Fish Springs Road

and Doyle,

then clear sailing through Sierra Valley

all the way to Truckee…but then, thanks to the Disastrous Storm

[just LOOK at all that snow piled up over Donner!] white-knuckled 25 mph Subaru drivers and

other 4×4 ninnies held up wall to wall semis in both directions all the way down;

a California Welcome.  Crossing the Valley into Solano County was nothing by comparison

and then it was Benicia and

the industrial luncheonette on Saturday

as prelude to the raison d’etre for being here now, that being

Tiburon

and my brother Kirk’s eldest son’s wedding wherein the happy couple took over the entire upper floor of the Bungalow Kitchen, one of Michael Mina’s many  upscale restaurants,

for ceremony, ritually rich foods* and celebration.

We were successful in making it home before the next day, the next day encompassing its own

social event as Enrico and Itaka stopped by enroute to Paris for lunch and a windy afternoon

walk…and the next day another one, feet sorely sore from pavement and salt assaults*,

with remnant Wagyu beef salvaged from the profligate wedding dinner**.

Tuesday, stormy through the morning, brought

another visitation, this time remnant wedding guests; my brothers Bryan, Kirk

and Italian niece Rebecca Natalia, she and Bryan the brother on their way back to

Strada in Chianti…but not before another very windy walk in the wake of the storm.

*Too many well-salted dinners out definitely affected aging joints and other moving parts.

** As son Bryan’s mother Jeanne Rose said of the menu “a carnivore-heavy meal, how quaint” and although few vegetables were harmed in the presentation much was sadly returned to the kitchen nonetheless.