July 7, 2018

Minneapolis, MN

A hot but beautiful day in South Minneapolis!   We spent the morning reconnecting with old friends, Roth and Phyllis.   The last time we saw them was when their daughter, Noelle, was 4 years old.  She is now 24 and a mother herself of a bright 18-month-old son, nicknamed Punky.  The four of them, plus Punky’s dad, Evan, all live in a lovely 1925 Craftsman home. Life is busy there with such a lively little one.  Brunch was quiche and cornbread from Turtle Bread, eating in the lovely backyard which they had so lovingly landscaped. 

Patti enjoyed playing with him, and later on he really warmed up to Dick and wanted to be lifted up so he could hug Dick and then poke at his glasses and beard.  It is always fun to catch up with longtime friends, and we all visited up a  storm.  There were many chapters of our lives to fill each other in on.   We will certainly see them in the future when we are in town.

Patti dropped off Dick at Randy’s and went straight on to The Tiny Diner, very close to Randy’s place, and close enough to her friend, Diane’s that she rode her bike there.  They had a lovely lunch while talking about life, family, politics and how to cope in difficult times.  So nice to follow one another’s journeys through the years.  Diane is thriving in her new job, and her “little girl” Anna will be in high school this fall.  Wow! Wasn’t she just in second grade?

Dick and Randy had a great lunch and then launched in the project of going through every single vinyl record in Randy’s extensive collection to sort things out:  which ones are in the “must keep” pile and which ones can be brought to a record store to be released back out into the world.  This process of going through belongings and letting some go is one we are very aware of having moved a year and a half ago, and Randy is also underway with this.  Some things are better done with a friend, and Randy was quite pleased with the progress they made.

We cooked a great dinner together, and then spent the evening with further conversation.  Patti had the chance to read the first several chapters of the new manuscript that Randy is working on about the process of dealing with the sudden death of his beloved husband 6 years ago.  It is well written, and really brings back memories of that very sad time in all of our lives.