Iris and Jill

Iris had an early surgery to tend to but then came back at 9am, as scheduled, and together we went out to a six-hour breakfast at a nearby bagel place.

I didn't think we would sit there in the shade THAT long but one topic led to the next. It was the kind of sisterly conversation we didn't have during the Lake Powell reunion, simply because of all the other stress factors. Mom, men, our kids were the primary topics.

We'd take small breaks when her phone went off and she had to answer the hospital's questions. She was on call, dressed in her scrubs, but never had to go in. I probably would have just left and driven north to Newark. We'd refill our cups with soda and coffee as we chatted.

Time flew by. I had to get going by 3pm to meet Jill 70 miles north in Newark DE. Finding the proper exit from Iris' I-795 wasn't easy and I didn't have a good map to guide me. When I landed at a Johns Hopkins satellite campus with a directional sign to I-695 I felt better oriented.

The traffic, however, all over the I-95 corridor is just too much for me. I got off at the first Newark, DE exit, which got me to town, but then where was Jill's exit near a railroad bridge? I ended up wandering like Moses all over agricultural roads, coming close to town but nothing seemed familiar. I wanted to call Jill as soon as I saw a landmark, but at 5:20pm she beat me to it.

She and Dave got on their computer's Google Earth and guided me, taking me from the south of town on DE73 to her area. As soon as I came across the town's old Paper Mill, I recognized the neighborhood.

Again I sat in their kitchen and we chatted about everything. Jill had lost 40 pounds and was proud of that, but I had never known her to be heavy. If she gained 40 pounds after we last saw eachother, perhaps, but those pounds aren't coming back. She swears by eating all organic foods and adding probiotics to her diet.

She, too is now talking again with her sister Lynda, who's back in Oregon.

We were up until 11pm before I finally went to bed, still a little jet lagged and exhausted.

Friday morning Jill was up early, but I didn't crawl out of bed until almost 8am. She had a chiro appointment at 9am and Dave had an appointment to get his hair cut, so I walked around the Newark reservoir that Jill helped design, walking through the Redd Park that meandered through a small forest patch.

The reservoir stands at 320 feet above ground, which for Delaware is high. I could see into town. When I left NJ in 2004 the reservoir had been dug but for a while there was a stand-still with the final project; something to do with the contractor getting sued for not following the blueprint.

Now, however, the reservoir is full and used as a recreational area for the nearby residents.
People were walking their dogs, pushing strollers or jogging around the one-mile body of water.

I got back to Jill's house in 1:20 hours, a little longer than planned. We had a lunch of all-organic sandwiches of turkey and cheese and sourdough bread before I drove off at noon. Jill and Dave were gettign ready for their sailing weekend in the C-bay and left shortly after I took off.

It was easier for me to drive out of town than it was getting into it.