About Town

It just took me a while to get started this morning. I sipped my coffee, messed around on the laptop and kept an eye on Egypt.

I'm watching the turmoil there and I'm pretty sure I'll never get the husband to take me to see the pyramids. I just ripped up my bucket list and tossed it in the trash can. Of course it missed it's mark. I hauled myself up and cleaned up that mess and headed for the shower.

It's a strange sort of day. Temperature are sneaking up on 70 degrees but it is not a comfortable day. The clouds have blocked out the sun and there is a  mild breeze and it just feels cold.

We decided to go for a ride. There are plenty of areas here to investigate; new places being built everyday. Early on, we decided to stop at the Community Coffee House for a little caffeine jolt. For those that are not from this area, Community Coffee is a brand of coffee sold here and one that garners much loyalty from those raised here.

The parking lot was crowded, bikes were locked into the bike racks and the drive through window was keeping the barrister busy. I have to say, I like coffee shops.

We entered through the main entrance and directly to the left was a row of windows waist high, and a ledge running along the wall with bar stools occupied by students. Calculators and loose leaf notebooks were spread out with drawings of triangles and long rows of calculations. I almost broke into a sweat just looking at those pages. Farther down, another student was huddled over her book oblivious to everyone.

The tables arranged in rows across the coffee shop sprouted laptops, more calculators and students. A chemistry book closed and pronouncing it's former status as "USED" rested beside the young girls laptop. She alternately entered numbers into her calculator or picked up her iPhone and fingers flying, sent her text message off.

Some of these  students were fresh faced and young, while others showed some gray hairs haloing their faces. Hair worn  short, or long hair drawn back and tied close to the nape of their neck, the men were seriously studying on this Saturday afternoon. Most of the females were young. All of them were busy. This wasn't a social afternoon.

We took our coffees and headed to the patio.

Our travels wound around the outskirts of town and down streets and though housing developments that have sprouted in the recent past. We made a drive by Chandra Rubin's house or what is left of it. She is the tennis pro from Lafayette.  Shortly after Christmas, her beautiful home in River Ranch was struck by lightning. From a distance, the towering roof could be seen with it's charred beams exposed. A security guard patrolled the yard, his vehicle parked between the gated entrance. 

River Ranch is a city within a city. It offers tennis courts, restaurants, banks and dry cleaners along with clothing stores and all built to resemble a French town. The streets are narrow and winding. Flowers fill pots hanging off wrought iron balconies. Quaint.  The fire trucks responding to the fire at Ms. Rubins' house discovered that these picturesque streets, narrow and winding only hampered their efforts to guide those big trucks to her house. River Ranch is now rethinking their building standards.

I'm home again and while the washer is making clean with the laundry, I type this story about nothing. It's a good day to type and a good day to do nothing.

I'm still watching the news reports from the Middle East.