Light Speed and Happy Memories

enjoy every precious moment. . .

Late February 2025. Garden plans (with the best organizational intentions of course), youngest great granddaughter turns one in a few days. The ground is covered with snow and the ice beneath it keeps me off of my bike - not good. My annual “guess how old I am ride” approaches and this year it will be . . .OMG_osh - don’t ask but my internal commitment requires a mile for each year on the planet. Thirty or so miles once or twice a week is one thing but. . .let’s change topics, shall we?!?

Snow, icebound and generally under house arrest, memories come flooding back to occupy the same space they would on a ride. Counting my blessings. . .

I remember sitting in a lovely, little open air cafe in Paris, just outside of the Louvre in fact. The pastries and espressos were delicious and I’ll always cherish the beautiful smile on my wife’s face as we absorbed the rare ambiance précieuse. We wandered about for a week. Strolling down the Champs-Élysées, fresh strawberries sold on the street here - a baguette there. It was glorious. And then the most romantic dinner of our lives under the late afternoon sun, on the banks of the Seine. Wasn’t that just yesterday? Ici, tout est bon!

New York City hustling and bustling art museums, street food and the 24 hour sunshine of Times Square. Our oldest granddaughter was with us. We trekked The Highline, took hundreds of pictures, wandered about the early morning streets watching the city wake up and loved every minute riding the subway. Did someone say Junior’s cheesecake - yes and how could it be that we enjoyed one of the best Thanksgiving dinners ever at this crazy NYC burger joint?

Downtown Portland in the nineties. Safe, wonderfully clean and so many enchanting things to do. We loved the theater and Johnny’s Greek restaurant. The ocean an hour to the west and the pristine Cascades an hour to the east. One of our cars was a VW camper van back then. The kids could sleep in the back or in the popup top. Back then the tent would suffice for my lovely and me. Nowadays someone prefers camping in a NYC Marriott Marquis style hotel or the equivalent.

Our son was born in Northern California where we met, married and yes, grew up. Almonds, Almonds everywhere. They had to cut down entire almond orchards to build much of the suburbs where we lived. 100 miles south in San Francisco this was going on! What a time. Who could have imagined waking up one day and realizing that was 50 years ago?

We moved to Dayton in 1997. I remember thinking how excited we were to find actual farm houses, and built before the 1970s no less. Naivety - such a blessing - little did we realize the ultimate financial implications. Still no regrets. Built in 1903, we’ve loved it and whatever pain came with it has never changed our minds.

Having moved here from the Puget Sound area of Washington where cool cloudy weather made growing warm weather loving veggies like tomatoes and peppers difficult for relatively inexperienced gardeners. I leapt at the opportunities presented in Dayton and during our first full summer (1998) I planted 40 tomato plants. Two giant wheelbarrows full of tomatoes later the neighbors fled from me whenever they saw me outside. Lesson learned.

We discovered South Haven Michigan and the magnificently therapeutic Lake Michigan in the early 2000s which, according to a friend, activates my Vagus nerve via the breathtaking span of the view - thus the therapeutic value. Even a decade ago it felt like these wonderful times with all of our grandkids would never end. But they keep growing up! I said STOP! But to no avail. No problem - we have GREAT granddaughters now.

Great Granddaughters Fulfilling Their Greatness

Might I borrow a thought? Oy vey! Even the magic of these little girls refuses to slow our fleeting time on the planet.

I remember sitting in the cube farm suppressing creativity to comply with the shallow and pretentious doctrine of industry as the hours drug on and thinking, I am wasting my life! Something has to change. As they say, be careful what you wish for. And something has changed. Time no longer drags on. In fact, I often feel like I’m grabbing time by the shirt tails and pulling as hard as I can to slow him down. Him? Her? Whatever, you know the feeling or you soon will, whippersnappers!

All of this said and the memories shared, Blue Bike Bakery continues on . . . thanks for making it possible.

Mike

PS: our memories rarely come in chronological order - but you already knew that right?