Weekend mornings here along the river have been slow starters for the past ten months or so. Most mornings the girls would sleep in and the trick to keeping them upstairs is to stay away from brewing the morning’s first pot of coffee. Bonnie has a tremendous nose for coffee and even opening the decanter holding the grounds throws caution to the wind with the possibility to awaken her increases. For these past ten months the treatment medications, including vicadin have often caused Bonnie to remain upstairs until mid-afternoon. Vicadin was (yes, “was”) a necessary prescription and one her system once needed. This offered me time to prepare the menu for the week, slip out to the grocer and do some shopping, catch up on blogging and await their descent to the living.

As you know, the “vicadin vacation” is over and earlier this morning Bonnie said emphatically “I’m back!” We had a few errands to run this morning, Logan and her girlfriend had things to do in town prior to the annual Petaluma Egg Bowl where the two rival high school teams matchup for a year’s worth of bragging rights, so once the errands were complete we headed out for a late breakfast. Have you experienced that feeling that you’ve eaten or tried all the local eateries so regularly that nothing jumps off the page any longer? We live in a great little town with plenty of fine restaurants for breakfast, brunch, lunch, etc, yet we had the entire day in front of us and the road was calling. With autumn in the air, and a free agenda we followed the winding roads for twenty plus miles and finally paralleled parked in Main Street in Calistoga where we took two stools at the bar at The Calistoga Inn and enjoyed the most wonderful breakfast I think I’ve ever eaten here in Northern California. The environment was completely relaxed, a pint of Calistoga Red in front of me, Bonnie feeling the best she has since the ball fell opening 2011 and the happiness of just how great it is to be living here becomes a reality is a pretty darn nice way to start a Saturday.

After our lunch and laughter with a few others enjoying their time at the bar, we walked hand in hand along the tranquil streets of this extremely beautiful location, pulled out and climbed the rolling hills back to Petaluma where we stimulated a few more cash registers with additional afternoon cocktails before we settled in at home to catch the final game of the ALCS.

Seven hours ago we had the taste of tequila on our lips, and now there is one. The girls are sound asleep while Dad watches this generation’s version of SNL, and although the clock has finally struck midnight, I’ll question posting this blog before double-checking its format or leave it be until the morning.

Breast cancer takes some of us longer to recuperate from, we all have different paths even when the diagnosis is the same; it all depends on what the level of our inner strength is and whether or not you trust your instincts. These two attributes are not prescribed and cannot be purchased, they can however both be supported. To this I thank each of you for your comments, your supportive phone calls, prayers, well wishing, texts, flowers, and cards. You all have a hand in this – thank you.

Peace,

Papa

P.S. Thanks to fellow blogger “Maddie’s Musings” I’ll be enjoying some “dangerously delicious” brews later this afternoon.

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