Here in the Real World

What with all my expectations long abandoned
And a future I no longer saw my hand in
How I found you is beyond my understanding
My stunning mystery companion

Jackson Browne, "My Stunning Mystery Companion"

The best news is that the genuinely good news is right here at home. We have another new grandbaby, Elizabeth Applegate, born June 2nd at Yakima Memorial Hospital, eight pounds, nineteen and three-quarter inches, pink and healthy and utterly beautiful.

Marie and I were talking today about the many blessings in our life and the rock solid source of our abiding happiness. We are content with simple things and small blessings. We're delighted by the twenty dollar black vinyl couch we bought at a garage sale. It's long and well-built and comfortable, cozy in our little living room. We carted it home last fall on the trunk of the Vista Cruiser, tied down with ropes, crawling along on the side streets. We passed two cops parked on a cul-de-sac on the way home and they just laughed. Last week in Crescent City we found a sturdy ochre bookcase for the bedroom for a dollar. It just fit in the back seat for the trip home, and the color perfectly compliments the colors in the painting next to the bedroom window, a priceless original crafted by Marie's daughter Amber when she was in high school. I deliberately left the dime-sized yellow $1 sticker from the sale on the top shelf, a bit of whimsy, a reminder of the joy of bargains and finds. Yeah, it was a dollar. So what? Also on the top shelf is a picture of us together, at Marie's company Christmas party a few years ago. She looks juicy in a green velvet dress. I'm holding her close, incredibly proud to do so.

Tonight we're meeting Marie's daugher Ashley and her two sparkling little girls, Mackenzie and Bryce, at The Starlight Parade downtown. This afternoon were having barbequed burgers and coleslaw at a community benefit for SOLV at New Seasons Grocery and then we're playing golf, nine holes at Frontier out in Canby, just a little out of the way pitch-and-putt carved out of a farmer's field a few miles out of town. We'll probably stop at Fir Point Farms for pie and ice cream on the way home. Marie looks adorable in her new outfit, cute capri pants and a tank top she bought at Wal Mart on the Memorial Weekend visit to her mom's. The Real Housewives of New York City in their thousand dollar designer duds couldn't look more glamorous or desirable than she does swinging her pink and lavender golf clubs at the eight-dollar-a-round pitch-and-putt. They simply couldn't.

And they couldn't be having a better time than we are today. It's a joyous, simple day, seventy-two degrees and sunny, a top-down day cruising in the Vista Cruiser. You couldn't have better time at the most exclusive resort in the world.