Friends Galore

2012 Friends Galore

Mike Keenan flew home yesterday morning. However, he was still here to go out to dinner at Miss Saigon with Stan Derilian and his entourage, Ann, his wife, and their friends Stan and Marie, who are traveling with them. Kai wanted to see Stan so she brought her family along too, which put 11 people around the table. The boys came with game tablets so they hardly participated at all, although Ryder traveled under the table to see his Grandma Sue. I caught of a snatch of a conversation between Sue and Ann about Ryder’s syndrome. Ann is a nurse with 40 years experience; she recently decided to retire after she tore a ligament in her ankle. We congregated around that same long table we had the last time we ate there. Stan sat across from me so we could talk. I told him some things about my hospitalization and ongoing health concerns and he told me he was slowing down, no longer taking on new customers, just old ones, and he was spending more time on other interest, like making brandy and betting on horses. It had been decades since I last saw Ann. She looked about the same, only now she is the wrinkled version of what I remembered. The last time I saw her we still lived on the Prichard property. She and Marie are bosom pals and have been ever since they met. Marie is Stan’s second wife who bore none of his six children by another woman now dead. Stan looks like a Mennonite minister, like the salt of the earth, foursquare and knowledgeable about things. He had worked for years for the Canadian Forest service, I think in British Columbia. This is the third driving tour they have made with Derilians. Mike Keenan was at the end of the table with Stan the Mennonite and they chatted amiably. Marie responded enthusiastically to my Mandala Designs, which were on my desk when they stopped at the house. I think she was a painter but I am not sure. Sue paid for the dinner ($234), which upset the Canadian couple that wanted to pay their way. Stan told them they could chip in when they return to Tucson on Friday. That was a change of plan but I thought a good idea. They thought it was incredible that she would pay for perfect strangers.

We still have not seen anything of Bill P while Paul and Stan and Mike have been here, which is unusual for Bill. He no doubt has his hands full with Sue and the two boys, plus he anticipates a visit from Aaron, his son, and his wife and toddler, who we’d like to meet. Yesterday I tried to catch up on some sleep. Guests are welcome but they do wear me out.