Bob Blogs

Bob and my husband have been friends since their boyhood days at St. Mary's
(where his mom carried her tupperware purse at yard duty
and was proficient in the corrective uses of the whistle)
and have shared a lifetime of mischievous fun in a lasting friendship.
Lucky me, that this duo immediately and irrevocably embraced me
when I first showed up on the scene back in high school.
Over the years we have laughed and cried,
borne one another's burdens in quiet companionship,
grew up together (with many a crazy adventure), lived together,
quietly prayed through one another's grief,
and Lord willing will grow old in one another's good company.
When Bob sent me this I was struck by the character of his friendship,
the common faith that looks at hopelessness with eyes full of hope,
who refuses the label and looks again to see the life,
 and who has not forgotten how to laugh at the good of it. Cheers indeed!


"We live in unusual times. Here in the middle of homeless Old Town Temecula,
the 2nd great depression has lent us more permanent homeless residents than most .
Unlike the last recession where we had characters named toothless Bob and Shorty,
for whom they and their friends found that our building was perfect for their needs
(backporch showers, frontporch bedrooms ,weekend partying and an occasional five finger discount –
anybody seen a slightly used laptop and overexposed telescope?),
the current times provide us a different kind of park and street dwellers.
I am not sure how you would characterize or classify them but they are different.
I am similarly not sure what to make of a fellow who rakes our leaves
and waters our lawn because he is bored (unless he is casing the joint –
he probably does not know Mark’s laptop is ancient history!).
Just as oddly, I cannot figure out a lady whose new dog poops on our lawn
and she comes over not just to remove the grass-killing pile
but also to clean the grass so no trace exists. These same two “homeless” types
were also spotted doing other nefarious deeds such as cutting our dead branches
and putting them in our dumpster on a timely basis (Thursday dumpster pick up)
and picking up trash in our yard while dog walking ------
sheeesh , what is the world coming to ? ……
this week , at least, I was glad to witness what it is coming to in our little part of the world…"
Cheers , Bob