While waiting for client feedback

I'm not a big fan of the home office idea. I don't mind being independent, I'm quite good at it. But soloing without a soul around, except on email, isn't really my favorite work style. And my house is so small that I pretty much end up in one chair from a.m. coffee to p.m. cabernet.

But there is one thing I love - the productivity! I no longer have to cram all my chores and home projects into a weekend. Today while waiting for client feedback and approvals on a couple projects, I ripped out an old agapanthus that was threatening to one day prevent me from reaching my front door. For those of you sensitive to killing "old growth" anything, I apologized before whacking it to pieces and even saved a bunch of stalks for planting somewhere else (or selling on the street corner for bus fare).

I now have a nice potted olive tree in that corner, a proud blister on my palm and I was even right at hand for a client call (albeit a bit sore and muddy). Not so bad I guess.

Music is the glue

First off, yes, I'm back in San Francisco. I won't go into the transition I'm still going through and what it's like to be back after a year of living abroad. Call me and I'll tell you all about it (and it changes every day).

Last weekend I drove down to Monterey for the Jazz Festival. It's been quite a number of years since I've gone, so I can't comment on whether my observations are just a slow trend or something sudden. But I seem to recall many years of people dancing in the aisles of the main arena and a definite vibe of fun and letting go.

This year though, no one in the arena danced. It wasn't for lack of hot rhythms - there was some amazing music. But the crowd seemed older and the party atmosphere was subdued. Was it age, the economy, the signs that declared "no standing in the aisles"?

I think maybe it was a quiet longing for comfort.

One of the few times we did get to our feet was to sing along with Pete Seeger to Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." As Dave Becker noted in his Examiner blog, "there was a thrilling sense of being in the presence of important, dynamic and still vital piece of American history." Is it nostalgia that gets us going?

The real energy emanated from the Best Buy booth where you could try out the new Beatles: RockBand. It was great fun to see the diverse groups that got together to take up an instrument. Maybe it was the free CDs if you scored high, but I kind of think it was that nostalgia thing again. Without a doubt though, the music held it all together.

One of the things I'll miss

Leaving San Miguel didn't seem sad until this morning when I started packing up. One of the things I will miss is the sound of hooves striking the cobblestone street outside our casita. This is a member of the local police force that patrols our neighborhood, his uniform inspired by the colonial soldiers of the era of Ignacio Allende and Mexican Independence.