Welcome Friends

photo credit: henry hobbs

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Greetings from The Treehouse in the Big Apple. This tree, of course, is not the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that we have been warned against in myth and sacred text since history began. This is a welcoming green apple tree set by a river and a park on the Upper Green Side. The greeters at the Visitors' Center are shown above. Will, the keeper of the Treehouse; Robert, my esteemed brother; and Yours Truly, the Blobber. On my last outing in the Shire, I got an idea of who would be stopping by The City that Never Sleeps because of the encounters on the bus route. The first one was with I saw a young woman and her two children whom I had met during the summer and hadn't seen since. She told me I had inspired her to start volunteering in school and said shyly that she was learning to read. I said I would be leaving for New York on the next Tuesday so I was glad to know this. The older child said, "Maybe we'll see you at the Statue of Liberty!" Her mom laughed and explained, "You got her fired up to go there when you was telling us about Henry's adventure." Another encounter was because I had to wait for the photos at CVS so I decided to get a haircut at my usual place in Carrboro. There was someone new and much experienced working that day. We really hit it off. It turned out she was born on Staten Island and had moved out to Hollywood in her twenties. She proudly ran through the names of her customers: Johnny Carson, all the Fleetwood Macs, and several others I don't recall. I told her I had lived in Manhattan Beach and she said her husband had delivered the same newspaper as Erik. She said she was going to give me a "pretty haircut for a pretty lady." She had plenty of time to talk and at the end of our chatting she wanted a hug and said she was sure she would see me on the sidewalks of New York! Then, by chance, I got the New York bus driver and I said goodbye to him. He said, you guessed it, "I'll probably see you there some day!" It made me think I should do a blob about all the people who are coming to see us. I could call it the New and Improved Visitors' Center, which, as you see I have done!

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...may the blessings of kind companions on your journeys of discoveries be yours...