I’m sitting in a Starbucks just off Watertown Square. I’ve purchased way too many expensive coffees here over the years. The virtue buried in this vice was that we’d decided to become a single car household (the major joy was feeling morally superior to our friends. But it did have a couple of other benefits for self and other…) oh some five or six years ago. This meant I would drive Jan to work at Perkins and then drive into my office in Newton. We’ve both treasured this time together coming and going. Some weeks it would be most of the time we had together… It also meant frequently (I refuse to say just how frequently) on weekday mornings I would stop by this very coffee shop and pick up a latte. (Non fat, extra hot)
In a little more than an hour I’ll pick Jan up and we’ll drive the old route back to Newton for the last time. We’ll do one more walk through the house, pick up the spider plants and some oils and spices we’d overlooked the ten previous times we walked through the house, load it all into the car, lock the door for I guess the last time, and leave for our little apartment in Providence.
We formally close on Friday. And then close on the house in Pawtucket on Monday…
While there are many negative things one may say about the Starbucks corporation (and there are many, many; and some good things as well…), this particular shop has been a part of my life for more than half a decade. While I can’t claim anyone has become a friend, the baristas recognize me and I they, and we’ve exchanged many small pleasantries over the years. And I feel that glow that comes with familiarity when I see them.
And today it ends. Oh, I’ll be back to this particular shop once in a while. The way things are going, probably tomorrow. But, not with that connection to our life in Newton…
So, one more part of the long good bye that has been my taking leave of the Newton congregation and our relocating down the coast to Rhode Island…
And after ages of heavy shoveling, right now a slow down, a pause…
I’ve just caught up on most, I hope, of my neglected emails (via a Linksys connection, so no fees)…
I’ve sat happily for an hour without thinking about the next task to do…
Soon enough I’ll have to get on with it.
But for the moment, one more bittersweet taste of passingness…
And a nice iced coffee…
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