Bien viaje, Tomás

My neighbor Thomas packed up yesterday and left for Philadelphia to join his squeeze, who's a doctor there.

This is at Caroline's Wednesday night, and he's got a Lester's Bloody Mary. I had a key lime margarita -- very tart, and the salt was enough to make a day worth sweating through. It was funny, as so often happens, that the server had been here the least time of all of us.

Thursday, he had the usual disorientation of somebody moving, so together we loaded the back of his rental SUV -- this box here, these breakable pieces there -- and he closed the tailgate along with the door of seven years in the Keys, soon to open the door of life with Juan. All best wishes on that new life!

I wanted to buy his bike, but he gave it to me. Today I rode it two blocks down Simonton, turned around and came back. Friday afternoon is not the time to bicycle again in traffic, even in off season, after 25 years out of the pedals.