Guessing about guests

Last night I was aware that Tom Brennan was arriving. John Rasor had told me that he was going to pick him up at Oakland airport in the evening. So we made a simple supper, consisting mainly of a pasta dish and a salad. I made a tomato and black olive sauce for penne rigatte. John and Duoc Le (the three of us are the only ones home) seemed to enjoy it. Okay, they did enjoy it: they were absolutely enthusiastic. "I did not know tha tyou had these kitchen skills," Duoc said to me as he served himself seconds on the pasta asciuta. "Yes," I rejoined. "They are hidden because I have been living the Hidden Life."

After supper and cleanup, John departed for the Oakland airport. I began sweeping the front walks, and was able to attack the dead leaves in the curb in front of the house -- well half of the way, because there were two cars still parked in front of our place. Our streets is one of the few in Berkeley that are never cleaned by street sweepers. The leaves fall, and since we have no control over who can park in front of our property, we can go months without there ever being a free space there. Literally, it has been since last December that there had not been an occasion to work on that space. Between the sidewalk and half the curb, I filled up half of one Green Waste bin. I then placed it on the curb, along with the cardboard recycle container (since this morning was to be the pick-up day). I'd worked there for over an hour, but John did not retrun before I hung up my tools.

I went upstairs and tried to telephone to my mother. I had heard from a friend that there had been an earthquake in "L.A." in the morning. It was centered in Chino Hills and measured 5.4 on the Richter scale. When I first heard that, I thought that it was not very much… What was I thinking? I guess I was hearing 3.4 instead of 5.4. No big damage had been reported, but still, I was wondering how it affected my people. It was nearly 8.45 before I was able to make the connection and talk with my mom. She said that she was outside when the quake hit and that she saw the house literally shake on its foundations. There have been plenty of after shocks. My brother Sal is staying with Mom in these days; he felt it while at work out in Irvine…

Reports were that all the cellular connections went down with the quake, but this did not affect land lines. The reason I could not connect for nearly 40 minutes was that Sal was working on Mom's internet connections, which are dialup, of course.

While I was on the telephone, I heard voices and doors opening in the building. I presumed it was Tom Brennan and John Rasor returning. Then it got very quiet, so I did not go out to check once I finished my long telephone call. When I was setting up the chapel for Mass this morning, I found that Al Vu had also arrived. That was news. Then this morning, Chinh Nguyen called me for a parking spot, arriving with a van load of friends and a great desire to Bart it to San Francisco. John had someone in to check our internet capacities today as well, while Arthur got fresh supplies of cheese and cold cuts from Fr Austin Conterno.

After two days of peaceful quiet, Don Bosco Hall is filling up again.

Well, niente male -- that's what it is about.