Priceless...

Today One Philly Son and I enjoyed some of the priceless side effects of my lay-off.

This morning we drove to Allentown (a little over an hour away) to visit with an old neighbor of mine. I lived next door to him when I was a child, and he retired the year we moved in, also the year I was born. He is currently 94 years old. He lived alone until recently, and has never married or had children. He was by far the single healthiest influence on our lives. He has a heart condition and is recovering from the shingles. Our visit was a few hours. He gave One Philly Son a ride on the walker he's only recently started using.

We went to a McDonald's. My neighbor loves it, especially because there's a fantastic playland for One Philly Son. We had a great time, and I am always struck by observing two people on such opposing ends of life's journey. I want to take the moments and lock them up, preserving them forever. I'd like a Star Trek holographic thingy so I can relive them over and over and over again.

One Philly Son has two middle names, and my neighbor is one of those namesakes. So these moments are especially poignant to me.

I do not know that he realizes the incredible affect he had on my life, by simply being a healthy, consistent, honest prescence in my life.

After our visit, One Philly Son and I went to the park and he swung on the swings. He loves the swings, and today was probably on one for half an hour. Somewhere around 15 minutes in, he started leaning his head back, and I could see him testing how comfortable he felt, leaning back farther and farther. At some point he totally relaxed, head back, eyes closed, the breeze blowing his hair. I could see he'd totally relaxed and was not afraid to just swing. It was a moment that took time to accomplish and I'm so blessed I had the time to spend.

So yeah, I lost my job. I'm not sure I'd trade it for moments like today.