Last night Monty was sending me pictures from our 2018 trip down to LA with Gayle and Laura and I felt an old familiar feeling: that I was gazing at a precious thing now long gone, never to return.

The four of us used to go on trips once a year around Laura’s birthday at the end of May . . . we’d rent a car and drive all over the West Coast together with zero itinerary, just hanging out and laughing like hell. Every day was a good day because we were together. And then the pandemic came destroyed it all. Now we see through a glass, darkly.

I told Monty those pictures had me on the verge of tears! To which she replied:

The last trip we ever took together was in May / June 2019. We went to Tahoe and then Reno. I began dating Pallas shortly afterward and had the best summer of my adult life. To be quite honest, I could have done without most of the intervening years (lol)~