Time Can Be Managed

My buddy Fred the Evil Carpenter is now Fred the Evil Ex-Patriot. He's leaving for Switzerland on Friday, getting hitched to some woman he went to school with years ago. So we took him out to dinner tonight at Jerusalem Cafe to say goodbye. I'm not real big on mediterranian food, hell, I can't even spell it, but the lamb was done right, so I'm happy.

What was funny was that the restaurant was two doors down from the location where Fred used to be the Evil Baker. He's known the owner of the cafe for 10 years, so it was like going into a restaurant where everyone knows your companion. We were even introduced to the new members of the restaurant family.

It struck me as strange, going down into the heart of Vancouver at night, that I've not had a reason to do that in about 10 years. Some things have radically changed since we used to deliver cookies and bagels at dawn. New buildings on some corners, old buildings redone. The Arnada Cafe closed. The bus mall closed, and a new fountain put up.

"Time is weird," I say
"You gotta be here now," he says.
"Sometimes, your brain goes there then."
"The 'then' is always laying there underneath the now."