Free Time

Saturday afternoon from 1 p.m. till Monday morning at 5:15 a.m. is free time here at Sonoma Mountain Zen Center. I spent some of that time off the mountain. Yesterday I drove down to Petaluma to play pool at the local pool hall, "Bank Shots." One of the residents, Natalia, and one of the other guests, Sterling, rode with me, but were more interested in each other (I think) than playing pool, and they took off once we got to town. I warmed up as I usually do, shooting some straight pool. The table was tough one, with tight pockets and fast cloth, and I had to work to stay focused and get into stroke. After a while, the guy working the counter came over and asked if I wanted some competition. Oh yeah, I said. We played nine ball for about an hour. We were pretty evenly matched.

Today, I picked more blackberries (yum) and did my laundry (ho hum). Then I invited one of the residents, Susan, to go to Sebastopol and drink tea at a tea shop called "Infusions." Another resident, Mike, asked if he could catch a ride into Santa Rosa. After dropping him off at Starbucks, Susan and I had a lovely Second Flush Darjeeling and walked around a bit before heading back up.

A fine day.