New camera and a night walk

What a day. First there was Bella, briefly, excited and pink-cheeked, all dressed up to meet her Papa at the airport later in the day.

In the afternoon I spent time with a man who is 96. His second wife died last year, and he told me, smiling gently, "Of course I would have preferred for us to live together forever, we were so harmonious, and she was so beautiful. But we had forty-two years together, the best years of our lives. After we retired, we made an art of living simply, and our life was like music that just kept on playing. I'm still listening to it now."

Late in the afternoon I decided to get that camera I've been dreaming about, and I'm wild about it. Pocket-size, light weight, inconspicuous as a point-and-shoot, with a sensor as big as the one in my Nikon. By the time I got the battery charged and read the introductory pages in the manual, it was 8 p.m., so I went for a night walk with it, and this is my first shot. I had it on Auto with Snap Focus set to 2.5 meters. The detail in the dark foreground and the sharpness of the people in the distance, standing under the lights, delights me. It feels perfect in my hand--as if it's part of me. I took more shots, not all as lucky as the first, but it's going to be an adventure, finding out what it can do.

Home from my walk, I had an i-message from Sue: "The crickets are singing, the moon is almost full, the mariachi bands are playing.... Wish you were here."

Bliss.

Here's a bit of music I'm listening to with the words of that 96-year-old man in my ears.