My companions on the road today were Joy, Carlene, and Day--and John O'Donahue on the speakers.

Joy and Day gave me helpful medical advice and I called my doctor who prescribed steroids, so maybe tomorrow will be better in the body department.

John O'Donahue was talking about beauty--just as I was driving to Sonoma--which was incredibly beautiful!

My legs were hurting too much to walk around much this morning, so I mostly stopped  and took pictures of the vineyards out the window of the car.

I did find a McDonalds for my senior Diet Coke and eavesdropped on the conversation of the town council.  You know the one: the groups of old men always sitting in coffee shops and fast food places.  The government should consult these guys--they seem to have all the answers to everything.

The most vocal member of the Sonoma Town Council was also a self-reported expert on child-raising:

"My daughter--you know what she does if her kids misbehave?  She beats their asses, just like I done hers.  None of this 'I love you, Baby' bullshit coddling.  She says, "Daddy, I'm raising my kids just like you done us."

"Her mama used to say, 'You're beating my kids!' and I told her 'I'm just hitting fat. Butt cheeks are all fat, goddammit, it don't hurt 'em.'"

Heaven help us!

What a contrast when I got back in the car and heard John O'Donahue:

"I believe that the place you live loves you and is sad to see you leave.  We are all wound to nature in a very secret way.  One of the most tender ways to awaken a sense of beauty is to awaken to the imaginative light in nature.  Light is playful.  It never shows the same mountain twice; it seeks out the crevices and reveals nature to us in a different way every day."

I drove to Healdsburg, but decided that was as far as I felt like driving today--so I came back to Bonnie's house in Santa Rosa to get a good night's sleep before starting out tomorrow.  In Healdsburg, I bought myself a hat.

"Every friend--like light," John says, "calls us to open up places in ourselves places we didn't even know were there."