Old Town Roads

Well it's Sunday evening of Mother's Day, a new week is blossoming on the horizon under a cool breeze reminiscent of the fall. I brought Connor home to begin his week with me, and at his request we listened to the song "Old Town Road" featuring Billy Ray Cyrus. On repeat. Again and again. All the way home. It's a catchy song, I have to admit, even if it doesn't seem to know whether it's a country song, or a rap song, or something somewhere in between. Connor declared that it's his favorite song. I wonder what his next favorite song will be next week.

Well, while I'm contemplating on that, I'll reminisce on my Saturday. I took a Sunday drive on Saturday morning, all the way south 7 miles to Old Town Sacramento. It had been awhile since I walked around Old Town. It's not the same as San Francisco, for me. I mean, it's nice and all. Waterfront, old-timey boardwalk, touristy shops, bridges, and so on. It's like a little San Francisco in many ways, when you think about it. But it doesn't quite speak to me. The sea lions did. Oh yeah, we have sea lions downtown now. At least two sitting on the docks near the marooned Hornblower cruise boats, and more having intimate discussions from somewhere under the pylons of the Tower Bridge. It's getting even closer to San Francisco down there, apparently. But San Francisco is my soul place, it just speaks to me on a whole other level. Old Town Sacramento works in a pinch though.

I expected it to be quite barren down there, what with the Covid-19 crisis still in full effect and people supposedly sheltering in place. Which...I clearly was not doing either. In some ways it was pretty barren, with the non-food stores shuttered up and looking abandoned and lonely. Like a ghost town. But I was surprised to see several dozen people milling about down there. Biking, jogging, enjoying a leisurely walk. Living. Like a normal Saturday morning. Go figure.

I stopped at Danny's Mini Donuts after they opened at 10:00am. I should say after "he" opened - not "they". The place epitomizes the small business model. It's a classic mom-and-pop shop, except it's just a Pop running it. In the past he's had various other family members helping out. But as he said, though he himself is doing okay, business is way down. So now it's just Danny there. I bought an 8-pack of of minis (4 chocolate and 4 cinnamon-sugar), and then followed up with a chocolate milkshake chaser for the walk back to my car. I don't usually double down like that. But I guess I felt kind of bad for him. His location is not ideal to begin with, being in the far corner of Old Town away from the central hub where most of the foot traffic tends to linger. And with less people out and about than normal, well it must be difficult to sustain a small independent business. Hopefully my small contribution to his daily sales volume helped, at least a little. Well I can pretend I made a difference, anyway. And he seemed happy to see me, and even seemed to recognize me from previous visits. (I swear I don't go there that often).

So that was my big outing of the week. The weekend was filled with Old Town and Old Town Road. A themed weekend I guess. And now onto the "work" week. Like before. Rinse and repeat. But first, I think it's just about bed time. Wait...yes, it's 10:30pm. Guess which song is now stuck in my head as I drift off to slumberland? Well, it's my own fault. Zzzz...