28 years ago tonight, Gary came over to my pad after work to hang out. That night was also a Tuesday — Mardi Gras actually.

After much talking and drinking of pots of Lemon Mist tea, we finally kissed and then connected “in the biblical sense”. We spent the night together –the first of approximately 10,220 nights that we’ve spent together.

We’ve only slept apart maybe 20 nights in 28 years. That’s a 99.8% uptime of downtime. 😉

Love is grand!

It was Mardi Gras, February 12, 1991. We’d gone on a “date” to Stanroy’s Music in Santa Rosa. We then wended our way back to my pad, an old farmhouse in Penngrove, California. The house was on what had once been a chicken ranch during Sonoma County’s egg production heydays in the 1920s. The living room had high ceilings, windows that faced the horse pasture in the front, oak trees on the side. The fireplace was smokey because of a poorly functioning insert. The couch was rust colored and modular — a hand me down from my oldest sister.

We had started hanging out after the Winter Solstice, talking, watching movies together, taking drives, more talking. We were falling in love but, having both had been married before, we were taking it slow, very slow.

This night, 27 years ago, after more talking and pots and pots of herbal tea, I saw bands of light reaching out from our hearts pouring into each other. We kissed and …

Of course, I wrote a song about it: