In March I had a multi-day procedure scheduled at Stanford hospital to correct a heart arrhythmia. This required some logistics effort, including getting someone who could pick me up from the hospital on the first day and take me back to my hotel as I would be recovering from anesthesia. The obvious solution, to call a cab, was not allowed (for reasons that were never really made clear).
In February I met carol at a news conference in San Francisco for architects and engineers for 9/11 truth. I discovered that she lived in Palo Alto and even though I had just met her I decided that it would not be too outrageous to ask her if she would be willing to provide the taxi service I needed.
Those of you who know carol can easily predict her response. Of course she would be willing to do this for me.
The day before the procedure I drove to Paso Robles and got on the train (as I would also not be able to drive myself home after the entire procedure was completed). The next day I walked over to Stanford hospital and was waiting for the 1st of several appointments when I got a call on my cell phone form one of the nurses saying that due to an equipment malfunction the procedure would have to be cancelled and rescheduled for 2 months later. I had a brief moment of "oh why me, lord?" but I quickly let go of that, realizing that stuff happens and I've grown weary of being miserable when things do not go "my way."
When I called carol to tell her she was off the hook she suggested that as long as I was in the area for the rest of the day anyway, we might as well go for a walk.
To make a long story a bit shorter, a result of this unplanned walk was that carol and I became good friends.
So, starting from the top, here is the short story of what has happened since.
Because of an equipment malfunction, my appointment was cancelled.
Because my appointment was cancelled, I became good friends with carol.
Because I became good friends with carol, I was part of a retreat that followed the "understanding deep politics" conference in Santa Cruz.
Because I went to this retreat, I met several interesting people including David Kubiak who invited me to stay in Udaipur when I went to India.
Because I went to Udaipur I met Rita, David's wife, mar Kabra, Laxmi, Kusum and others.
Because of the people I have met in Udaipur, there are 3 possibilities for me to return to build load-bearing straw bale homes in India.
And who knows how much more fruit will be produced by an equipment malfunction at Stanford….
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