Dear Ash Cloud,

Alright, we get it. We're too dependent on getting places on planes.

Nothing is unfathomably far away anymore. I can check up on friends in Melbourne and Tokyo and San Francisco right now if I want to. And I could get anywhere in the planet in about a day and a half. Maybe.

But sorry, once innocence is lost, one cannot get it back - we ain't going back to horse and buggy and smelly wooden sailboats.

I admit, I was mildly amused at the chaos last month. And you're getting me back today, Ash Cloud. This morning, Edinburgh Airport was fine. Now, with an hour to spare, you decide to trap my parents in Amsterdam? Couldn't you have waited another two hours? Grumble, grumble.

The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender. - Vince Lombardi

Today's my dad's last day of work. I'm loathe to say 'ever' because I know he'll be bored out of his mind by next Tuesday afternoon. The man's worked since he was 14; that's some fifty years of working, most of it with the same company. Not too many people can say that.

He's got a party tonight, then another party tomorrow night. Already he's got a better social life than I do. My mom's busier post-retirement than she was when she worked. I'm sure he'll be the same way. They'll save the plants of the world one Pond Society meeting at a time. They'll throw themselves headfirst into whatever comes their way.

The best part about this retirement is that he and Mom will be able to spend proper chunks of time over here. They'll get to know and love Scotland as much as I do. They'll get to spend a week photographing every plant at Inverewe Gardens without as much as a peep from me.

Congratulations, Dad. It's the first day of the rest of your life.

1967.

The year MLK denounced the Vietnam War. The year the Doors released their self-titled album. A volcano erupted on Antarctica. It's the year my father bought a Plymouth Barracuda, which he still owns and I'm still not allowed to drive. It's also the year my parents got married, on September 2. Forty-one years seems a hell of a long time. So congratulations, Mom and Dad. And thanks for teaching me that laughter and love are what makes things last.
Word count: 56,062
Groove: better today
Bubble: the fear is slipping away