What I Got from Cliff
Thanks to Cliff, I arrived home last night a lot happier than when I started out.

I had spent a fruitless hour searching in the drizzle and cold for the pda I depend on utterly. I knew exactly where I had been during the half-hour in which I lost it, but it wasn't there. So I headed home depressed with no confidence I'd find it and insufficient funds to replace it. You have to understand how much I care about this thing... materialistic or not... it is my portable library, with James and Coleridge and Blake and the Bible and Salon and the Times and lots of other web pagesand Henry's Blog, etc., etc., etc.

As I near home on dark and dreary Bay Road, I see a car stalled with blinkers on. I stop, and it's a kid -- Cliff -- he's driving a Lexus with a leaking radiator. He must have felt beyond cool when he got it... a little less so now. He uses my phone to call his friend... no answer. I drive him to a nearby house where another friend lives. Not home. I drive him to another house a little further and while en route he borrow my phone again... to call his Mom. This time, the friend is home, and I leave Cliff off with the advice to move his car soon so the police won't have it towed for a lot of money. He thanks me and I drive home. Only now I feel happy. Light. I think to myself, "This is what 'blessed' means."

A few minutes after arriving home, Cliff's mom calls my cell -- she knew the number from caller id -- and asks the location of his car before calling AAA.

This morning, in the light, I retraced my steps yet again and this time, I was able to see better under the leaves at the edge of Woodside Avenue where my pda had lain all day and night.