Getting Ready For The Day

Doug will sit with me if I'm reading the Miami Herald, or invite me to join him at a table, but he's a New York Times kind of guy, buying a copy every day. He likes his world and national news in depth, and he feels that the Times slant on most things is a better match to his outlook on the news. He's definately a Democrat and he can never find a good thing to say about George Bush.

He gets around on a grey finished hi-tech bicycle with lots of gear ratios and fancy brakes. He probably could have found a car for less money, but he prides himself on his bike riding, claiming that it keeps him in shape. He's up there in his seventies and still pedals all over, from South Beach and Coral Gables to Fort Lauderdale and beyond. He does this rain or shine, and regardless of the wind. Twenty-five miles each way is nothing to him.

I guess this was a Saturday because Lumumba is neatly dressed, not covered with dirt and paint spatters. On the sabbath he doesn't work and he always appears tidy and neatly dressed. He hails from South Africa but he traces his lineage to Ethiopian Jews, the "lost tribes" as he calls them.

After we agreed on the best way to solve the world's problems and finished our coffee Doug headed off to South Beach, Lumumba went to where ever, and I headed to Publix to do some grocery shopping. As I drove away I was thinking how much better off everybody would be if only George Bush started joining us for Saturday morning coffee and took a bit our advice.