a nice chat with a blogging friend

This evening, I had the good fortune to sit down at The Apple House in Linden, Virginia, and talk for almost two hours with blogger Bill Keezer of Bill's Comments. This was our first time ever meeting face to face. Conversation ranged all over: we talked family matters, trains (a pet subject of Bill's, and a train rumbled by as we were talking), politics, the military, science, my accident, ADHD, religion, woodworking, and the art of manuscript-building. Bill's working on a rather ambitious science- and religion-related book project right now; I'm hoping to be in his inner circle when he feels his manuscript is mostly ready for perusal.

Bill's a cheerful guy who looks a bit like Santa Claus, but leaner and tougher-- as if Santa had morphed partway into Ernest Hemingway. It's easy to imagine Bill in a Franciscan friar's habit, fighting off brigands with a fearsome wooden quarterstaff, cowering monastic novices watching him in awe (he's actually an active Lutheran). He's also the kind of person that the French call bien dans sa peau, i.e., comfortable in his own skin-- cheerful, composed, gracious, and easily adapting to his surroundings. We ate outside this evening; Bill with his pulled-pork sandwich and I with my massive, one-pound burger. My interlocutor turned out to be a natural raconteur, and the evening's creeping chill, as the sun set, didn't dampen his spirits one bit. I'm glad we had the chance to meet, and hope we'll meet again soon.


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