A Story About Water Brings Two Old Friends Together

It had been over twenty years since I saw my old friend Rogelio Lopez, when he called me out of the blue about three months ago. We chatted for a while, then he asked if I knew how he'd located me. No, I said, I didn't. (I'd long ago given up on locating him.) He said he was reading an article in the Ashland Free Press, when suddenbly he realized the author was talking about him in this article called The Great McCloud Water Caper of 2003. He asked himself who this person was who had written the article, but there was no byline (a slight oversight of mine — the print version of the article was attributed to an old sod by the name of Cyrus Magee). Finally he discovered that I was the editor of the Ashland Free Press, and it all fell into place.

Then he had an idea. Perhaps he should come and visit. Well, that turned out to be a great thing. He came with his son, and not only visited with his daughter out in Williams, Oregon, she decided to travel back to San Diego with them. We had some enjoyable hours together, sipping wine and catching up on old times. Rogelio is still wound up like a cat, and has taken his martial arts skills to another level. He runs the San Diego Pa Kua Kung Fu Academy, and is a full-fledged Sifu.

I, of course, am just a literary and legal throwback. As the picture of the two of us shows, he drinks more coffee.