Spring is Sprung(ing)

Yesterday was almost, dare I say it?  Warm.  I didn't even wear a coat yesterday as we were setting up the breakfast table.  With the warm weather came one of our oldest friends -- our very first breakfast friend.  His grandmother and him came our very first day we were out there.  You could tell they (or mainly his grandma) thought we were just a wee bit...ok a lot...crazy, but I admire that they sat right down and asked all the requisite questions:

Who are you? 
Why are you here?
Will you always be here?
Why are you here?
Who are working for?
Why are you here?

Admittedly, all of those answers weren't clear to us, but we fumbled through some replies and they became some of our most faithful advocates.  When the weather is especially cold, they drive to school instead of coming to the bus stop.  So we were glad to see them again yesterday.

My new word for yesterday was "viejo."  Our greatest friend is a man that lives right next to the park.  He's cautiously and quietly watched us for the past nine months.  He speaks mainly Spanish, but his English is better than my Spanish and we stumble through conversations with lots of hand motions and hasty iPhone translation app help and over the past nine months have become friends.  Real friends.  Two weeks ago he told a new parent I was his English granddaughter and I nodded without thinking twice.

He helps us unload some Tuesday mornings.  And quizzes our Spanish.  He asks about our weeks. He does all of this things without thinking, because that what friendship is.  And we reciprocate because I know more than anything we've been brought into his life purposefully.  I don't know what the purpose is beyond just neighboring and letting him know that we care about his little neighborhood, but it seems like enough.  And we're glad to know him and be his English granddaughters.

Yesterday when he was helping us unload, he told me to tell him, "Hurry up, viejo!"  or "Hurry up, old man!"  We just laughed and dropped the chairs we were all carrying and stumbled through the pronunciation of a new word -- a companionable word that symbolized our joking, affable friendship that's blossomed in one certain city park.  Here's the "viejo" himself.  :)