Sunrise 6:50 am: New acquaintances

The saddest part of the Dawn Joggers daily ritual is when long time "members of the early morning community" disappear. What happened, we wonder, to the woman who we saw walking ever Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by the biz school for a good eight years? We never knew her name but we'd stop and chat sometimes - about construction on campus, a particularly spectacular sunrise, why we'd been absent from our routine.

The flip side, of course, is when we make new acquaintances. Every since new housing opened on Sand Hill, we've been meeting some new dog friends and their guardian owners. Caesar, the German Shepherd, and Toni, the miniature poodle, are quite a pair, walked daily by a gracious and blithe owner, only too happy to stop and regal us with stories about their relationship. No surprise, Toni rules the household.