A friend used to stick a sign on the door of her shop: “Gone to Post Office. Will be right back.”

Sometimes she was gone for hours. It was a small town without mail delivery; everyone had to visit the post office, therefore Judi had to visit with everyone.

That’s how I feel when I leave my house in Ballard. I have to visit with everyone.

Every Friday morning starts with tea and then a walk with my friend Jo-Ann on her day off. These Fridays date back to school bus days; my daughter was so fearful she cried every time the bus appeared, and I had to strong-arm her up the steps. After the bus disappeared, I was the one who cried.

Ten years later, the school buses are long gone from our lives. Jo-Ann's freshman son is one of those kids loping home from Ballard High School on suddenly long legs.

After tea there is a book to drop with Mary, who wants us to circle back so she can walk with us. We decide to visit Jo-Ann’s block, my old block, to make plans with another neighbor for the 15th annual Fourth of July party and talent show.

There is not a single day on our friend’s calendar without an entry for the next two months, even though her son’s team didn’t make little league playoffs.

By the time we’ve circled back for Mary, it’s getting warmer and we have to shed layers. We used to be on the Golden Gardens walk by 9:30 a.m., but now it’s almost 11:30 a.m., and I’m hungry.

We all sit along the window at The Scoop on 32nd Avenue Northwest, and Kim Paxton demonstrates her “One-Minute Cooking with Kim” class that involves cutting and heating baked goods.

A van parks outside; child after child exits in matching school uniforms, from largest to smallest like nesting dolls.

It is the last day of the school year for St. Al’s. To celebrate, every child is having a double-scoop ice cream cone, although most have opted for rainbow sherbet in the same way that kids always choose the donut with multicolored sprinkles.

With school years ending there will be new flavor in the ice cream case: bubblegum.

After coffees and chatting with James and Don, there’s not enough time left for the full walk so we head north to Sunset View Park, smelling roses along the way, eyeing the spray painted prospect of a new traffic island at 34th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 67th Street. Good for them, but how did they get ahead of the queue?

Jo-Ann is considering a dog so the walks have taken on new focus.

I’m unable to stop reliving the book launch at The Sorrento, mostly because so many people from Ballard made the journey downtown on one of those days when some mishap blocked every means of crossing south of the Ship Canal.

In a room outside of Ballard, even more connections became obvious as though Ballardites take on a different hue and can recognize each other even better outside of our boundaries.

The artist Lina Raymond, whose series of paintings titled "Bearing Witness" are on display at Portalis through July, made the trip downtown to show her support. She was driven there by a friend who said as though it was a dare, “I’ve lived in Ballard 45 years. Ask me anything.”

Neighbors, readers, fellow writers, Club Besalu members, strangers revealed to be neighbors and fellow gym members. I can’t stop reliving the glorious feeling of sharing the “Out of Nowhere” launch with so many new and old friends, mixing and matching my worlds as I waved goodbye to them at the elevator.

There’s one last stop Friday stop for Columbia Bakery bread at The Sunset Hill Green Market. Their sign touts 13 years in the neighborhood. It has gone by so quickly, the morning and the years.

After the three of us part, there’s still more blocks to traverse, a few more chats. All morning and now afternoon I’ve been on my way to the computer, to my to-do list, but life and the old-fashioned rose got in the way.