It’s been a very positive couple of days. On Sunday I got out for a hike with Julie at Olompali State Park. We hiked to the top of Mount Burdell, ending up where we had done a Ridge Trail hike a couple of weeks before. The sign at the bottom of the trail said it was 3.3 miles to the summit, but we found out that wasn’t true, it was actually 5 miles to the summit, 3.3 miles from the midpoint of the loop trail. Luckily, we did not know that at the beginning, because we may not have done the hike the whole way, neither of us having done a long hike for quite a while. It was wonderful, lots of shady trees, and beautiful views. There were very few other people on the trail, I think we had one hiker and two runners pass us the entire time we were on the trail. When we got back down we stopped in the visitor center where we found out that there was a commune on the property for a couple of years in the late 60s, a clothing optional commune, so typical for Marin in the late 60s! The volunteer at the visitor center lived on the commune at that time and told us a little bit about what life was like, the community school they had, the gardens, the rich guy who owned the land who provided whatever was needed. It sounded very idyllic.
I worked a little bit in the afternoon, then tried to get Rocky to come downstairs and hang out with me, but was not successful. It’s probably gonna take a few days for him to get used to me.
I drove to work on Monday and was pleasantly surprised to see light rainfall on my commute! Such a treat. Everyone was raving about the wonderful weather, that weather being overcast and cooler than it had been in months. I spent most of the day in a training that one of the directors was doing on community building. It was Interesting and a lot of fun, I got to know the community building staff better. I’m really glad I was able to participate. After I got home Monday night I headed over to Mill Valley to a staged reading of a new play called Shameless Hussie about the life of Anaïs Nin. It was funny and shocking and very engaging. One actor played Anaïs and her mother, and the other actor played seven different male characters, six of won were her lovers, including her two husbands (who she was married to at the same time), her father, her psychiatrist, Henry Miller, and a porno producer. What a life!
On Tuesday morning, I took a walk through the neighborhood and found a nice trail nearby with a great view. Later in the afternoon after work, my sister and I took mom to the orthopedist to get her wrist x-rayed and found out that it was healing very well, so she was able to get rid of the splint and instead use a removable brace that she only has to wear during the day for the next two weeks. After that she should be good to go without any support! Sunday marked four weeks after her pacemaker surgery so she was able to finally start using her left hand and arm more. In just two days she’s been able to have a lot more freedom and mobility. It definitely made her feel very happy.
Rocky is finally getting used to me and spent a good amount of time this evening in my lap as I was watching the movie Coda. I vaguely remember hearing about it, but had not seen it. What an incredible movie, it made me laugh out loud several times, it was very touching, really gave a different perspective on what it would be like to live in the hearing world without being able to participate in it easily. It’s one of those rare movies that I would definitely see again.
