I haven’t posted anything since I got back from Canada. It’s taking me some time to adjust to being back in the Bay Area, though I haven’t ventured too far from home. Friday I spent the day doing laundry, going through mail, running errands, basically doing all those returning-home type chores. One of the things I saw when I was running errands was a group of seniors and high school students protesting war and promoting peace. For many years, there’s been a group from the Redwoods retirement community, which is across the street from the high school, protesting on Friday afternoons. I went past and was so happy to see the high school kids out there with the seniors, I don’t know if it’s a recent development or it’s been that way for a while but I think it’s fantastic.
On Saturday I got my haircut and spent time with Emmy and Winston. Emmy got one of those gigantic skeletons from Home Depot and has it up in her front yard. Apparently lots of people in the neighborhood stop by to check it out, she said it was a little unnerving at first to see a group of people standing outside on her front lawn, then she realized it was often parents with kids checking it out or kids by themselves. Saturday night was my sister Christina‘s 50th birthday party at a restaurant in San Francisco. It was such a fun night, she had family and friends from middle school, high school, college, former roommates, work colleagues, SF Tri Club members. It was wonderful to celebrate her, have delicious food and lots of laughter. It was great too that we found easy parking nearby – always a miraculous thing in San Francisco.
Because of the late night on Saturday, I did not do a whole lot on Sunday, mainly getting out for walks around the neighborhood. I’m enjoying the wildlife I’ve been seeing on my walks. One morning I went out for a walk during high tide and there were all kinds of water birds out.
On Monday I had an interview for an interim Executive Director job, which I will be taking on for the for the next couple of months at the Marin County Bar Association. I’m looking forward to helping them out, I know what it was like for my board when I handed in my resignation and they weren’t sure if they could get somebody before I left. It’ll also be nice to earn a little bit of money. I helped mom harvest the last of her tomatoes. Monday night was our weekly family zoom call, luckily I’m back on Pacific standard time so it was at 7 PM instead of 10! Later that night, mom and I had a video chat with Annemarie. It is always such a treat hearing about what she’s getting up to. Often when we’re chatting she is busy in the kitchen making something, this time was no exception, she was making brownies. She’s got a busy November coming up with her birthday, then her dad and his girlfriend coming to visit and then a big flat party. Today, Tuesday, I am spending the day out of the house as PG&E are replacing the power poles outside our house so there will be no electricity and a lot of noise going on in the street. They were doing prep work yesterday and on Saturday night through Sunday morning they were working around the corner. I don’t know how the people who lived there handled it as it was noisy and they had huge stadium lights.
Today I hiked in a place I’ve never been before. I am on the backside of Corte Madera, facing San Quentin, I’m not sure I’ve even driven this way before. Anyway, it was a beautiful blue day that started out foggy. I took a succession of pictures as I headed up on the Loop Trail to show how quickly the fog all burned off. There’s several groups of 4th or 5th grade students out with naturalists and parents. It’s so so cute to hear them chatting about what they can see or arguing ‘It’s not fair, I haven’t gotten to be first yet!’ I miss those days with my kids.
They finished getting the new pole installed and electricity came back in about 5. Mom and I a quiet night at home watching Jeopardy Wild Card and eating dinner. I’m ready for an early bedtime after my hike in the warmer than expected weather.