Maybe it’s because it’s hot and people are cranky, but for REAL, people!
Stay in your lane!
Quit blocking the intersection at red lights!
Bikes are supposed to follow traffic laws just like everyone else!
The horn on our rental car is a pansy, but I WILL USE IT!
In other news, we went to Crissy Field yesterday with Robin, Richard and Bryn. Robin swam, Richard and Judah and I tried to fly a kite - to no avail - and then Richard attempted to de-knot the kite cord from the tail while I built a sand castle and Judah kept running back and forth to the water. Killian picked up lots of sand and moved it, and tried to eat some of it, too, and Bryn chased dogs and balls and dug and got wet and had a grand old time (I’m currently sitting on my couch, barefoot, crunching souvenir grains of sand between my toes and the hardwoods).
It was a gorgeous day with clear skies and a view of the Bridge, Alcatraz, The City and the Headlands. And when we packed it up to come home, the fog was rolling in through the Golden Gate Bridge, magicking it partially away.
I drove along Crissy Field and up through the Presidio to come home, watching the fog’s fingers feel their way over the park and the water. If I didn’t have two sandy, wet and chilled children wiggling around in my backseat, I would have just sat in the grass and watched it come. Driving along the hills, the fog jumped the roadway, fighting gravity as it rushed over. We went around a bend, and as quick as we entered the fog, we left it behind.
Many people, upon hearing that we moved from The Mission to the Outer Richmond, have responded with a polite, but taken aback, “OH. Well, that’s nice…” We have fielded the eternal questions about how foggy is it, really? Aren’t we just depressed all the time? Yes it gets foggy, and it *gasp* gets sunny, too! and I might be depressed, but that has nothing to do with the fog (cue the drums - da da dum, ding!).
The reality is, we’re settling in to the micro-climate that we have. I feel like the fog is a friend. When I see it coming, I know I’m home. We can cross the street, go for a stroll in the Golden Gate Park and I feel like the blanket of fog makes the world slow down and the rest of the city disappear, despite the cars driving through and the people-filled, somewhat-cultivated presence of the surroundings.
Driving home yesterday, with The City’s skyline behind me, Alcatraz just a glance over my shoulder, sunlight, fog, the Pacific, and the most famous bridge in the world before me, I couldn’t help but feel like the luckiest girl alive to live in San Francisco. It could only have been made more perfect if Joshua had been with us.
Like I said to a wetsuit-wearing Robin on the beach, in half-amazement: “WE LIVE HERE.”
As I was swimming back and forth that day, I got to watch all the joy unfold. A favorite moment was when Judah started playing “fetch the tennis ball” with Bryn. Bryn, while protective of J & K, often seems puzzled about the relationship — should I lick them, take their food, stay out of their way…? But when Judah threw the tennis ball into the surf, the relationship started to crystallize…Bryn brought the ball right back, looked at Judah expectantly and wagged her tail. Happy times.
It is posts like this that make me fully aware of how much you were born to be a writer.