School Assignment: Write About Your Town

I love Oakland because really friendly people live in Oakland. Here in
Oakland, there are lots of fun places to go. Like swimming pools, playgrounds,
trails for hiking, lakes for fishing, and fun mountains to climb!

- Cameron (age 6)

Walking

Beautiful day today.

Sunny. Warm. Once the fog burned off, that is.

So, after a lovely 5 minute walk, I'm at the gym climbing onto some sort of modern day torture device that's going to nuke those love handles and power up my aging ticker. Lot's of folks at the Y today, trying to get fit or get ready for swimsuit season or whatever.

I look over to my left and see some folks walking on treadmills.

Good for them, I think. They're here, they're making the effort, they're doing it!

Wait a minute.

They're inside, on a beautiful day, WALKING on a treadmill. Walking. Walking?

The Y I go to is probably less than 10 minutes WALKING from a beautiful lake in a park like setting with a lovely WALKING path all the way around.

The sun is shining, it's warm and you're WALKING on a treadmill. INSIDE.

Damn.

Ok.

Inspiration

Have you ever been really inspired by someone, I mean REALLY inspired, to the point where not only do they make you want to be even better at what you do, but they validate what you have done up to the point you discovered them or their work?

Yeah?

Me too.

You ever go back and reread or reexamine the work that inspired and validated your own and then found that same spark was no longer there? In fact, the work almost left you feeling a little bored? A little disappointed?

You still see what it was that had you so captivated "back then," but now....meh, not so much? Like you've moved on, not past them because, hey, they're brilliant, but your tastes have moved on...evolved?

Yeah?

Me too.

Kind of a bummer.

A Poem for 052809

A Necklace of Bees

I feel like
mourning black
should drap
my frame,
fill my closet,

for the death
(and could it
be described
in any other way?)
of the past
that wasn't,

or couldn't be,

hangs around
my neck
like bees
strung on a line,
still buzzing,
still angry

and in a moment
I will walk again
through the real
front door
not the one
in my head,
in the past
that never was
or the present
that isn't,

just mist
and shadows
filling the rooms
of my mind

and I'm angry
like the bees,

and we are stinging

and I'm smiling
like I did
so long ago

and the silt
at the bottom
of this lake
has been stirred
up, obscurring
something,

something
that I can feel
if I reach down

and now that
i've found it
again

now that I'm
touching it
again

i'm not
going
to let go

Going Home

So, I'm planning a trip back to Rochester, Michigan, where I was born. I lived there until I was 18 and then went off to college. I continued to come back in the summer and for various other holidays and weekends (I had a girlfriend at the time who was in Rochester while I was in East Lansing, so there was a fair amount of back and forth during my freshman year!).

Anyway, I haven't been back to Rochester since 1992. Yep, 1992.

I haven't set foot in Michigan since 1994. Yep, 15 years.

While I am there, I plan to hang out with old college and high school friends, most of whom I have not seen since I left.

I have booked my plane ticket, the plans for the weekend are slowly coming together and I have to say that my excitement for this trip is pretty much off the scale. I'm much more excited than I thought I would be.

Perhaps this is some sort of mid-life crisis of nostalgia? Could this be my little red sports car?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But I can tell you this: I sure hope those people have not aged into major douchebags.

That would suck.

I mean, I'm exactly the same, right?

Great Day To Go To The Beach

If you live in Northern California, yesterday was a great day to go to the beach.

Sunny, slight breeze coming in off the Bay and it was about 65 degrees. Adults are wearing long sleeve shirts and kids are playing in the water...which, to an adult is freaking freezing, but to a six year-old or four year-old seems absolutely perfect.

You should have seen the amazing, "indestructible" sand house with three reinforced sand and seaweed seawalls.

Truly a wonder of modern architecture!

Use The Damn Tunnel

Funny thing about the Bay Area, if you drive from Oakland through the tunnel on Highway 24 (headed toward Walnut Creek) the weather generally gets warmer.

Well, we drove through the tunnel today and BINGO, fifteen degrees warmer and sunny.

Brilliant.

Had a fantastic day climbing around on the giant boulders in Rock City. Climbed to the top of Sentinel rock and had a panoramic view of Mt. Diablo State Park and the surrounding area. Then we drove to the top of Mt. Diablo (3800-ish feet). On a clear day you can see all the way to Half-Dome (135 miles away), though not today.

Sweet day.

The kids had a ball clamoring around on big rocks, and mom and dad got a taste of the kind of fear that only a parent would understand.

But...no blood, no broken bones and not one single fall. No one even slipped. The kids seem to have a healthy sense of fear and a general concern for their own well-being (thank gawd!).

They both want to go back tomorrow and climb and hike and explore.

Gracious!