Dry spell

If you've been keeping up with my log then you know I've not quit or dropped of the face of the Earth. If you haven't, then you probably suspected I did.



The weekend of the 10th and 11th I took a glorious little respite in Wine Country, just North of the Bay Area in an area know as Russian river. It was Mike's (my friend Julie's long-time boyfriend) 30th birthday. I met a great group of people and made an enormous ass out of myself, in my usual fashion (road rage). It was all wine and song and, then at 3:30am on the 11th, some tequila. F-U-N.

During that next week I was kinda all business. I did two solid rides on Monday and Thursday after work.
Thursday's ride was particularly interesting, as it included a small hike on some trails (I got lost in the Presidio). It involved me lifting my bike up onto my shoulder, and while grunting prehistorically, hiking about 1000ft through the woods. Again, F-U-N. But I get ahead of myself. I started out going through the Presidio on my normal route to the Bridge, but I decided to go west. I rode into the Sea Cliff area of San Francisco, a very exclusive neighborhood with big beautiful homes behind big beautiful gates. Robin William's main residence is in this area, just to give a measure of the caliber of the inhabitants.

Anyway, I found my way up a unexpected, huge hill (well, it is San Francisco so it was not COMPLETELY unexpected), but I was rewarded well for my efforts. That the crest of the hill sat the Palace of Fine Arts. Yeah, never been inside, but the outside is awesome, especially if you like neo-Greco-Roman architecture (and I do). Plus, there were great views of the Bridge and the Downtown Area. I love this about living in a city. I feel like all this things, these most famous things, are MINE. It is weird, cause they are most definitely not. But still, I look at the bridge and the Palace: those are mine.

So, I departed from that hill top with all the monuments I "own", went on my little trek and took a picture of a big golden sunset. It was just me, my bike and the glory of creation in front of me. It is strange that I always seem to fall in love when I am reverent of the natural world. It brings out the goodness in me, and that has been missing lately. Oh, that sun set: I got it with my Sony digital camera. Now that is mine too, yours if you want it.