Crosstown trail

Met up with KW at Forest Hill Station and walked north on the Crosstown Trail to Golden Gate Park. And then, after we stopped for a bit to watch the turtles sunning themselves on logs sticking up out of Stow Lake, we walked back. Maybe five miles, in all?

When we started out it was a bit cool and cloudy but by the time we got back to our cars, the sun was out and the sky was blue and dotted with wispy clouds. It was invigorating. Those neighborhoods -- Forest Hill, Golden Gate Heights, Inner Sunset -- are both deeply familiar and utterly foreign. I was struck by the solidity and scale of the houses and the trees -- everything looks established, orderly, and under control. Whose control? I don't know.

My drive home was punctuated by bad driving on the part of others -- one driver in front of me was clearly anxious about making turns. A woman made a left off of a side street and cut me off without noticing; I had to hit my brakes. A man decided to pass two cars while going uphill; I was going uphill from the opposite direction when he suddenly appeared, heading straight toward me; again, I had to hit the brakes. Are people losing their grip, or was this just a random cluster?

I devoured the remains of my faux-Vietnamese tofu and noodle dish. Worth making again, with more lime and fewer chiles. I am sitting on my little patio, half in the sun. Watching bees working on the poppies and a hummingbird poking its beak into the salvia. The wind is stirring and I think it's going to feel too cold to sit out here fairly soon. Supposedly there is a rainstorm coming later today.

Yesterday I was feeling low, partly from a lack of sleep and partly because I was feeling detached from everything. Luckily, Niu had set up a virtual happy hour in the afternoon. A chat with her and Joe and VH, followed by my daily walk, cheered me up considerably.