more about walking and talking

This morning KW and I met up at Holly Park and walked to Mt Davidson (and back). A good walk, at least five miles. I had forgotten that the cross is a monument to the Armenian genocide. Being reminded of that make it seem less ominous and oppressive. 

I hiked in Redwood with NG and JH (and J's son) on Friday afternoon. Really good to see them, in person, for the first time since March. It was a lovely day over in Oakland and we hiked about five miles. 

I feel pretty good about the amount of outdoor exercise I've been getting lately -- last Sunday SN and I hiked seven or eight miles in Marin. However, I started doing sit-ups again and was surprised by how hard it was to get up to a decent number. Let's face it: I am out of shape. I was asking myself how many more times I can let things go and then get at least some of my mojo back before I'm just too old. 

Am lazing on the couch in the sunny later afternoon. Oh, California. 

it's important that people learn that

Orlando Patterson: 

I don’t [think] slavery was strictly abolished in 1865. What was abolished in 1865 was the personal individual enslavement of one person by another, but what persisted was the culture of slavery, and central to this culture was the sense that the white population felt it was their duty to control and suppress black freedom. They did this in various ways, through the lynch mob, but also by the use of incarceration, during the neo-slavery system of Jim Crow.

During Jim Crow, what persisted was the attitude to see blacks as outsiders, as people to be punished, to be held in control, to be denied basic privileges of citizenship or ownership of land and to be recklessly imprisoned. In that sense, slavery was not really abolished in America until the 1960s, when the Jim Crow system was finally, fundamentally dismantled. So of course we need a lot of education in our schools about that and what the consequences were for blacks, as well as for whites. It’s important that people learn that.

July 4

My July 4 plans are nonexistent, but that's not unusual. I will probably do my Heron's Head/India Basin walk this afternoon. I'm making myself a peach galette -- mostly because I bought too many peaches at the farmers market. And tonight I'll cower at home until the fireworks end.

In past years, there have been scattered fireworks every night throughout June, leading up to a multi-hour extravaganza (aka war zone) on the 4th and then tapering off over the first half of July. It could be my imagination but it seems like there were more fireworks on Juneteenth this year, and not so many going off each night since then as there were last year. So maybe that means fewer tonight? I can only hope.

Yesterday I spent hours in the bathroom. I decided it was way past time to unclog the sink, so I removed the stopper (a multi-step process) and a whole lot of hair (mostly) came out with it. Gross but satisfying. Then I decided to do a little scrubbing inside the drain, thinking to myself that I would be careful not to drop the toothbrush. But of course I dropped it! So I spent a lot of time getting it out. Finally, shortly after I had texted two neighbors to ask if they had any tools and/or advice, I managed to pull out the toothbrush using a long garden stake with an angled loop at the end that I had fashioned with my pliers.

By then I had forgotten exactly how to fit together the rod et al. that control the movement of the stopper. In the end, I decided to put the stopper back in a slightly open position -- when was the last time I wanted to plug the sink, anyway?

So much for my DIY efforts! (I'm still pleased about clearing out the drain.) I also sat down at the piano yesterday for the first time in ages. The piano really needs a tuning and I'm very rusty. But it was good to play some Bach. 

independence weekend

My feet are cold but I haven't felt like getting up to put on socks. The fog is receding, as usual. I'm happy to have the day off. I promised myself I would unclog the bathroom sink this weekend. Apparently, I can't do that sort of thing unless I have at least three days off.

Yesterday, KR did a training session on ai figure formatting. It was very difficult to hit the "leave meeting" button. Not sure how I thought I would feel but I'm a little surprised that her retirement is hitting me so hard. On the brighter side, she and LM and I took a walk on Tuesday evening, and I hope we'll get together regularly. But it is hard to imagine PPIC without her -- she and I worked together happily for a dozen years.

I am feeling ridiculously bereft now that the Andy Griffith show disappeared from Netflix. I had only a few episodes to go and if I'd known it was leaving I would have watched them all. I'm not sure why I got so attached to a 60-year-old sitcom with repetitive plotting, cringe-worthy sexism, and virtually no non-white characters. I think I saw half a dozen black faces in the crowd scenes and heard one black character speak -- a football coach who also played the piano who appeared in one episode. But even though the stories always ended with an affirmation of small town life, there was something interesting about Andy Taylor's moments of irritation -- his mix of impatience and affection is less melodramatic than George Bailey's ambivalence about Bedford Falls.