Fall!

Well here it is, October, the psychological start of fall. And Mother Nature got on board, dropping temperatures into the 70s and even giving us a little rain this past weekend. Of course She is still subject to Her mood swings, as the current forecast touts temperatures in the 90s later this week. 

But still, it's October! Fall!

I started getting my Halloween decorations out over the weekend. Actually, I got almost all of them out. There isn't a whole bunch, really. And yet I've added more this year, including two, 5-foot skeletons to adorn the front porch. And a Haunted Mansion themed tablecloth and lantern for inside. So, slowly but surely, I'm becoming more festive. 

This little glowing jack was actually an acquisition from last year, and follows the current trend of timer-based LED light up decor for the holidays. Six hours on, 18 hours off. Repeat. Until the batteries die. I already have two lanterns, including the afore-mentioned one, with electric candles featuring the same schedule. And it's nice, creating an atmosphere around the holidays, and especially one you don't have to physically turn on and off each night. It's something I was determined to do - create a more festive atmosphere - at least little by little, when I moved out of that cramped, sad, little apartment and into my new condo. Call it a certain pride of ownership, to decorate your castle each holiday season. 

And I like how it's coming together. Oh, to be richer, so that I could really go hog wild! But it's fine, just a little something new to look at each year. Slow and steady, Of course now, today, I'm thinking I need to get some more of those skeleton-laced 3-foot tall decorative plastic fences I had gotten last year...and I do have a 20% off coupon for Spirit (they've been giving those out like candy). So maybe...just a little bit more for this year...

And then one month from now, I can take it all down and get ready for the Christmas decor...same mental approach, but cheerier and more colorful. But in the meantime, hooray for October and hooray for fall!

Of Donuts and Dating

Donut! Stopped by Safeway downtown on my way to work this morning - just to pick up this little gem. it had been many days since I had a donut. Well, okay, it had been two. Two days. But still! I had to celebrate National Donut Day. Which was...June 2 (had to look that one up). But still! Sometimes you just need to give yourself a treat.

So it's Wednesday, Hump Day, in the second week of classes of the fall semester. Feels like we're already a month into the semester. It's been the usual business of locker and key checkouts, and scheduling changes and so on.

Recently I put a profile back up on the Facebook Dating site, having been absent from there for several months. I don't get a lot of hits there. I've heard from various women that they tend to get a lot of hits. Sometimes dozens every day. I can't imagine being that inundated with electronic messages from strangers desperately reaching out into the virtual world grasping for some personal attention. But yet here we are, and that's the world we live in it seems. Still easier yet somehow harder than the old days when I grew up, before internet and cell phones and all of this technology that brings us closer together while simultaneously strangling us with an abundance of external stimuli.

I've dated a few people here and there over the years, nothing over a few months in duration, and the most recent being just shy of two months. Nothing has really worked out, and that's okay. Not everyone will be an ideal match. You meet people, get to know them, try dating, have some good times...and after a time realize you're not the most ideal match. So you move on and keep your eyes (and your phone's browser) open to see who might come through the revolving door next. I've come to believe that I'm looking for something more casual at this stage in my life. Not casual in the sense that I want to date a lot of different people (who has time for that?). But casual in the sense that I'm not convinced I'm ready to give up all of my free time - and the autonomy of my life - to any person. Except perhaps my son, he'll always be number one.

Of course maybe it's just I haven't found the right person yet, maybe the right person will inspire me to want to give up my free time more. Certainly the ones I've dated in years past were not quite the right person, for I was not inspired. Not enough. Is that why we keep trying, looking for "the one"?

But on the other hand, it's nice sometimes to be able to come home after a long day at work and not have anyone to answer to. Well, except the cat. And my son, every other week anyway.

As I sit here at work pondering such things, and having long since finished the afore-mentioned donut, I've suddenly had an epiphany. Right now, I miss that donut more than I miss any of those I've dated and lost. Is that sad?

The Eve of Everything

Alas, here I find myself on the eve of a new semester's beginning at Sac State, the start of my 25th year on staff. Also the eve of my mother's 75th birthday. Quite a milestone! And the eve after the day of my return to San Francisco, after a long hiatus, an absence of what felt like many months after my most recent past of fairly regular visits. Indeed it had been just over four months since my last visit. Too long, too long. I am also near the end of August, having not written here since the beginning of July, and I suppose it's close enough now to call it the virtual eve of September, the long awaited month of Fall and cooler temperatures. 

It seems like the current place I am in is at the crossroads of many eves.

But I have not been entirely idle, not with my son starting competitive soccer this summer and I conducting the comic operas of Gilbert & Sullivan, specifically Trial by Jury and The Sorcerer. The first time in seven years I had conducted anything! And before all that even, with what must seem like an annual pilgrimage over the rollicking seas of the Pacific Ocean to Alaska, as discussed in my previous post. And even a little overnight stay in Santa Cruz, just me and the boy, playing in the surf and collecting seashells and riding the rides of the Boardwalk.

Yes, it's been a somewhat full yet invigorating summer. And it comes to an end, now, as the old routine of work and school comes into full force this week. 

And this picture is from yesterday's sojourn to San Francisco, specifically from the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, a place I had not visited in many years. And while I am not a tea drinker per se (at all, really), it certain seemed apropos to engage in such activity when one is in such a serene and fantastically exotic location as this. And so I drank. Jasmine tea, to be precise. 

And Strawberry Hill was visited and Land's End, with Mile Rock Beach and the ocean lapping at the shore in a constant hypnotic drone. Peaceful. And lunch was had at the Sea Breeze Cafe just south of the windmills of Golden Gate Park. And all of this in the delightful company of one of my oldest and dearest of all friends. Such good times!

I did not go to Ghirardelli. Or anywhere on or even near the Embarcadero. I didn't even consume one single adult beverage. Too much to do and see, and too little time! I guess I'll have to go back again...

But no, I do need to retire so I can do this sort of thing more often. Who wants to pay off my mortgage? I've been trying to coerce the Publishers' Clearing House to handle this small detail for me, but they seem disinclined to select mine as the winning number of any of their sweepstakes. 

So, back to work I go. Year 25! It seems like only yesterday I was a young, bright eyed, enthusiastic youth having recently graduated from college and embarking on this new journey of adulthood.  Or a youth in relative terms anyway; I'm still a youth compared to some and yet so much older than the students I see every day wandering the halls. I mean of course, I've aged a whole quarter of a century and they have remained as young as they ever were! I suppose I should now get to sleep, though it is only just after 9:00pm, yet I find myself tired after a long weekend of frolicking about. 

The Cruise Is Over

Ah, the eve of July 1st, when the fireworks begin in earnest within the narrow subdivisions of our cozy little neighborhood. Time to forget what sleep at a reasonable hour is, whilst the cat learns again about irrational fear. Hopefully they'll stop before midnight tonight...

And we are back from our yearly cruise to the Great North. It was marred somewhat by Connor's taking ill after the first full day, and again on the last two days before returning to our home port in San Francicsco. Bookend illnesses! At least he tested negative for Covid, there's that small comfort anyway. But unfortunately the poor chap spent a good chunk of our vacation hunkered down in our little interior stateroom watching old episodes of Bob's Burgers on the TV and sipping from the little plastic shotglass cup of children's ibuprofen. So much lost time at the ping pong table! And the kids club!

But aside from that it was really a lovely trip, as my YouTube video will attest to. We were blessed with the clearest, sunniest weather anyone could wish for. It was almost...too sunny. But we had some adventures, built some new memories, explored some new land (on bikes no less) - all in all it was a productive use of our summer time. 

We finally got close enough to see Dawes Glacier! That was a rare treat indeed. Thanks global warming!

Though cruises are expensive times to be sitting in your stateroom nursing a child's cold. Maybe we need to transition a bit to doing more land based vacations, where crowds of people are far more dissipated and germs do not run as rampant. I don't know. Maybe we need to do another cruise just to prove we can do it and stay healthy (Connor came home with Covid from last year's trip). 

Well, next week we'll do a little overnight trip to Santa Cruz, perhaps that will make up for some of the lost time. Have to use up some free Boardwalk passes, which I'm sure my little buddy will enjoy.

And of course returning to the real world after sailing through forests and mountains and ice means getting back to work and all of the real-world tasks I temporarily left behind. Mostly for me that means doing score study of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas I'll be conducting towards the end of this month and into the first half of August. Trial by Jury and The Sorcerer. And of course Connor is starting on his new soccer adventure of his competitive team here in Natomas, and before we know it it will be time to get back to school!

Is it ever not busy?

And just to add a little cherry on top, I got a jury notice for standby service the week of July 17. Sure, why not? Add one more thing on to the pile. But really it's not so busy right now, at this very moment, despite all these things. Not really. I found some time today to go for some walks and even a bike ride, to do some shopping and some reading and to watch some TV, and I reviewed my scores a bit and filled out a post-cruise survey (yeah, that took an hour and a half out of my day). And here I am writing a blog post, the first in two months. So it was a productive day today, Saturday, the first of July. A good start for the month!

I mean really, I'd rather be back on the cruise though. No matter how much you see, no matter how much you experience, you always leave wishing you had found time to do a little more. To eat a little more. To drink a little more. To explore a little more. To just sit and watch the world float peacefully by a little more. The trips go by so quick and there's never enough time. 

But alas, the cruise is over! And reality must step back in.

The End Is Nigh

Soda tastes better from a cup. As opposed to the can or bottle from whence it came. I don't know if this is some sort of divine design, or just a mental fabrication of my own. A psychological trick of sorts. Or maybe it just needs to breathe, like a fine wine. In any case, pour it in a glass or mug and sip it slowly! It's just. Better. 

Yes, I'm using phrases now like "from whence it came", inspired entirely by my most recent leisurely reading of Tolkien's The Simarillion.

I don't drink soda very often anymore, but as the temperatures heat up and business is booming at work, sometimes a refreshing bubbly is just what the mid-afternoon needs. And there was a single can of Dr. Pepper in my fridge, having sat there for untold months, just waiting to be consumed.

So I drank it. From a ceramic coffee mug displaying the old state seal as the symbol of the University, back in the days before CSUS had an identity crisis and became Sacramento State. And yes, as I finished the last drop, all was well with the day.

Here's a sand dollar. It's from Ocean Beach, on the western most edge of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, just south of the Cliff House and Land's End. I went to the coast again last weekend, this time with a new girl (pronounced "woman") I've been seeing, one from a past long ago. For an adventure. And good times. And soaking in the cool ocean air, and the majestic sound of the waves beating tirelessly on the sand. There's lots of sand dollars there, so much so that even with the known fact that a majority of sand dollars found on the beach will be broken, cracked, damaged in some way - you can still find a good handful of them intact and unspoiled. I flung this one, much like a frisbee, allowing it to be free to find its own destiny. It plopped on the moist sand near the edge of the grasping waves, where perhaps it still sits, or else it has likely been drawn back to the sea. From whence it came.

I'll admit, one of the highlights of that trip was finding the gravesite of the ashes of Wyatt Earp, famous lawman of the late 19th century, further immortalized in the late 20th century in the movie Tombstone. Yes, I have gazed upon the burial site of Kurt Russell! But what an interesting character Mr. Earp must have been! The life he lead and the stories he inspired are truly things of legend. And the quote on his tombstone: "...That nothing's so sacred as honor, and nothing so loyal as love!" Ponder that one awhile.

And yes, the end is nigh now for the spring semester at Sac State, with just two more weeks and seventeen concerts to go. Plus a music festival and several other outside group events. We will have had 91 concerts this semester by the time it's all done. 91! I'm not sure if that's a record actually, but boy, here at the end of April it certainly feels like a lot. And it is, it is. And this weekend: two outside group orchestras will take the stage. More work for yours truly. Work work work.

I'm ready for the semester to be over now. 

Birthday Come and Gone

It's early morning, April 1, and my birthday has come and gone. Actual birthdays seem more surreal or at least the concept is more abstract these days, partly because of our long history of celebrating them on the nearest weekend where the family is all free, regardless of the actual date of the celebration. (Hence we celebrated my birthday two weeks ago). And partly because I never quite feel like celebrating my birthday, per se. Not that it's any sort of Peter Pan Syndrome or anything, but I really don't want to get older. I've had enough of aging, the body slowly wearing out, greying, and all the other fun things that naturally come with aging. I don't want to get older anymore. 

Of course, it beats the alternative.

So the State of California saw fit, several years back, to make my birthday a state holiday. Apparently my birthday also corresponds with the birthday of labor leader and civil rights activist, Cesar Chavez. That's okay, he can share it with me. But frankly I was more excited, as I often am, about having a day off from work than about having another birthday, than about ticking off one more year of existence on this rock. Making another trip around the sun, as my father would say.

I followed the best course of action I could think of: I went to Chili's for margaritas. And they've brought back the Margarita of the Month, after a brief hiatus in January, for some unknown reason. Good for them. Good for me. And now I've entered the first day after clicking over to year 48 of my life, I can't help but wonder: what is this month's margarita?? Inquiring minds want to know.

And of course I did what I typically tend to do when I have days off, aside from taking the kid to school (K-12 schools don't see fit to honor Mr. Chavez, or me, by taking this holiday). I ran errands, did some shopping, caught up on laundry, and did my usual walkabout. Steps! It's a rare treat to get over 15,000 on a weekday of a week in which I have my son.

And now here it is, Saturday morning, the weekend just opening up before me, full of possibilities. I'll probably do little, but read and play Minecraft, and walk some more. That is, after the kid's 9:00am soccer game. Oh and also, after needing to stop by work to reset the stage for tonight's guest artist concert. Who plans concerts on a holiday weekend?? Apparently we do. Or I do, at least - I'm the one who coordinates the schedule, so I suppose it's fair to say I keep shooting myself in the foot, as it were, with that one. And yes, it's April, one of the busiest months of the year. 38 concerts this month, plus festivals and other outside group events taking place at Sac State. Sigh. This month is going to be rough. As it always is. 

But for now, here's to the dawning weekend! The sun has risen and it's nearing 7:00am. The boy should be up soon, and it will be time for breakfast soon. And the day will go on. And oh yeah, it was my birthday yesterday. Did I mention that? Well anyways, birthdays come and birthdays go, and if not for the frequent pinging of my Facebook app from people wishing me well yesterday, it probably would have gone by with but little thought from me. 

Just another day in the week, right?