4 July, 2021: On the Bus.

 Yesterday was the 4th of July and for the first time in literally years, the fireworks were a part of my life. I actually had a good three day weekend. I had people in town and we went exploring. We ended up in San Francisco and then ended up and what turned out to be an entirely sanctioned (re: illegal) fireworks show that was one of the most chaotic and dangerous and American thing I have maybe ever seen. It is certainly on the list.

Probably it is just because we’re gradually coming out of the Quarantine, but I did experience an unusual wave contentedness and happiness about this big, dumb, messy country of ours. Just walking the streets of various cities, exploring new places, and seeing the weird and wonderful and frequently bad smelling mish-mash of people who actually are this country, it left me with a twinge of … I think “patriotism” is too weird of a word after the last few years … let’s go with “pride” … I felt a twinge of pride about this country.  At one point my little group of (fully vaccinated and masked) adventurers road a bus in SF and I really think that you will never get a better idea of what we really are as a population than riding a city bus. Low-key I looked at all the people and (what I could see of) their faces and — while no one was experiencing this emotion but me — I felt like we were part of a community; people who have survived the Pandemic, people who were all out in the city on a nice July 4th, people who were all on that bus at the same time, breathing the same air. Normally it would have been anxiety inducing, but this time — for the first time since early 2020 — it felt good again to be alive and out in the world. 

I have so many mixed feelings about what we have all gone through and my faith in humanity has been so devastatingly harmed by the way people behaved last year, but I suddenly became aware that sitting there on that bus yesterday heading down Haight to the botanical gardens, I was starting to heal a little. I like to hope that maybe every single one of us was.

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Leaving on a Jet Plane (Tomorrow)!

Short post today.

I am doing a half day of work this morning and then this afternoon I am driving up to the Bay Area to meet up with some travel buddies and then in the morning we are driving to Oakland Airport from which we will be flying to Washington state where we will be spending a few days in a beautiful house on the shores of Lake Whatcom, which is basically in Canada.

I know what you’re thinking: Is this an adventure? Because it sounds like an adventure …

Let me ask the judges … Judges???

Judges say: YES! IT IS AN ADVENTURE!

Man, I love an adventure.

I am especially looking forward to this one because of — you know — Covid. While I know that the pandemic is not, strictly speaking, over in America, I am fully vaccinated as are all my travel compatriots. My county is doing great, the county we’re flying to is doing great. We have reached the point where those of us who are vaccinated in this country need to start giving the middle finger to this disease. Vaccine summer, baby!

I have practice-packed and repacked my little black backpack, my travel clothes are ready to go, my devices are charged, my airplane snacks are ziplocked and loaded. Let’s go!

We are getting to that point where life like sunlight after a storm is beginning to break through the glowering clouds of quarantine and I am here for it. Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, I am returning to cheap airfares on budget airlines to go to weird places just for the pure fuck all joy of being alive.

It is good to be alive again.

Not sure if I will be able to blog tomorrow morning, not sure what the morning will be like, but if I don’t just know it is because I am just so busy being alive again.

It is good to be alive again. 

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