Mount Diablo

This entry is really about a week late; we went to Mount Diablo just over a week ago. For me, it was a pilgrimage of sorts. When I was very young (2-5 years old in 1970-1973), my family lived in Lafayette, not terribly far from here. We used to have picnics at Mount Diablo, which we could see from our back yard in Lafayette. My memories of these trips are quite fuzzy at best, but my parents have assured me that wonderful times were had. So now, roughly 35 years later, we returned at last to Mount Diablo. The base of the mountain is only about 30-40 minutes away from us in Berkeley, which is nice. It's the tallest mountain in central California and on a clear day you can see as far away as Yosemite to the east. The weather was perfect - clear blue skies and warm, even hot, but not too hot. At some point during our ascent we stopped for a little picnic lunch.


At the top we took in the magnificent views and hiked the "fire trail" around the peak.


All in all, an outstanding day!

I've been Simpsonized!

I've been Simpsonized.

What Are You Grateful For?

The other night we decided to try out the local vegetarian restaurant called Cafe Gratitude. We enticed young Jeffrey by telling him it would be like Seva in Ann Arbor, which he loves. Man, were we wrong. Some people may complain that Seva is too "crunchy"... Cafe Gratitude makes Seva look like McDonalds. It's the most "crunchy", politically correct, new agey place I've ever been too. My inner hippie loved it; my inner cynic wanted to puke.


Their whole philosophy is based on "the being of abundance" and being grateful for all that you have in the abundance and bounty of life. It actually started out as a board game called The Abounding River Board Game before it became a restaurant. The food is purely vegan and is all "live food", meaning it has been cooked, if at all, only at temperatures below 118 degrees. Each item on their menu is named something like "I am abundant", "I am accepting" or "I am whole" and as the server brings you your dish they say "you are divine" or "you are sublime" or whatever the name of your dish is. Throughout the experience I was simultaneously enchanted by how positive it all was and nauseated by how sickeningly new agey it was. The food was quite good, but not amazing. Although it was slightly on the bland side, I felt like I was eating about the healthiest I've ever eaten.

I would have been enthralled by this place 20 years ago. Now, perhaps I am a little too old & cynical to not smirk a bit at their over the top sincerity. And that, I realize, is probably my loss.

But I'll leave you with a few questions from their employment application. Tell me if I'm being too cynical.

"What inspires you about the possibility of sacred commerce?"

"What are your thoughts about service as an expression of spirit?"

"What can you say about your ability to love and be great with people?"

"What do you love about yourself?"

"In life, how do you get in your own way.what stops you?"

My First Earthquake

Earthquakes happen all the time here. Most of the time they are so small that you don't feel them. Once in a while one happens that you can feel, although still quite small. Last night was one of those earthquakes. I was in bed reading and heard a rumble and felt the house shook. It was over in an instant - for a moment I thought someone had slammed a door really hard; it was that quick. But yet it was unlike anything I had ever heard or felt. I asked Stella, who was drifting off to sleep, if she felt or heard anything. She hadn't and I said that I might have felt an earthquake but wasn't sure. I made a mental note to look online the next day and see if there was any seismic activity around 11:45 on Saturday night. And sure enough, there was an an earthquake that measured 2.7 centered in El Cerrito, less than three miles from us.

I wondered how long it would be before I experienced my first earthquake. I find it kind of exciting, in a weird way. Let's just hope all future ones are all small like this one, although experts think a big one is likely in the bay area within the next fifteen years or so.

From Jules to Jules

It's now final... I've sold my house. I received my copies of the final closing papers yesterday. It's a little bittersweet. Sweet in that I am finally free of it, particularly in such a poor housing market. Bitter in that I loved that house and put a lot of work into it and I lost quite a bit of money on it. But hopefully the new owners will get some enjoyment out of the work I put into it, particularly the gardens and the deck.

I never met the new owners, but heard their interesting story through a neighbor who knows them. Apparently a woman is buying the house to rent to her daughter and her daughter's girlfriend. The daughter's partner is named Julie. She is in the process of becoming a man, upon the completion of which she will be known as Jules. So the house passes from Jules to Jules. And, apparently, it's Julie (Jules) who really liked the gardens at the house. So there is some unique kind of continuity there, since there will still be a Jules there tending to the garden.

Enjoying Berkeley

We had our first local visitor to the house - my friend Myra Melford, the wonderful jazz pianist who now teaches at UC Berkeley. She stopped by on saturday to see the house and catch up, as it had been nearly a year since I've seen her.

Later that day, Stella, Jeffrey & I went to Tilden Park, which borders Berkeley in the hills to the east. It's quite large and is really a wonderful place! I'm so thrilled to have such amazing beauty so close to my home. We first hiked a trail in middle of the park, taking many photos along the way:

Finally we made our way up to the highest point in the park, on a trail called "Sea View". The views were stunning, although by this time the fog had already enveloped most of San Francisco.


The view east of Mount Diablo isn't too bad either:


All in all, a truly wonderful day in California.

Welcome to Berkeley

It was my third or fourth night in Berkeley when it happened; hopefully it wasn't the official welcome wagon. I was walking home from the grocery store, about 4 blocks away, with a bag of groceries in each hand. It was shortly after dark. As I walked up Cedar street, a well traveled street in the neighborhood, i felt a sharp pain in my back that propelled me forward a bit, causing me to stumble but not fall. An instant later, the car drove by me and I heard someone say "Whoa, we got him!" and they laughed as they drove off. And I realized that someone shot me in the back with a pellet gun. A few days in Berkeley and I'm already the victim of a drive-by shooting - shot in the back by a pellet gun! Fortunately, it really didn't hurt and left no marks. It surprised me more than anything else.

This is definitely a much more urban environment than Ann Arbor. Welcome to Berkeley - here's your pellet-gun shot in the back!