Oh, my. Giants.

Like everyone else, I could single out certain players that kicked butt.  But it would be an exercise in redundancy because all of them were great and kicked butt in their own way. Well, maybe the best was Madison Bumgarner. What can be said about a pitcher who actually pitches 9 innings in a WORLD SERIES GAME!!!  In a game where everything is on the line?  In a game where he gave up a couple of big hits but wouldn't give up? In a game where the pressure is huge?  He believes in finishing what he started, and he did.

Oh, those boys. Panik makes Posey look older than a teenager.  Peavy brings back the vibrating pitcher bravado. Sandoval plays when he has the flu and Hunter Pence's hair just keeps on growing.  Gotta love them all.

And we do.  GO GIANTS!!!! 

and more bar-hopping was done!

On Friday, my friend Pat joined me late in the afternoon and what does one do in SF on a Friday afternoon?  Join everyone else for cocktails!  We visited several nice establishments, had several nice cocktails, some food at one bar, more at another, a nightcap at another.  Great night to be in the city, no jacket needed.

It was a realization for me that I don't play enough. I work too much at a job that is so unimportant except for the measly paycheck.  Being in SF for two days and not being at work made me very aware that for the last 6 months I have taken very little time off to just enjoy the day. Therefore, once this year is over and my work schedule is once again up for restructuring, I will restructure it so I get some days off, more than one a week.  At some point in one's life, unless one is saving lives, work is just work.  It isn't the point. As the saying goes "never mistake having a career with having a life."

On Saturday night Gabe and Annie took me to this most excellent restaurant, Frances, on a neighborhood street near the Castro.  Small place, deliciously innovative food and wine, we all licked our respective plates.  Slept overnight in Daly City, left Sunday morning to meet Stacey and Sam and Henry and Jenn at the Santa Rosa pumpkin patch for kid time. Got pumpkins. 

What a good three days. City, Giants, friends, family, food, kids and pumpkins.  What more does one need?  Just more of the above.......

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Julie Goes to the Big City

Or Julie's Big Adventure in SF!

Long story short, I had a hotel in SF for Thursday and Friday nights. Union Square, not where I would normally stay but it was a Priceline deal, so there it was.  A fine room. And come on, to be in SF on Thursday when the Giants won the pennant?  How cool is that?  Well, I must say, very fucking cool.  I had options. I picked option number 1: to be in the city by myself for that one night.  I visited three different bars, drank 4 delicious Manhattans and watched the Giants on many TVs.  The last was at the Taverna on Belden Place; everyone, the chef, the prep cooks, dishwashers, waitstaff, everyone was at the bar for the last two innings.  It was frigging exciting, lots of yelling, lots of high-fives.  Walking back to my hotel it wasn't as crazy as it was near the ballpark but it was loud and everyone was happy.  Grins from ear to ear, on pretty much everyone.

Friday I left the hotel around 9:00 and walked.  I walked for about 3 hours, through Chinatown, down to Battery and Sansome, near Coit Tower, down almost to Pier 39, back around to the Ferry Building and past, back up through Soma to Market and back to upper Union Square.  Just walking, no dog, no agenda, just looking at the city. Sat outside at Cafe Presse, pretended I was in Paris (and why are all these people speaking English?) and had salad and two glasses of wine and Tarte Tartin.  Watched large buses of tourists roll by, most of them trying to take photos or videos of what they should have been looking at. Temps were in the low 70's, it was beautiful.

One thing that struck me was how many people walk while looking at their phones, not at their route or the city or the people or the day.  Just at their phones. They must have some inner radar because collisions are rare.  But why not look up?  Why not look at the people around you?  The city is such a great place to watch people, why just look at a tiny device?  It's an attachment I will never understand.

More tomorrow.

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How hot was it?

It was so hot the dogs wouldn't go for a walk. Not that I would have taken them, I am not foolish, but when I came home they ran into the backyard and stopped.  Stopped and turned around and came back in.  For a lark, I put their leashes on them and took them out the front door.  They got to the sidewalk and, in unison, turned around and walked back to the front door.  For creatures with brains the size of a walnut (or a small hazelnut, in Cooper's body), they knew it was too hot.

And hot it was. Driving home, the bank thermometer on Hwy. 12 at Mission read 116 degrees. Now, that particular thermometer is always dramatic.  It reads really high and really low all the time but I have NEVER seen it read that high. So maybe it was 98. Still, that's friggin hot.

Here's the strange thing.  I walked the dogs today 6:25 am to 7:10 am.  The weather was fine, tiny bit chilly, good for walking dogs in the dark. (And this darkness, well, hello my friend.  I am already lamenting the advent of the non-daylight savings time in a couple of weeks when it will be stupidly light and cheery at 6:25 am instead of the sultry and masked darkness we now have. Honestly, who needs DST any more?  Can't we just give it up?) 

However, after walking the dogs and then driving to Glen Ellen, I made a quick stop in Kenwood to drop off some leftover pizza at my brother's house (I know, TMI) and when I got out of the car I was slapped in the face by air that was at least ten degrees warmer than it was in Santa Rosa, a mere 12 miles away!  It was shockingly surprising (redundant) and I actually said out loud something like "holy shit, what's this all about?" and then I moved on, to Glen Ellen, to work.  I looked at the weather channel online, and I wasn't crazy!  It was 53 in Santa Rosa and 63 in Kenwood!  So bizarre.

Now it is 8:00 and it is still, according to weather.com 88 degrees in Santa Rosa and I can attest to that.  Thankfully, we have some cooler weather coming, like in the 70's which isn't all that cool.  OK, compared to 98 it is cooler.  And one of the employees at the hotel today had the audacity to say something like "... oh and it might rain on my day off, that sucks."  I wanted to slap that person and explain that rain = water and California needs water, isn't the word "drought" in your vocabulary?

I didn't.  But I might, soon.  Slap someone, that is.

Gosh, that's an entire term paper on today's temperature. But if you are reading this you should be rejoicing that I didn't report on my trip to Sacramento on Friday to see my Mom and how that went. Pee on the front seat of my car, that's how that went. I won't say more.  Except for this: I hope I either die before I get old or I move to Oregon and get the drugs that will let me leave this world in a clean, simple, peacefull way. Old is not nice.  Peeing your pants..... not nice. Not knowing who you are, not knowing where you are, not nice.

Go Giants.

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Coming soon to theaters near you

That would be a new post. It is here, in the dark recesses of my muddled brain.  Muddled like an Old Fashion, sugar cube on the bottom, cherry on top of that, some orange peel, muddled with that wooden stick thing and then topped with whiskey, ice and a hit of sparkling water.  That kind of muddled. Don't scoff. Don't make fun. Don't judge. Muddling, whether the drink kind or the mind kind, is tough business.

Results of muddling will soon be posted.

Or something like it.