San Francisco Summer

We had a pretty good spell of sunny weather last week, but it was not warm enough to still the wind. It was nice to be outside and soaking in some heat on the roams and various bike rides. Friday’s roam was an opportunity to take some of the Hebden Bridge group, who have been over for a month, mostly at Tassajara, around some of the local highlights – it was windy on Corona Heights, but everyone enjoyed the clear views. We caught up over dinner afterwards as well, making plans for my next potential visit over there, which, we realised, would be the weekend exactly one year hence (since I have the teachers’ gathering on the East Coast at the beginning of June 2026).

The fog and damp came rolling in again this week. I had a wedding in the Botanical Garden on Tuesday afternoon, and was not worried about overheating, even with my four layers of robes on; I chose to change in the bathroom rather than cross town on the bus and street-car wearing them. The buses were also packed, with stale air, and when I started feeling a headache the next day, I hoped it wasn’t a prelude to anything worse. A nip of whisky and a good solid sleep left me feeling well enough to work on Thursday, and I had enough energy to lead the Zen Center online group in the late afternoon – I had planned to do this from City Center, and stay on for the sewing class, but there was a COVID outbreak among the residents, and everything was cancelled there. It was probably just as well, as there was a big delay on BART as I headed home – enough to make me weigh up riding across Oakland to catch a train on the other line – which would have probably caused me to be late if I had had to go up to Zen Center, but I made it home in time. And then talked about how we can react to such unwelcome incidents.

All being well, I will be offline at Wilbur when this is published, my first visit of the year, and a weekend when I won’t have to worry about cold and damp.