SuperBowl Weekend

The city has been filling up this week: streets are closed, other streets clogged with cars – and an unprecedented number of black SUVs. Parties seem to be happening everywhere; on our Friday roam at Fort Mason, one corner was cordoned off ahead of Post Malone playing there later. Thankfully, the other places we visited were a complete respite from all of that, and I trust that Saturday’s roam west of Glen Park will be similarly free from congestion.

Ruth and I wanted to plan a date night at a new local spot for this weekend. There was nothing available Friday or Saturday, but plenty of space on Sunday evening, so that’s when we will head down the hill. I remember other SuperBowl weekends when I have been out and about and found the city as empty as a Holiday morning. The same used to happen in London as well – I remember taking a bus during the World Cup once, and every house I could see into was glowing the green of the onscreen pitch.

But it’s not just people showing up – signs of spring are everywhere: magnolias and other blossoms around the city, robins audible first thing. We saw a beautiful post-full moon rising on Tuesday evening, along with Jupiter, which has been bright, adjacent to Castor and Pollux, Orion’s Belt, Sirius and other stars.

Once again I have been enjoying my sittings – Monday at home (though I later got a bit frazzled by trying to make a deadline, skipped the Dogen group to catch my breath, and was glad that we cancelled the student group as people weren’t available); Tuesday at Mukunda; Wednesday at home and at Alchemy, and the short moments of silence on the roam,

The Peace Walk was announced on Thursday, and both the initial fifty slots and the fifty-person waitlist filled up in an hour, I was told. We will try to get more helpers so we can have as many people as possible attending – several of my roamers expressed an interest in shepherding. A mention of me on the page was enough to cause a further spike in readership, so welcome if you are very freshly arrived to these pages.