Breakfast with a Red Headed Sparrow

It is a beautiful morning here in California.  I slept well last night, woke in the magical hour before dawn and watched the sunrise.  A hot shower, then coffee and pumpkin bread on the patio, savoring this fall morning. I was joined by a red headed sparrow who dropped down into the black oil sunflower seeds and seemed to be enjoying himself very much.  I fired off a few texts, then settled in to watch the morning news shows. I've got a simple day ahead of me.  My plan is to meet Rick and Tony at the Cheesecake Factory at noon for lunch, and I am sure I'll take a nice ambling walk through the Temple of Mammon afterwards.

Walking La Jolla

It was another easy day here in San Diego, though it was the last day of this portion of the vacation.  Tomorrow we've got the homeward drive ahead of us.  In between here and there is Los Angeles, the capitol of bad traffic, so we'll have our fingers crossed and hope we make it smoothly through the city.  Our plan is to leave early, but one persons early is not necessarily another persons early.  So, we will see what early means.

We had breakfast, stopped at the laundromat, then headed out to La Jolla, where we spent some time wandering La Jolla Cove and the beach area.  It was a nice way to spend the afternoon. There were many pleasant things to see, both at the beach and walking on the beach.  If you've never been to La Jolla, it is a very pretty place and worth a visit. (Of course, I say that about almost every place because I do believe that almost every place is at worth at least one visit.)  The visit ended with a nice uphill walk back to the parking garage.

We popped by the Hilton, rested for a while, and then headed down town to meet the boys at the Old Spaghetti Factory in the Gaslamp.  The company was good and the food was good.  It was a pleasant dinner and odds are we'll do it again next year.  A quick commute back to the hotel and, for me, a nice flowing conversation with TR while Tony settled in right next to the television so he could listen to it.  (It was amusing to watch.)

I am looking forward to getting back to San Jose and my own place.  I am looking forward to wrapping up the last four days of the vacation in the ultimate lazy mode.  I plan on at least one full day, perhaps two, of doing absolutely nothing. Of parking in front of the DVR and watching show after show after. Of settling in on the couch with a small stack of books and reading, reading and more reading.  I think, in short, I am looking forward to some pretty serious me time.

A Shower Is To Be Savored

I've moved briskly into my vacation.  Alas, it has not been a clean movement, but it is movement so that counts.  On Friday, I ended up working about six hours, trying to wrap up a pair of reports that needed to be done.  Tomorrow (Monday), I plan on working a couple of hours to wrap up two other items and then, hopefully, I will get a clean break.  At work I find that I dislike the fact that we are not adequately staffed, it irritates me constantly.

So, let's see - on Friday I saw Pacific Rim, then on Sunday I saw The Way Way Back.  I have to say - the first was pretty bad and the second was pretty good, so I guess the universe balanced out, movie wise. If you have to make a decision between the two, I would definitely recommend The Way Way Back.  Unless you are in to giant robots, monsters and explosions.

I ran a spat of errands on Saturday and then spent most of the afternoon napping. The evening was a quick and simple Chinese dinner, then a wonderful little conversation with T.R.. Sunday was an early  morning walk in John D. Morgan park, then breakfast at the Hickory Pit with Tony.  We followed that with The Way Way Back, then lunch at Pasta Pomodora in Santana Row. A quick run up to the Sports Basement on Lawrence, then off to the laundry, then home, a long hot bath, and now an episode of Copper.

All told, it has been a nice little weekend and a good start on vacation.  Tomorrow is a free day here in San Jose, to be spent on a spot of work and then preparing for the trip.  One of the things I picked up at the Sports Basement was a heavy duty duffel bag. I have an older one, but it is cheaper and the handle tore off for the second time the other day.  I figure it is time for it to give it up and buy a good one that should last me for a decade or more.

I think my plan for the rest of the night is an early bed and reading a bit in Red Seas Under Red Skies, another novel in the Gentleman Bastards Sequence by Scott Lynch, the author of The Lies of Locke Lamorra.  Then, a good night sleep, an easy going day tomorrow and finally, on Tuesday, the start of the trip to San Diego for Comic Con.  I am excited for the trip, the Con, and the wonderful city of San Diego.

Simple Beauty

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Daily Life: The Simple Beauty of the Day

The last several days my thoughts have been circling around the subject of beauty and the appreciation of beauty. Our ordinary lives are filled with moments and incidents of astounding beauty, if we slow down enough to notice them. For the last two days I have been consciously finding and appreciating those moments. Let me share this mornings beautiful moment.

On any working day I have two regularly scheduled status meetings, back to back, each an hour long. I settle in with a cup of coffee, put my headset on, and listen/participate for two hours. Today, the first of the two meetings wrapped up early and I found myself with an interval of about twenty unexpected minutes.

I walked outside, to the front of the building, were there are several green wrought iron benches. I took a seek on the bench that is the farthest south. It is nestled back between two Japanese maple trees. This morning it was cool, with a brisk breeze off the south end of the San Francisco bay. The sky was a pale shade of blue and high above, within that blue sky, was view of a pale waning moon. High overhead a silver and blue passenger jet winged its way toward some distant destination, glinting in the sunlight. It was a perfect, beautiful moment.

Daily Life: A Beautiful Friday

Today was simply a beautiful day. I woke to a beautiful dawn and the symphony of birds, all riding on a cool breeze. I moved smoothly through the day. I lounged in the morning. I went to lunch and a movie (the new Star Trek - very good, I was actually impressed), then a light dinner with my nephew. A quiet evening at home, a simple phone call, then an episode of Myth Busters I had stored on the DVD. I am going to watch Doll House in about twenty minutes and then curl up with a book and read into the night. I am planning on heading up to Sacramento tomorrow AM, then back to San Jose in the mid to late afternoon, with a planned dinner with friends on Saturday night. The weather is perfectly beautiful California spring here in San Jose and the night is equally as beautiful. I love this kind of day.

Daily Life: Friday in California

It's a bright, cool, beautiful California morning. Not a cloud in the
sky, a temp of 65, and a slight breeze. I made the most of the morning
doing nothing. Breakfast, coffee, watching "The Mexican" on HBO.
Simply an excellent morning. I am going to head out in a few minutes
and drive up to Sacramento with a friend of mine to pick up a
motorcycle part and the grab some lunch. Depending on the traffic it
should be a five hour roundtrip, putting me home mid-afternoon.
Tonight's plan is dinner with the nephew and then a quiet evening. My
nephews birthday is Sunday so he and some friends of his are
celebrating tonight - I might join them for a while, but we'll see.
I'll make that call when the moment arrives. So, for now, I am heading
out into that beautiful morning.

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Morning Sky

We have had a parade of beautiful fall mornings the last couple of weeks and today was no exception. I was on the highway on the way to work this morning in the hour before the dawn. At one point in the commute I turn to the north east for about ten minutes. The sun was rising off behind Mt. Hamilton and there were high wispy clouds. The clouds were shades of soft red. The sky overhead was dark and there was a ribbon of light blue on the horizon, fading quickly into deeper blues. I reached the office and parked behind the building and then sat there listening to Annie Lennox and drinking my coffee and thinking just how damn beautiful the world is sometimes.