lightning strikes

cool weather here... at least cool from the perspective of one not affected by flooding or mud slides.

a heavy, dogs, cats and cows kind of rain yesterday morning, after a nice of blustery winds and long downpours. It kept up most of the day, and ended in another rarity -- an electrical storm moving over the city. I got to watch a couple lightning strikes in the civic center area, nice big forks crashing over the city. I wished my K1000 camera was not buried away somewhere in a nameless box, otherwise I could have had some great shots.

today has been a parade of clouds and sun, and just recently a wash of hail. whitening the sidewalks and car tops for a brief moment or two.

still, it was nothing like this storm

hurray for newsom

I didn't think I would be saying this. I did not vote for him. I thought our newly appointed mayor was going to turn out to be a somewhat slightly better mayor than willie brown, but that essentially it would be business as usual. That is all about Business.

But it turns out that his exterior image of politician caricature hid something from me. A kernel of decency perhaps. One could put this all down to politics and say that he did this to win over the Gay vote, but really, he probably already had the majority of that vote. He probably has gained some votes from people on my side of the spectrum, but the next election is 4 years away.

I'm glad I never reached the level of saying "he is evil" that some in the SF Progressive movement seemed fond of chanting. I just did not trust him. Now... I'm not sure if Ammiano had been elected mayor that he would have taken this step.

It was a brave thing. And they deserve to be married -- all of those who desire it.

a bird

I was up on bernal heights the other day, testing the car to make sure the mechanics had fixed its little stutter, and there was this bird.

The wind was whipping around the hill pretty fierce. And this bird was flying in place. It didn't look as though it was actually trying to get anywhere, it looked as though it was just testing its prowess or that maybe it just felt good. It would flap its wings a bit, and then just start tweaking wings and tail to try and stay afloat -- a surfer of the sky.

It would finally let get and the wind immediately shoved it back, and he'd do a nice little s-turn and start over.

Should it be that surprising that animals like humans get a rush from purely physical entertainment? surfing, snow boarding down hills, jumping out of airplanes, hanging from cliffs.