hot, lovely heat

the weather the past two days has been of the sort where you don't quite believe you are in San Francisco anymore. it's not that it never happens, but that it is never there on much of a predicatable basis (other than in late summer).

i've been walking around with languid steps dreaming of swaying hammocks and dappled light under a nice old tree, my clothes soaking up the warmth and bringing it down onto my skin

and as the sun went down, and the fog did not materialize on twin peaks, i realized it was one of the 2 or 3 nights we have a year, where we don't have to put on the extra layer we've carried around all day and instead, head over to Mitchell's ice cream at 10pm and get a nice cup of ice cream.

which is what i did last night with a couple of fine friends last night. This after hanging out at another friends house for a few hours, eating chinese food on her back porch, and sitting in her hot tub for a long glorious soak swapping stories.

all that topped off with a nice walk home in the delicious warmth of a rare san francisco night.

nothing

it's hard doing nothing. i sat down a few nights ago when I was feeling somewhat overwhelmed and decided I needed to do nothing for a change. no email, no doodling, no noodling on the guitar, no reading, no watching some tv, just plain old nothing, lying on a couch and letting my thoughts go by.

it was hard. every five minutes i would think of something, and think i should get up and do that. i think i maybe lasted 45 minutes before i gave up.

the thing is my life is so full up that i could live a couple lives and never be finished, but maybe my brain needs a little downtime. my physical body sure as heck does.

then i was thinking ( as I was doing nothing no less -- so long as you consider thinking not an act, anyway ) maybe that's why i enjoy walking so much, because it is the one act where I'm not really doing much other than looking around and walking, and I don't have to actually try and walk. it just happens.

biking and driving have similar effects I think, and maybe that is why in the end they are so important to us. they allow for a time and a space that we don't ordinarily have. of course biking and driving you have mroe concerns -- ie other drivers. and following this thought to a possible conclusion, maybe that's why we are driven to such heights of anger when we are on the road -- our one chance a day ruined by other idiots.

naturally, i don't really think that is the complete answer, but maybe a small part of it at least.