Mori Point

This morning at the bakery down at Ellsworth and Cortland, halfway down the Bernal Heights hill, I sat with a black, wispy, fog-haired, nervous, pacing dog and waited for Susan to get a mug of coffee. Across the street, St. Kevin's church, pink Spanish stucco, and church bell a-ringin', was open and three big, burly guys were exiting dressed fine, smiling somewhat and chatting, and a big black hearse was parked out front. They were also going for coffee, and it reminded me that a funeral, in the end, is more about life than it is about death.

We grabbed a Lyft south to Pacifica to hike out to Mori Point, and we felt the summer, dry desolation hills, and the cross winds and heard the roaring ocean, and watched the kelp sway, and the birds hover in the air. I grabbed some dried out seeds from a dead yarrow and crushed them in my hand, and Susan did the same, and it was pungent spice perfume.

The ocean was blue then grey with fog, and ghost ships were floating out near the horizon. There above the fog, was a band of dark clouds that looked like a distant mountain range. The illusion gave me a floating, disorienting sensation.

At the point, we sat in the sun. I made a pillow of my knapsack and dozed while Susan watched the oyster catchers out around a frosty white boulder with waves lapping and sea weed waving.

We found a sushi dive for a bite. Dollar beers, soba noodles.

These last days of vacation have had long pauses in the middle to rest. I take the time reading Kerouac, playing music, writing blog posts, rewriting them into a long, simple song of this city and my adventures. I read a particularly lively passage about the Dharma Bums drinking jug wine and partying in the hills of Marin County. I jumped up after that and ran to the piano and just as I sat down to play snippets of Beethoven - the Sonata Pathetique - Kate came back from work and before long the whole house was abuzz and we were off again to get more noodles then visit a brewery down the road.

We settled into wine and beer and music and playtime with the kitten as bedtime approached.