Summer in February

After calling in sick last Monday, I managed to be healthy enough to go to work for the rest of the week, but just barely. The fever went away, but the achiness and congestion did not. It's a good thing that it was a relatively easy week, with very few problems of any kind. There was one kid with diabetes, which meant there was a need for extra vigilance, but he was responsible and charming. Even the weather was mild. By the weekend, it felt like Summer, with temperatures in the high seventies. I went to Almaden Quicksilver County Park with Willow, and the air smelled heavy and green, like Spring. The trails were bursting with joggers and hikers, and there were even some basking lizards.

Yesterday, Jeanine and I took Eva and her friends to San Francisco. I spent money at Amoeba, and then we killed time while the girls wandered around on Haight St. On the way back toward the freeway, we stopped at Corona Heights, near the Randall Museum, and climbed the hill overlooking the city. By then, the San Francisco microclimate had kicked in and a chilly wind blew fog across the landscape. Nice.

Eva had her new camera with her. I neglected to bring mine, so here are some phone pictures. It kind of bothers me that I've become the kind of person who takes pictures with his phone, but when that's all I have with me, that's what happens.

At home, we finally got somebody to come give us an estimate on replacing our fence. It's not cheap, especially since we've decided to replace the back fence too, since it's looking tired and beginning to lean in the middle. We still have to coordinate with the neighbors (and since they're renters, that means coordinating with their landlord) since, legally, they get to pay for half of the side fence replacement.

Good fences make good neighbors, or so it is said. Last night, around 1:30 or so, somebody outside was repeatedly shouting "you motherfucker!", and I sleepily figured it was some altercation between people residing in (or visiting) the house on the corner (because this is usually the case), but this morning, thanks to a Nextdoor Westside (which is a neighborhood community social network) post, I found out that the woman across the street had interrupted a couple of people breaking into her jeep. She motherfuckered them into submission, I guess. I probably would have done the same.