Willful Days --- Day 3/353

Walk: No

Distance: 0, small yoga

All day sitting and updating stuff.  A few more of the same ahead, but it will be Good when it's finished.  (She said).

Aye! --- Days 10/351 & 352

Walk: GG Pickleball, 2. Ballot Box

Distance: 4.5 miles, 90 minutes pickle, 2. 3 miles, small yoga

So Ciwt just slid her ballot through the slot of an official ballot drop box near her home.  This is the first election San Francisco has placed ballot boxes around the neighborhoods, and Ciwt really likes them.

She can vote any time, any day or night, any place around the city before 8:00 pm Election Day.  Much better for people's schedules and actually more private than standing in line and signing in... Of course, the traditional ways to vote are still available.   City Hall is still open for drop off and in person voting and all the local polling places will be open on Election Day.  This is just a new and (imho) excellent public service.

MLK, Jr. Day --- Day 10/350

Walk: Monday Errands and House Stuff

Distance: 3.5 miles

Ralph Abernathy, James Forman, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Jesse Douglas and John Lewis lead a march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965

Art Appreciation --- Day 10/347, 348 & 349

Walk: 1.CPMC (annual) & Hood 2. SFMOMA 3. Legion of Honor Museum

Distance: 1. 4.2 miles, small yoga 2. 3 miles  3. 2,5 miles

Ciwt is busy giving art tours.  Catch you soon.

Trash Talk --- Day 10/346

Walk: Trader Joe's

Distance: 2.8 miles, Yoga

Former Giants outfielder Hunter Pence on a RefuseRefuse volunteer mission in North Beach

So today Ciwt took her 100,000th of so walk to Trader Joe's.  What else is new?  Well, the sidewalks on the way were all clean.  

The stretch near Joe's was traditionally depressingly littered with all conceivable amounts and types of trash.  Legally it was no one's responsibility to keep that stretch clean, and then the wind didn't help, so Ciwt would just avert her eyes, tiptoe through and wish something would happen to make the trash disappear.  

And then about three months ago, something did!

Or someone!  Name of Vincent who quit his job during the pandemic and started an organization called RefuseRefuse.  It began humbly, to say the least.  Just Vincent and his two daughters picking up trash around their block.  But then neighbors noticed the difference and started pitching in.  Somewhere the money showed up for Vincent to buy a bunch of grabbers, orange trash bags and hoops to keep them open. And more people started noticing and showing up for RefuseRefuse cleanups.  One of whom was Ciwt, who saw Vince cleaning up around Trader Joe's, went up to thank him, learned about RefuseRefuse and was in one of their bright yellow vests with grabber the next clean up.

https://refuserefusesf.org/

Yesterday the SF Chronicle did an article on Vincent and RefuseRefuse:  If you want 'more dirt,' it is inspiring, uplifting reading:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayarea/heatherknight/article/Meet-the-San-Francisco-man-with-the-inside-dirt-16768444.php

The Future is Now --- Day 10/345

Walk: 1, Golden Gate Pickleball 2. Union Square Apple Store

Distance: 1. 1.2 miles, 1 hour pickle  2. Just a mile, small yoga (to clear head for learning new watch)

Old Watch, New Watch

So, as of today, Ciwt has taken another giant (for her) step into the Apple future. 

Harbingers --- Day 10/344

Walk: Presidio Pickleball

Distance: 2.3 miles, 1 hour pickle, yoga

Daffodils are here!

Still under wraps, but indications that spring is on the way are sneaking in to our still cold winter.

Mountain Memories --- Days 10/342 & 343

Walk: 1. Opera Plaza Cinema (Torn) 2. Sunday Hood

Distance: 1. 4.6 miles  2. 3 miles, small yoga

Mount Shishapangma (Tibet)

So, once upon a time Ciwt lived in the mountains where a lot of extreme, risk devouring athletes lived or came for the season.  (Then onto a place down under where winter continued).  There were many deaths.  Almost all of very young men somewhere in the mountains or back country.  The more famous, the more elite, the more the chances you were looking at one of them.  That became kind of axiomatic to Ciwt, sadly.  You just sensed they needed to keep pushing themselves, and pushing themselves all over the planet, no matter how high, how remote. And, as the 'old man of elite climbing,' (at 59) Conrad Acker, has put it - eventually 'gravity won.'

And once upon another time, Ciwt went with an adventuring boyfriend to a small village within a village in Yosemite at the base of El Capitan where several elite climbers and their families were allowed to live.  The feeling, the constant hush in the air, felt so hallowed it was difficult for Ciwt to breathe.  All those people - the climbers, their wives, their children - lived constantly near that looming rock wall with the fearful knowledge every day could be their last.  

All this and more came back yesterday when Ciwt went to Torn, a documentary by Max Lowe. the son of by far the most famous mountain climber, maybe ever, Alex Lowe.  Who was killed in an avalanche in Tibet in 1990. Max was 11.  The movie is about Alex but even more about the aftermath of Alex's death and Max's near impossible task of reconciling his father/hero's death with the fact that he had left him and his family behind (his wife and two even younger brothers). 

Not trying to be gloomy here.  Torn just triggered memories and some sort of deep fascination in Ciwt which she hasn't quite shaken. And she's feeling fortunate to have come away from mountain living in one piece.  If you are drawn to such things yourself, Ciwt encourages you to see Torn.

How Did They Do That? --- Day 10/341

Walk: Day of Reading

Distance: n/a

On the outside

Underneath

So, those puffy sleeves would have been droopy if the woman wearing them didn't have down-filled pads sewn onto her corset - or tied on to her upper arms.  And, as for those elaborate or just thick, wavy coiffures, well, most often they were were bulked up with coils of some else's hair.  Ie, they were hairpieces, a fact that pleases Ciwt.

These are just few things Ciwt learned on her designated day of reading....

Covid Company --- Day 10/340

Walk: Hood

Distance: 4.5 miles

Tawny

                                        

Puff

Cats, Books, Flowers.  Good Company.  (These are two different cats.  Promise). 

Got It! --- Day 10/339

Walk/Lope: AMC Kabuki (Spider-Man: No Way Home)

Distance: 4 miles

So Ciwt is happy to report she understood the latest Spider-Man (mostly).  And she enjoyed it.  She didn't expect the wealth of talented, famous actors or the excellent comic timing.  A little prolonged in parts but a zippy getaway.

Not Ciwt's Cuppa --- Days 10/337 & 338

Walk/Lope: 1. Hood post New Year lope  2. Hood lope

Distance:  1. 2.6 miles, small yoga  2. 4 miles, small yoga

No, this isn't a dark landscape painting from the 1900's.  It is from January 1, 2022 in darkest, windiest Belfast, Ireland.  The edifice that is barely visible in the early light and spray is Blackrock Diving Tower.  And those two figures on the right are legging it against the severe headwind to get somewhere warm after diving off that tower into the raging sea.  It's an annual tradition over there.

Ciwt says "Naw Thanks!" although she has picked up the pace of her daily walks after our local wind, cold and rain limited her time outside.  

Pug Sunday --- Day 10/336

Walk: Hood

Distance: 2.9 miles, Yoga

Ciwt is feeling a bit perplexed as she enters 2022.  But not so the pugs who came with their owners from all over the city to enjoy each other and Pug Sunday.

Welcome, 2022 --- Day 10/335

 Walk: Presidio

Distance: 4 miles