Best of All --- Days 14/253 & 254

Walks: Presidio and Hood

Distance: 5 miles

“Best of all he loved the fall

the leaves yellow on the cottonwoods

leaves floating on the trout streams

and above the hills the high blue windless skies…now he will be a part of them forever.”

― Ernest Hemingway (excerpted from his eulogy for his friend, Gene Van Guilder, a publicist for Sun Valley Resort, which captures his own, Van Guilder's and Ciwt's deep love of the central Idaho landscape).

Being With Fall --- Days 14/245-252

Walks: Hood, PT, CPMC

Distances: 3.75 miles average

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), The Garden of Saint Paul's Hospital, 1889, o/c, @29" x 24"

In Ciwt's opinion Vincent van Gogh is the equal of any master at capturing the ways human emotion and nature's presence can echo each other.  To Ciwt there is an enveloping, introspective melancholy to the crisp air, elegant baring limbs, muted light and red-gold colors of fall that she also feels in the man (perhaps van Gogh himself) walking alone in the large garden adjoining the asylum he had once again checked himself into.

Heading In --- Days 241-244

 Walks: Back to the usual and always refreshing: Hood and Presidio 

Average: 3.5 miles

Caspar David Friedrich, Evening Landscape with Two Men, 1830-35, o/c

The end of summer puts Ciwt in mind of nocturne paintings.  They have a sense of brighter things ending and more meditative, private times approaching.  They remind her of how the approach of her favorite season, fall, felt when she was young. At some point in August, the long, humid, 'dog days' of summer began to make her sad.  She'd waterskied, played tennis, laughed, generally and exuberantly filled her summer vacation free time with friends.  But now that was done for her - internally. She was done with outside entertainments and privately longing for crispness, wool jackets, cozy autumn colors and the softer light of fall.  She was ready for routine, structure, even homework.  All these supported her true interior, contemplative, meditative nature and she looked forward to once again being surrounded by them.

Caspar David Friedrich, Man and Woman Contemplatig the Moon, ca. 1824, o/c

Okay with Small Spaces? --- Day 14/240

Walk: Radnet

Distance: 2.5 miles

So now if doctors wonder about anything, they can look right in and find out with modern technology.  Like, gulp, X-rays, CTs, MRIs, ultrasounds, and PET scans.  Every once in a while Ciwt's doctors send her for one of those.  Like today's MRI. 

The preliminary forms ask "Are you claustrophic?" and Ciwt answers "No." But then she's strapped onto the table, silently slid into the metal chamber, and the various loud banging noises begin. She lies still as instructed, hopes her "no"answer was correct about her reaction to small spaces, and is relieved when her table is slid out.  Next will come all those long medical interpretations which sound scary but, knock on wood, are no big deal (for her age).

Home At Last --- Days 14/237, 238 & 239

Walks: The usual: hood and Presdio

Distance Average: 4 miles

Probably  CIWT is a little blah for her readers right now so today she thought she'd show and tell you a little about why.

After just over a year of being here, Ciwt is finally finished (enough) with the many, many trips up and down stairs, to and from UPS with box after box.  She has the rooms furnished, she's 'deaccessed ' the things that don't work (even though she is attached to them), and now she's turned to bonding with her place as a home instead of a work station.  So far that has meant hours spent on her window seat (with one or two cats) with piles of books and notebooks, punctuated of course by her beloved daily walks. 

It is a welcoming, calm environment and, after 40+ years living 73 steps up from the ground, she feels more settled and 'complete' being close to it and the little (work in progress) garden she created.

But it is a bit of a distracting time as well with writers' words in her head and her own on notebook papers and letting all the years, places, people come and go and get resettled in her mind. 

Covered dining room chairs!  She always thought this was too much, but she likes them.

Jeopardy! watching station

Late Summer Breakfast --- Days 14/231-236

Late Summer Walks: Hood and Presidio

Distances: 4 miles average

Whipped cream strawberry birthday cake for breakfast.  One sign Ciwt's end of summer restlessness and appetite are setting in.  

A Pony? No Thanks. --- Days 14/230

Walks: Hood, Presidio

Distance: 3.5 miles, 5 miles

So for her birthday today Ciwt showered herself with presents.  She:

                                                        -had her mattress flipped

                                                        -had her new office rug and pad put down

                                                        -had things taken to her storeroom  (Thank you, Lugg)

                                                        -made an appointment to have her carpets cleaned

These are the things that make her day.  These plus not having to drive to a stable and muck out the stall for that pony she so desperately wanted long ago.

A Simple Three Days --- Day 14/229

Walk: Hood, Birthday shopping

Distance: 6.25 miles

So why does Ciwt stand back and devote 3 days to just pictures and songlists of the Grateful Dead's 60th anniverssry celebration in their home ground, Golden Gate Park?

Good question.  She's not a Deadhead.  For one thing, she was back East when they were in their Jerry Garcia prime.  But after being out in San Francisco a decade or so she did spend time following Phil Lesh and and Bob Weir's offshoot, Furthur.  So she knows the energy that is/surrounds the Grateful Dead.  And she respects it, stands back and lets it occupy the space.

There's no point trying to describe it.  Many have tried, and it has eluded all of them. It exists in its own realm beyond words. It's not just a stoner or LSD thing although there is likely much of both (and other drugs) in the crowd.  And it's not just a 60's summer of love thing; people of all ages join on every day. The Dead's music itself is in the same category.  There's a reason the band wecomed people making their own tapes of the concerts right from the beginning. Tapes could abound, but they knew the feeling that accompanied the music couldn't be captured.  Maybe it joined the other Greateful Dead energy and kept burgeoning and burgeoning over the years.  Who knows?  Anyway, the spirit of it was for the moment; the notes on the tapes were left but not it.  

Ciwt feels lucky she knows why people stop their daily lives, get on airplanes or anything that transports them to make it to Dead concerts; many for 60 years and thousands of concerts now.  It's a people thing, a music thing, a heart/spirit, a strong, palpable but indescribable energy thing.  And Ciwt honors it .

Fare Thee Well --- Day 14/228

 

Walk: No, Sunday at home stuff

Distance: n/a

Dead & Company – Golden Gate Park Setlist (Aug. 3, 2025)

Grateful Dead 60th Anniversary Show – Sunday, Aug. 3

Set 1

• “Good Times” (Sam Cooke cover)
• “China Cat Sunflower” (Grateful Dead cover) 
• “I Know You Rider” (traditional cover)
• “They Love Each Other” (Jerry Garcia cover)
• “Shakedown Street” (Grateful Dead cover with teases of “Ghost” and The Commodores’ “Brick House”)
• “Deal” (Jerry Garcia cover)

Set 2

• “Scarlet Begonias” (Grateful Dead cover with Trey Anastasio and teases of “Manteca” and “Good Lovin’”)
• “Fire on the Mountain” (Grateful Dead cover with Trey Anastasio)
• “Broken Arrow” (Robbie Robertson cover with Grahame Lesh playing Phil Lesh’s bass “Big Brown”)
• “Hell in a Bucket” (Grateful Dead cover)
• “Cumberland Blues” (Grateful Dead cover with Grahame Lesh)
• “Drums” 
• “Space” (with elements of “My Funny Valentine”)
• “Standing on the Moon” (Grateful Dead cover)
• “Sugaree” (Jerry Garcia cover)
• “Sugar Magnolia” (Grateful Dead cover)
• “Touch of Grey” (Grateful Dead cover)

"If you get confused, just listen to the music play." --- Day 14/227

Walk: Hood

Distance: 4.5 miles

Dead & Company – Golden Gate Park Setlist (Aug. 2, 2025)

Grateful Dead 60th Anniversary Show – Friday, Aug. 2

Set 1

• “In the Midnight Hour” (Wilson Pickett cover)
• “Bertha” (Grateful Dead cover) 
• “Jack Straw” (Grateful Dead cover) (with “Blue Sky” tease)
• “Dear Mr. Fantasy” (Traffic cover) 
• “Hey Jude” (The Beatles cover) (coda only)
• “Passenger” (Grateful Dead cover)
• “Brown-Eyed Women” (Grateful Dead cover)
• “Morning Dew” (Bonnie Dobson cover) (with Sturgill Simpson)

Set 2

• “Uncle John’s Band” (Grateful Dead cover) (with “The Other One” jam) 
• “Help on the Way” (Grateful Dead cover) 
• “Slipknot!” (Grateful Dead cover) (with “Ghostbusters” teases) 
• “Franklin’s Tower” (Grateful Dead cover) (with “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” tease)
• “St. Stephen” (Grateful Dead cover) (with Grahame Lesh and “The Eleven” tease)
• “Drums” (Grateful Dead cover) 
• “Space” (Grateful Dead cover) (with “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” tease) 
• “Spanish Jam” (Grateful Dead cover) 
• “Days Between” (Grateful Dead cover) 
• “Truckin’” (Grateful Dead cover) (with “All Blues” tease)
• “Cold Rain and Snow” (traditional cover)

Encore

• “Brokedown Palace” (Grateful Dead cover)
• 
  

Shakedown Street

Remembrance Reigns (in and out of the closet) --- Day 14/226

Walk: No; Huge Closet Caper

Distance: 1.5 miles of clothes try ons and bagging

Set 1

• “Feel Like a Stranger” (Grateful Dead cover)
• “Dancing in the Street” (Martha Reeves and the Vandellas cover)
• “Tennessee Jed” (Grateful Dead cover)
• “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” (Grateful Dead cover)
• “Big River” (Johnny Cash cover)
• “Althea” (Grateful Dead cover)

Set 2

• “Box of Rain” (Grateful Dead cover with Grahame Lesh on vocals)
• “Playing in the Band” (Grateful Dead cover with Grahame Lesh)
• “Estimated Prophet” (Grateful Dead cover)
• “Eyes of the World” (Grateful Dead cover)
• “Terrapin Station” (Grateful Dead cover)
• “Drums”
• “Space”
• “Wharf Rat” (Grateful Dead cover with Billy Strings)
• “Not Fade Away” (The Crickets cover)

Encore

• “Knockin' on Heaven’s Door” (Bob Dylan cover

“Wheel to the storm and fly. “ --- Days 14/221-225

Walks: Presidio and Hood mostly

Distances: 3.75 miles average

What do:

Bill Walton, Jerome Powell, Elvis Costello, Ben and Jerry, Steve Buscemi,Are you ready?  WALTER CRONKITE, Steve Jobs,Bill Clinton,Whoopi Goldberg, Many, Many, Many More  have in common?

They were//are all DEADHEADS 

And for the next three days, the remaining members and other completely cool musicians are celebrating the Grateful Dead's 60th Anniversay in the band's back yard, San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.  Celebrity and rank and file Deadheads are getting here by whatever means: VW bus, motorcycle, Casey Jones train, truckin, private jet, or just walking across the bridge or town.  As you can see, San Francisco is ready to greet them with open arms, peace signs, tie dye tees, whatever....

🎵 "All I know is something like a bird within her sang. All I know she sang a little while and then flew off. Tell me all that you know, I'll show you snow and rain..."

♭  "When Ruben played his painted mandolin

The breeze would pause to listen in, before goin its way again..."

“ And it's just a box of rain. I don't know who put it there. Believe it if you need it or leave it if you dare and it's just a box of rain or a ribbon for your hair. Such a long long time to be gone and a short time to be there.”

“ Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world"

Online Deadhead quote: People don’t know how to think for themselves, so they just go along with what they hear or are told. And it’s good those type of people hated the Dead, because those are the type of people you don’t want around anyway. So it’s really a win/win. I feel sorry for them. They missed out on one of the greatest things that ever happened to this planet.