Thursday. A nice dinner with my cousin Ms. P and my sister last night, the traffic driving over the Richardson Bay Bridge more than manageable, home before eleven. A beer before, a bit of Champagne with dinner, life is good and reasonably clear headed.

Up this morning in the rain at six with the alarm thinking, well, maybe we'll just doze off again this morning and skip breakfast, consciousness kicking in at that point as if I'd been sleeping for days, up and out and back by eight: the papers read, the day ahead.

We talked about meeting at the Ferry building in San Francisco later this morning, then decided to meet here at the apartment and take BART and now, I'm afraid, looking at the rain which seems to be here in earnest, we'll probably blow it off altogether. Thus we go in rain and snow. The weather here is unusual for the Bay Area, but the weather here is always unusual. If it's not raining, then the sun is out, the land is parched and rain but a distant memory, something you read about once in a history book until it returns and refreshes your head. We persevere.

Later. OK, still raining, but my sister is taking the Larkspur ferry to San Francisco, so I'll get off my duff and BART over to meet her at the Ferry building. We'll see. The rain looks serious, but pictures can be taken in the rain (the light is nice) and cameras can be protected from water. (Hup! Hup!) Mr. E called to suggest we meet with some of the usual crew at Harrington's later at six, so we'll see how that goes. Exciting week, so far, we're back in the fast lane again.

Later still. Waited for the bus for two whole minutes, got off at the BART station and waited all of one minute for a train, got to the Ferry building in San Francisco some twenty minutes before my sister arrived on the Larkspur ferry so I sat and had a cup of coffee at a table inside. Worked out fine.

She was the photographer this trip taking twenty to my one. We took a trolly to Pier 39 in Fisherman's Wharf, the rain coming down without a break, had a light lunch at a crowded restaurant (I hate to think what this place must look like on a warm sunny day in the middle of summer) and walked a bit farther taking a picture or two before hopping another trolley back to the Ferry building to get out of the rain (and take more pictures).

Back now at the apartment, just off the phone with Mr. E. I hadn't thought to call him from San Francisco and let him know I wasn't going to be able to make it at six, killing the two hours I'd have to wait after having been walking in the rain for two hours just didn't compute, but realized (in talking with him) he might have wanted to cancel out as well if I wasn't going to show. We were to meet, as I mentioned, others in the usual crew at six and they wouldn't have been able to change their work schedules to come early, so I figured it wasn't something that could be moved up. Still, home now, a lighter rain now, the heat on full tilt: feels good. We are at one with the world.