4 April 1999: Hiking in Berkeley

Sunday, 4 April 1999:

Hiking in Berkeley

Today I...

Well, I woke up, looked at my clock, and thought, Hmm, 10 am. That'll give me time to wake up, get dressed, and do a load of laundry while I read the paper before I head up to Berkeley. So I turned on the radio to listen while I rousted myself.

"It's just after 11 o'clock this morning..."

Crap, I forgot about Daylight Savings Time!

So I got out of bed and went through my morning chores, and read a little of the paper, and pretty quickly it was noon, and I wanted to be in Berkeley by 1:30, and didn't have much concept of how long it would take to get there.

I also phoned John, to remind him that we're going to the Athletics game tomorrow night, and then I had to call Lucy Huntzinger to change our plans to hook up to go to that game, since John suggested what he thought was a more optimal approach (and Lucy agreed). Then I finally got on the road... about 20 minutes later than anticipated.

I went up to Berkeley to visit my friend Rob, whom I've known since he moved to my neighborhood in junior high school... the fall of 1981, if I recall correctly. One of the remarkable things - to me - about my friendship with Rob is even though we're both different people now than we were then (though I think Rob's changed a lot more than I have), our friendship seems to still work in basically the same ways it did back then. I contrast this with other pre-college friends where we either aren't really friends anymore, or where we relate in a very different manner. It's interesting, and also pleasant.

I also met Rob's wife, which was surprising for a moment since I had thought she was someone completely different - that I'd met her before. But no. As I commented to Rob, she seems to be the right woman for him, because she seems to have similar kinds of quirks (I think I actually called them "neuroses" at the time!) to him, but in opposite directions. Heh-heh.

Rob and I went hiking with his dog, Hannah, a good-sized German Shepherd, in the hills above Berkeley, and I got some nice photos of the landscape and of San Francisco bay from up there. We guessed we walked 4-5 miles, which was a fairly vigorous walk, but not as tiring as last week. It was also warmer and not as windy. Hannah had a fine time running around; I guess she'd felt cooped up and bored this morning, until I showed up.

I also met their young cat, who apparently is nearly blind due to dietary problems when he was younger. He seems to have some slight vision - Rob thinks he can detect extremes of light - but cannot see if you wave your hand in front of his face. Predictably, though, he can hear things around him, smells things, and can get around their house pretty deftly. Apparently he and Hannah will chase each other at times, and I did see the cat stalk and at one point take a swipe at Hannah. He was a rather aloof cat, but enjoyed when I gave him some good petting in the evening.

I stayed for dinner - yummy lamb and potatoes - and we watched a little TV, and then I headed home. I did avail myself of my relatively new Sony Discman on the drive, plugging it into my tape deck and listening to my CDs (McCoy Tyner up, and Oscar Peterson back, if that matters).

So all-in-all it's been a good day.

Tomorrow, though, I need to do laundry. And this week I must get moving on getting a driver's license and registering my car.

Speaking of Daylight Savings Time, area journaller Jennifer B. thinks it's an outmoded concept. I'm not so sure, but then, I don't live at the boundaries of light and dark, so I'm not one of the people it's really for.

I do find it a little lame that most of our modern everyday gizmos don't have clocks which automatically compensate for DST. I also find it very odds that we are now on DST; strange that we need to "save" daylight when the days are longest.

Overall, though, I find DST to be a pretty minor phenomenon, and I can live with or without it. Now, time zones on the other hand... (just kidding!)

Michael Rawdon (Contact)