You Say Hello to Summer; I Say Good-Bye

Lovely little Reina, a friend's daughter, at 22 months, moves around so quickly that most photos of her surely must be blurred. She loves the kid shows on Japanese TV, as well as rice balls with salmon, seaweed, potato salad and cold asparagus. But she is afraid of strange men, not necessarily a bad way to be.

Many adults, especially men, are relatively clueless how to relate to children. Maybe
they forget that in an infant's eyes, we are monstrously huge and loud. Looming in on them is never a good idea. Maybe you're going to eat them!


Far above a ridge in San Mateo yesterday, from the deck of Reina's parents' home, I watched a huge hawk glide over the wooded hills, seeking prey. To have the eyesight of a hawk! At times I've witnessed their sudden dives, streaking toward earth like a meteor, only to swoop back up, never having touched the ground, but now with a mouse squirming in their beak.


That reminds me of the story the owner of a building in the Haight told me recently. Behind the building is a small atrium, that from above, must only fleetingly be visible to anything flying over the neighborhood. She has a pool in the atrium, and she used to have koi in the pool.


Then, one day, she was horrified to witness a pelican dive straight into her pool, its huge jaws scooping up all the fish in the process. We're talking needle-in-the-haystack predation here. How can anyone consider Nature benign? Have they never been out in Nature?


For most people, summer is coming soon. For me, this is the last week of "summer," i.e., the past eight months of working from my home, consulting, blogging, and taking life relatively easy. Next Monday, I start a new job (more about that another time), and I am excited to be going back to work in the Valle d' Silicon.


Nature has decided to visit us with a sunny, hot spell this week -- supposedly the temp will reach the 90s. If so, maybe I'll go to the beach and collect more seaglass for my large (though lately neglected) collection...

-30-

p.s. Numbers Report: In other news, the El Matate Burritos are in first place and the Mud Lake Mafia are in second place. These fantasy baseball teams are generating by far the best statistics of any of my teams over the years.