Weekly Challenges

I hugged my youngest daughter and said 'good luck' this afternoon -- very early tomorrow morning she flies off to Costa Rica to work in a village for a week, part of a school program. As I walked away, I wiped away tears...still no good at managing these transitions after all these years and six kids!

Today in Safeway one of those guys delivering goods on a large cart inadvertently slammed into me, hurting my shoulder, side and hand. I didn't notice the blood until I was checking out, so I quickly ran to buy a box of bandaids.

Two veins slightly cut on my hand, quite a ugly mess, but nothing serious.

But it is not funny how people start running into you as you age and become more vulnerable to injury. Seems to happen every week.

The other day, driving my daughter home from school, my clutch failed. Some $1633 and two days later, the car is back. The common wisdom is the clutch should have made it to 150,000 miles. My car has 120,000.

That's one of the costs of living in a city of hills.

Next week, I'm off to New York, possibly for the last time in a long time. The situation that has allowed me to go there since 1989 twice a year is changing, which saddens me.

I met with an old journalist friend this week, quite an accomplished fellow. He, and everyone we both know, with our backgrounds is struggling to find work and make ends meet.

Anyone who thought journalism was a glamorous career choice needs to update their understanding. Actually, it's never been a profession kind to its elder statesmen and women. It's just a lot more unfriendly now.

Tomorrow, I get to be a grandfather again -- one of the highlights of any week. I love the little children's smiles and laughter, which comes so easily, between their tears when they fall and get hurt.

One moment one extreme; the next, another. Me, I just try to stay calm and keep moving on.

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City Scenes

Early on Sunday morning, many hours before the Super Bowl, my daughter played in an exciting futsal game. Her team made a spirited comeback, only to lose in the last seconds, 4-5. But it was their first close game after three lop-sided defeats, so that was a victory of sorts and they were smiling afterward.

On Monday, I took my grandkids to the park nearby and they played for two hours.

Recently, when returning from dropping the girls at futsal practice, I came upon a Google car, with some self-propelling energy system with a twirling mechanism mounted on top.

The vehicle dropped a few young people at a building across from Dolores Park.

Not Such a Super Weekend

As I walked back from a tech event tonight through the Mission, there were cops, helicopters overhead, and clumps of disappointed 49er fans. They'd come oh so close to a great comeback but fell short and lost the Super Bowl.

The kids and I watched the game until the long blackout halted action with the 49ers trailing 28-6 in the third quarter. At that point, their prospects seemed weak.

When their Mom picked them up, I commiserated with them that this, the first Super Bowl in their memory featuring the hometown team, seemed destined for defeat.

"Of course, you're a pessimist, Dad," one of them told me.

So I agreed and corrected myself: "A comeback always is possible." Over the next few minutes of the game, before I left for my event, the 49ers closed the gap to 23-28, with lots of game time remaining.

My goodness, I thought, maybe there will be magic, and my kids will experience it.

Not to be. At the tech event, we monitored the score on our smart phones. In the end, it was a loss for the home team.

We were gathered to talk about other things than football. A number of successful and famous people were in the room; the conversation was fascinating.

And yet my mind kept drifting back to my kids and their disappointment. It was only a game, and the games go on.

But it's amazing how seriously so many of us take this stuff.

To be honest, not really me. I am not a big pro football fan. The game is too violent and too "professional" for me. I like amateur sports far better.

But I do understand the dynamic of this city, especially its proletariat sections. And I know who is hurting tonight. Let's just hope they don't commit too many crimes and that no one gets hurt. No game is worth that.

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