Saratoga Saturday Morning

My daughter and I arose early while the boys slept in and drove down the peninsula to her game. On the way she told me of her concerns for the upcoming round of final exams that will round out her freshman year in high school.

From the windy cool gray city we emerged into a hot suburban high school field. We both got a bit sunburned. Afterward, we stopped at a gas station so she could get an ice tea.

Back in the city, the layer of marine air plus the wind keeps everything here cool. I know at some point she'll choose to stop playing soccer but until then, I'll treasure these times together.

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Heat Wave in San Francisco

It's around 80 degrees today and tonight during a very hot week for this part of the world. After soccer practice, Julia knuckled down on her homework. My A+ student has developed the best study habits of any kid I have known for a while, and it is paying off for her.

Just a couple weeks left in her freshman year.

Dylan's senior year is almost complete (they don't take final exams) and his graduation is two weeks from tomorrow night.

Aidan is at the gym; he's expanded his workout regime from an hour to 1.5 hours per session.

At work we got a hold of some Medicare billing data and we have a team preparing a big piece for Thursday. We also have a big investigative look at police-involved shootings in a smaller city in the Bay Area.

At Dylan's request, I cooked spaghetti tonight, a turkey, onion, egg, soy sauce, spice and tomato sauce over small penne pasta.

They all liked it.

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Mother's Day

My mother's life was so different from mine, spanning the years 1915-2002. Born in a village in Scotland, arriving here as a schoolchild, a teenager in the Depression, Valedictorian of her large inner-city high school in Detroit, not allowed to go to college by her father, and a mother and divorced by age 19.

She raised me to at least know the rudimentary skills of cooking, cleaning and clothes washing, though I've never excelled at any of those.

Today I'm thinking of her and all of the other mothers past and present who do so much to shape the lives of their children, for better and for worse.

It's a tough job. I've got two adult daughters who are among the best Moms I've ever observed in action. Between them they are raising four boys and two girls, day in and day out. One is a single Mom, the hardest state of all.

This may be a symbolic holiday in many ways but a good day to remember the people who matter to us all the most.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone who is a Mom and everyone who has had one. That would be all of us.

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