This Week's News

It rained!

Here on the west coast, we are in the middle of a drought of Biblical proportions. But mid-week, we got half an inch of rain. It did nothing to alleviate the effects of the drought, but it did clean our unwashed cars and sidewalks.

So that's something.

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Three Wins in a Row

Athena won another soccer game today, 1-0, at a brand new soccer pitch I've never seen before. On a very foggy morning, she and I headed out to the Ingleside/Oceanside area of San Francisco, an area of the city that has long been among the poorer and non-gentrified sections of the city.

It still seems that way -- rundown houses, dinged-up cars, grocery stores shuttered with iron grates. Mainly minority populations.

The game featured strong defense but a single goal by Athena won the contest in the second half. I love how soccer games develop a pace as the teams figure each other out and the coaches adapt. It's like poetry or music, dance or a well-told tale.

Once it gets ahold of you, you're hooked.

This story had a happy ending. And the team is now 3-1 for the season...

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Luca Makes First!

Grandson Luca at a baseball camp today.

Redwood City Heat, San Francisco Humidity

What a joy to get up early (I love getting up at 7 when I don't have to) and driving my daughter, her friend and her friend's mother down to Redwood City on the peninsula. It was cool and foggy here when we left but hot down there by game time.

Great game, from our perspective, as Athena White (wearing red jerseys) won. Number 43 acquitted herself well.

Afterwards, we visited a local Jamba Juice and then traveled along 101 North to the city by the bay.

It is foggy here, yes, but now somehow also humid. We are having very strange weather. No rain is predicted.

Julia and I did a big grocery shopping trip, where 80% of what we purchased are her favorite items. It is so nice to begin to adjust to our new life where it is just me and her.

Not that I don't miss my boys -- I do so terribly. Yesterday after a week of trying I found a ticket home for Dylan for Thanksgiving weekend. ("Only" $532 -- the airlines are like a shakedown gang.)

Tonight we will order Chinese food, her favorite.

Tomorrow, another soccer game, in SF.

You know that old ironic movie, with Jack Nicholson, "As Good As It Gets"?

Let me tell you something, to have my child here and be anticipating dinner, relaxing, under no pressure, savoring a victory, knowing her brothers are starting to adapt to their new lives in Missoula, having enough money to handle things, seeing the flowers and trees out back, remembering all of those who used to live here with us -- that's pretty much as good as it gets.

Stated without irony.

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Morning Glories

I almost titled this post "Life and Death," but I chose a softer headline. Early today, before taking Julia to school, I snapped this photo at our back fence. Aren't those blue flowers lovely?

It was a complicated day at work, but ignoring that, the message I got from Aidan this afternoon changed everything about the feeling I have about this particular day.

A high school friend of his died in a car accident last night. He found out via Instagram. That should be a reminder for all of us that news no longer comes via media but via social media, and how our kids know much more than we do about what they care about before any of us in media do our jobs.

The moment he texted me I remembered the title of the wire story I had seen earlier today: "Fatal accident." I always hate those wire posts, fearing I might somehow be connected to the people whose lives have ended.

This time, as it turns out, I was, through my son.

The car his friend was riding in, or maybe driving, was speeding at 11 p.m. last night when it clipped a SUV, flipped off of 580, crashed into a tree and burned. The boy and his friend died instantly.

So the only comfort I could offer Aidan was that -- no suffering.

"I'm glad he didn't lay hurting in a hospital," was Aidan's response.

How do you talk to your kids at these moments? Did I say the right things?

Meanwhile, I cannot imagine the pain that boy's family and close friends must be feeling. We lose children through accidents over and over.  Kids take risks. Is there any way our society could get better? Self-driving cars?

Might there be a day today's text and call for me and Aidan could not have to happen?

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Family Sunday

Soccer Connections Renewed

 On an alternatively foggy and sunny day out at Crocker-Amazon, Julia's new team, Athena White, played their arch-rival, the Chivas.

 Julia, as one of the younger members of the team, subbed in partway through the first half, when the score was 0-1. By the end of the half, her team was ahead 2-1.

She started the second half and left when the score was 3-1. In the end Athena won, 4-2! A nice outcome for a kid who's soccer teams have often lost and rarely won. She's in white, in the cenetr of the photo above.

At the pitch I ran into Shani, Aidan's old coach. he asked after Aidan, always one of his favorite players and we had a good catchup chat. When I went to take his photo, coaching one his (12!) current teams, a U-8 girls team, he spotted me and told the girls to turn toward me. "I used to coach that man's son Aidan. He can play soccer. Say 'hi' to Aidan!"

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