Perfect Day

Exuberance is beauty

William Blake

Note-book (1793)

Blessed are the perfect days. I would imagine that everybody has their own version of the perfect day. For some it could be betting on all the right horses, for others it could be closing the big deal. No matter what it is, it’s all abut things coming together, planned or unplanned, in a way that is completely satisfying to the heart, mind, body, and soul. Day to day life in the modern world requires us to be busybodies not much different from ants and bees. We follow along and do what we are told. But every now and then we break from the grid and have that perfect day where we have freed ourselves to live beyond the daily grind and can soar like eagles on the power of our vitality and imagination.

All I require for a perfect day is a little cooperation from Mother Nature and last Wednesday, September 30th 2009 she relented. As soon as I woke up I could feel it. The day was calm yet there was excitement in the air. When I first peered out of the window I saw a brilliant cerulean sky with undistorted clarity. The day is inviting, beckoning me to come out of my cave and bask in the glory. What I actually do is less important than what I feel. The perfect day is all about enjoying the feeling of being alive, to be grateful to breath good clean air and be humbled by the beauty of the real world. One of my favorite perfect days was many years ago when I was a younger man and not really anchored to life. I was working at a resident camp in Big Bear California as a Ropes Course Instructor. It was an escape from organized living. All I owned was the suitcase of thrift store clothes I brought with me and a mountain bike. The camp I lived and worked was about 5 kilometers from the nearest paved road and ran on a generator. All the food was trucked in weekly and the infrastructure was all tank based; propane tanks, water tanks, and sceptic tanks. My best friends Jon and Megan also worked at the camp as wranglers in charge of the 18 horses the camp rented for recreational horseback riding. In my spare time I would hang out at the stables helping Jon and Megan saddle, feed, and wipe down the horses. After dinner in the early evening we would go on unfettered horseback rides through the alpine forest that surrounded and engulfed the camp. A horse is a magnificent beast of burden. Before that summer at camp I had virtually no experience riding horses. I was hooked from my first ride. I have driven cars, flown a plane, and surfed waves but none of that compares to riding a horse. The power of an organic mass of muscle, blood, and bone underneath a human body sans air bags and seat belts is absolutely exhilarating. We had a fire break out in the woods one night right outside of camp. Thankfully the fire was contained and didn’t damage any camp property but it spooked the horses real good and they took off into the woods. The next day was gorgeous with stunning deep blue skies and air so good you could taste the alpine. I volunteered to help Jon and Megan round up the horses. We were joined by Joka, a feisty exchange student from the Netherlands. We found the horses in a meadow up the hill off road 2N10. We roped the horses up train style and led them down the mountain. It was such a heavenly day we took our sweet time getting back to camp making many stops to give water to the horses and admire the breathtaking views. The visual treats were highlighted by the peaceful sounds of the gentle wind caressing the pine trees. No sounds of man or machine just the planet earth in its raw state. We didn’t talk much. We were all in awe of the splendor. In moments like this I am overwhelmed with gratitude to be alive.

Let us return to 2009 where nobody talks about riding horses or beautiful blue skies on Twitter and Facebook. What am I to do on this Perfect Day? I have no job to go to so I have the entire day at my disposal. The only for sure plan I had for the day was going to a wine tasting in the evening at Corkage and possibly going to see the dynamic duo of Michael Cavaseno on guitar and David Boyce on sax entertaining the diners at Solstice. I didn’t have to think much about what to do. Give me a few hours and a sunny, clear day and I’m going for a bike ride. Before I hop on my Bianchi Veloce 928 I spend a few hours at Coffee Tea and Central my local java hut to have my morning caffeine, work on my tan, and take in the sidewalk parade of neighborhood folks, every other one of them with dog in tow. I like to sit outside in the front so I get to check out all the dogs who are leashed to the public garbage can. The dogs are friendly to human beings but sometimes they have issues with each other and I enjoy watching the sniping. Second to the dogs are the baby strollers. In this sometimes backwards city the dogs have it over the babies and the kids. Personally I like the kids better than the dogs because they have diapers and they don’t dump on my tree or on the sidewalks or pee on anything that isn’t in motion. I’m a taxpayer and I can’t take dumps on the sidewalk but dogs owners think its ok for their dogs to do it. The tree in front of my building gets assaulted daily and every week or so I have to go out and clean up after someone else’s dogs. On Perfect Day dog doo is not on my mind so I can sit back and watch them act like the goofy, happy animals they are.

For my bike ride I decide I am going to do the Paradise Loop which will take me over the Golden Gate Bride and through the quaint Marin county towns of Sausalito, Mill Valley, Corta Madera, Tiburon and Belvedere. All in all it’s just a hair under 40 miles round trip. The beauty of this ride is I don’t have to face any major traffic and I get the best views of the bay and the City. The biggest challenge will be crossing the bridge and dodging all the San Francisco struck tourists. The City That Used to Know How closes the bike path on the west side of the bridge until 3:30pm. This was in response to the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001. Some lunatic Saudis fly jet liners into skyscrapers and the cyclists of San Francisco lose their best and only bridge crossing route. Until 3:30pm we have to ride the east side path with the camera toting, sometimes clueless, pedestrian tourists. During most of the summer no matter how sunny the City is the bridge is always enshrouded in thick fog and high winds with about two feet of visibility and dodging the tourists is like playing some twisted video game. But it’s Perfect Day so even that can not harsh on my realm and it’s not so bad now that summer is officially over for tourists. After crossing the bridge I bomb down the hill into Sausalito, the destination for all those people walking across the bridge. Sausalito has a great view of the City and Alcatraz but not as good as views that await me so I keep my head down and pedal past the tourists until I get to the bike path that takes me to a small climb up Camino Alto Ave. not too far from the Tourist Club known to us locals as the German Beer Garden because literally that’s what it is. Unfortunately today I’m just riding by and not stopping in for a cold one. I come down the other side zipping around the hair pin turns to Tamalpais Dr. and head westbound to Paradise Dr to do the loop around the Tiburon/Belvedere peninsula.

This area represents some prime living and some of the best views in all of California but for all of its luxurious living the first landmark you see across the bay is the fortress known as San Quentin Prison. The homes are not the large gaudy mansions that you would find in Beverly Hills or other hoity toity neighborhoods. What makes Tiburon and Belvedere appealing besides the stellar aquatic views are the small Eichler homes, the quaint, woodsy neighborhood ambiance, and the feeling of being away from it all without being away from it all. On Paradise Dr. you will see more bikes on the road than cars and even though we are in the midst of an economic meltdown you would never know it cruising the tree lined curvaceous road. Coming around the horn and heading south the next landmark that comes into view is the San Rafael Bridge that connects the two worlds of Marin and Contra Costa counties. The bridge starts in San Rafael, the home of Lucas Ranch and ILM and empties out across the bay in Richmond not to far from the Iron Triangle. When I first moved to San Francisco in 1991 Richmond led the nation in homicides per capita beating out perennial champions Newark, Baltimore, and Washington DC. In the East Bay Oakland has the rep but Richmond is the real deal. Looking at Richmond from across the water from Paradise Rd. it doesn’t look so bad.

The last section of the loop brings me to the southern end of Belvedere which brings Angel Island into view. Angel Island seems close enough to hit with a thrown rock. I don’t know how Angel Island got its name but the island has quite a history. Its first inhabitants were the Miwok Indians but the island is mostly known for being an internment camp for the Chinese who emigrated to California during the early part of the 20th century to work on the railroads. Unlike Ellis Island that welcomed European immigrants with open arms Angel Island existed to deter the deluge of Chinese men coming to the States to find work. It was a straight up prison. The Chinese were held there for immigration questioning. What remains of the barracks is a museum now which can be visited by taking the ferry from Tiburon or Sausalito. At the very end of the loop where Paradise Rd becomes Tiburon Blvd the City comes into view and on this clear day all the City landmarks are visible; the pyramid Transamerica building, Coit Tower, Sutro Tower, the duomo at the Palace of Fine Arts, and the two bridges, the utilitarian Bay Bridge and the majestic Golden Gate Bridge. In my opinion this is the finest view of the City. If it was emerald colored it would be called Oz. Following Tiburon Blvd takes me back to the bike path in Sausalito where I cross the bridge again and ride through the Presidio back to my apartment off the Panhandle.

Perfect Day to be continued in the next blog entry…