Monday October 22, 2007

It’s the beginning of another week and I’m back at the keyboard makin’ it do what it do. It is an uncharacteristically warm, Bay Area evening in late October. This is what folks around here might call “earthquake weather”, as if there were such a thing. However, folks around here are always acutely aware, this time of year, of 2 major events that have occurred in the last 20 years. The first was the Loma Prieta Earthquake back on October 17, 1989. About a half mile from my house there is a monument built in remembrance of the lives lost when the double-decker section of the highway known as the Cypress Structure collapsed. The other event that happened on October 20, 1991 was the Oakland Hills Fire that destroyed more than 3,000 homes. The Bay Area routinely gets what is called Indian Summer, causing our fall weather to sometimes be warmer than our summer weather. It was no doubt the dry weather and warm winds that fueled this blaze back then.

The way the weather was last week, I was worried that I might be sitting in the rain watching the Raiders play yesterday. Now, it may seem like a badge of honor for folks in places like Green Bay or Buffalo to brave the elements and cheer their team on, but here in the Bay, where we can scarcely drive through a little drizzle, this is definitely not the case. Making matters worse, I’m not a Raider fan. I go to one game a year and tailgate with a big group of friends with whom I went to college. Several of them are die-hard Raider fans and they really get into it. I just enjoy the barbeque, the dominoes, and hanging out with the homies. I even half-heartedly cheer for the Silver and Black while I’m there. You almost can’t help but cheer. You WILL cheer when you’re sitting in a sea of Silver and Black. Those people are crazy. There was a guy that clearly was out of his mind when he put on his Kansas City Chiefs jersey to the game, and sat down in our section. After having drinks and obscenities hurled his way, he was finally escorted away by security and police, much to the delight of the Raider Nation. (For the record, I count myself a member Niner Nation, aka Napa Nation or The Wine and Cheese Club.) I doubt that the police charged him with anything. It was probably more like putting him in protective custody. They might’ve torn him apart if he had made it out of the first quarter.

Staying true to form, the Raiders lost in a painful way, but unlike my friends, my mood would be unaffected. I was just happy to have seen everybody and for having had the chance to hang out. For my efforts, I came out looking like a raccoon. Apparently, the polarized Maui Jim sunglasses that I wore to the game worked a little too well, leaving two light circles around my eyes, as the rest of my face browned. So many people commented today at the gym, that I had to take a look at myself in the mirror to see what all the fuss was about. If I had been wearing stripes, I would’ve looked like the Hamburglar.

On Saturday, I got to catch up with my cousin Audrey. We chatted for hours. It was kind of funny as I found myself reminiscing about when the two of us went to school at UCLA. We would talk and talk and talk while she battled with the procrastination that seemed to dog her every time we got together to study. I would get most of my work done, usually calculus problems or something, while she complained about not being able to get a term paper started. Fifteen years later, here we were again, talking the night away while she contemplated folding the piles of laundry that covered the couch and shuddering at the mountain of dishes in the sink. (I helped with the dishes, but I think she stayed up until 3am folding.)

Well, I’m yawning more and more with each keystroke, so I think I’ll have to call it a day.