These past two weekends have been busy. I like. Last week, in compensation for staying home during Spring Break, mother and son journeyed forth on Friday into the City to spend a day at the new Academy of Sciences. We were there before but I had forgotten. Only half way through the day did I faintly recall that we were here before but when it was in its original condition. We had struggled on a wet cold day with the BART, muni and or bus and trudged through some wet grounds and ended with the boy insisting on a $3 glow in the dark pterodactyl that we have all but forgotten.
But this was a renewed Academy of Sciences that did not look anything like the old one. And the journey there was not nearly half so difficult. BART and bus 44 brought us right to the door. Easy. And we did not even notice Auntie Nik sitiing right behind us when we riushed in just, happy to have caught the train. While the Academy is beautifully designed, I am not sure if there was anything there that really stood out - it has the usual collection of land and sea life, exhibits about global climate change, extreme mammals (humans among them because we are the only specie that is truly bi-pedal) and plants. I was so exhausted from long hours in the office and insufficient sleep, I dozed intermittently during the show in the planetarium, despite Whoopi Goldberg's beautiful narration and the awesome show of the stars of the universe. That show, perhaps, was the one thing I found unique. That and the living roof which we could only admire behind the rails. The fatigue finally won and I asked the half man if he minded just wandering the aqaurium on his own while I sat down for some badly needed quick naps. I could not have made it through the day otherwise. Those few mins of power naps were life savers.
Pictures - when I get to unload them from the camera.
Closing time, we left through the gift shop and the half man was grumbling about the thermometer I refused to cough $25 for. Sometimes he can be a real nag. But we ended the day very nicely strolling through the Golden Gate Park.
This Saturday found us driving out early to Concord to join in the Earth Day vounteer event at Mount Diablo. Of all the different activities we could have chosen, we opted for the trail. Trekking what must have been two miles up a very steep trail to where the tools called fire axes, which are the same ones used by fire-fighters, were waiting for us was tough enough. Then it was lugging the heavy tool up another 15 mins of a very narrow (like barely a foot wide and invaded by undergrowth) and very steep trail to find our section of the trail really taxed me poor heart. For the next two hours, we cleared the growth to widen the trail to about 4 feet. The weeks of heavy rain had fortunately softened the earth so much, it was not difficult to chop, pull, drag and push them aside or down the mountain side. What was hard was wielding the heavy axe making sure not to swing it into someone nearby, especially my own boy working so hard next to me. The morning started out chilly but soon I was sweating under my two t-shirts and denim jacket which I refused to take off because poison oaks were plentiful. The rangers had warned us about them and the event leaders pointed them out on the trail as we were winding our ways up the trail earlier. There was this lady who has immunity to poison oaks whose job it was to rip them out wherever she found them and threw them down the hillside. She ventured up and down the trail just tearing them out with her gloved hands, and even clambered down the slope next to us to saw off a very large poison oak bush that had somehow grown up very big around a tree. Unbelievable. The stories she told of what poison oaks can do to people very sensitive to them only increased my paranoia about avoiding them at all costs. I cannot afford to be bed ridden for two months! Not with all the work at the office. And the half man cannot miss so much school.
Tiring as the Earth Day event was, we still made our way to Berkeley to join the girl for Cal Day. Cal Day, as crowded as always. But we were veterans now and it did not behoove us to check in at all the stands or attend any talks. The kids had some hot dogs and we spent almost an hour sitting on the grass waiting for a concert before calling it a day, leaving the girl on the grass with her friends.
Home and the first thing we did was toss all the clothes we were wearing into the washer. No trace of poison oak oils would be allowed to make their way to anything in the house.
And today, alone I made another journey to Berkeley to join the girl for a parents' lunch at the sorority house. And the next thing I knew, I was $72 poorer because we just had to go to Safeway to pick up an incredible amount of food and stuff. Hard to believe it is all for only one person, so soon after all the stuff we brought over from Costco.
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