albadger | Badger on Diablo then and now. (Reply)

Been having an awful lot of adventures with scottasf lately, which makes sense since we live about 1 mile apart, and we're both free during the days lately. Last Saturday, for example, Scott was set to usher for the Kinsey Sicks at the Castro Theater, and asked me come along ("they said they comp me plus one," he said). Well, okay, but when we got there I nearly freaked out, as I usually do when I'm surrounded by busy people but have no idea what I'm doing there. End of problem when 2 of the Sicks grabbed us both and put us in the volunteer pool -- so I ended up ushering too, which I love and much prefer to getting a seat for nothing. Got to say hi to urso, fuzzygruf and double_ohsteven.

And standing, since the place was packed and the promised seats for ushers got sat in by paying customers. So that's good, right?

I'd only seen the Sicks once before, and was kind of luke-warm at that time, but either they've gotten better, or I've gotten mellower (odds on that?), because Saturday's show was great -- not just the parody songs I remembered from before (which are okay I guess) but original material, wonderfully arranged and performed, and a through-line that gave all four performers a chance to shine in the comedy department too. And the audience would rather have sex with Madonna than with Miley Cyrus, which added to the evening's sophisticated charm. Oh my ears and whiskers.

Today, New Years, and I like to start the year off with a little adventure, and my Soul (whose formal full name is Vancouver Film School, and after 2 years I still don't have a nickname) has never been to the top of Mount Diablo - nor has Scott. Off we go!

I am by the way terrible with mountain roads, and white-knuckled the entire drive. I also now hate every bicyclist in the universe, even the three who weren't on the Mount Diablo summit run today.

But we made it, and alive. The observation deck has been rebuilt and is quite nice, wrapping around the original tower & giving a great view from the Farralon Islands (invisible due to fog) to the Sierras (invisible due to fog). The vast wind farms of the Delta were lovely, we waved at our friend Brian in Vallejo, and we had lunch at the Black Bear Diner. Not quite driving over all 8 Bay Area toll bridges in one day, but that's been done.

A note on the photo-icon attached to this post -- this picture was taken on the Mount Diablo Summit, but I forget what year, maybe 1998. 44 seems so young now.

Tomorrow, my thoughts on Kwanzaa and the beginning of 2013 in review. Enjoy your down time until that excitement.