Day: December 10, 2002

I rented a car and drove to Crissy Field and spent a glorious afternoon walking around the Golden Gate Bridge and the beach. The tide was low and the waves were strong so a lot of surf boarders were out. Takes guts to surf around the GG Bridge.

Weather was awesome — brilliant blue skies, cool enough to make walking comfortable, and just enough breeze to blow that wonderful sea spray smell into my face. After all the rain, Crissy was full of all sorts of plant life and the sharp, fresh, green smell from the Field was the perfect accent to a perfect day.

Best of all, absolutely best of all: I can walk reasonably well on water packed sand or dirt (concrete’s disastrous for me); that combined with using a great deal of caution, and I was able to walk the entire beach without having my knee go out AND with relatively little pain. At the end, I jumped up on the sea wall, spread my arms wide, and screamed “I am woman! Hear me roar!” “G-rr-rrr-oarrrr!”

Well, I wanted to and thought about it but there were people around with dogs and I didn’t want to scare the dogs.

Wait, wait! The day’s not over. Tonight I got home and my Mom had sent me a Christmas present — a beautiful Meade ETX-70AT telescope. How did she know that I’ve always wanted a telescope? How did she know which one I wanted? It was about the best Christmas present I’ve ever had. I feel like a kid again!

When you have a day like today, it becomes a found gift — a day that fate gives you, rather than one that just happens.