This weekend I am moving to a new home in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. I have never lived in this area before, so this evening I was doing some basic Internet research to learn about the history of the neighborhood.

I discovered that in 1849, my neighborhood did not even exist. It was part of Yerba Buena Cove in San Francisco Bay! In between then and the 1906 earthquake, the cove was filled in and developed. The South of Market area was mostly industrial then. The destruction of the 1906 earthquake was only exceeded by the fires that followed. My neighborhood took a direct hit from the tremors and fires; whatever did not fall in the quake burned in the fire.

In 1989, the Loma Prieta quake struck the Bay Area. It was—and still remains—the largest earthquake since 1906. Again, my neighborhood was severely impacted as the nearby Embarcadero Freeway, a double-decker built during the auto expansion of the 1950s, was damaged so badly it had to be destroyed. This resulted in a renaissance for the neighborhood, as the City’s waterfront was again opened up for all to enjoy. After that, a development boom resulted in new residential and commercial development for the neighborhood. We are moving into one of these new residential units in a brand new building that I hope is earthquake-safe, fire-proof and flood-resistant.

Growing up in the Midwest, lightning and thunder were frequent occurrences. The sound of  a storm approaching came up as a low rumble over the horizon, growing louder as it approached. I’ve had many nights’ sleep interrupted by it, to the point it became a soothing, comforting experience. When I moved to California as a teenager, I left that pleasant experience behind along with colorful autumn leaf displays, cold snowy winters, and stormy spring tornado seasons. I’ve always missed the thunderstorms, though.

Last night, we had a nice one pass through the Bay Area. After going to bed around 1 a.m., I was first awakened by the approaching storm around 3:30. By 5:00, I just got up for a while to watch and listen. Around 6:00, I went back to sleep satisfied with the experience. Suddenly, about 8:30, a bright flash and immediate loud explosion rocked my neighborhood, waking me up and sending the cats scurrying beneath the bed. It reminded me of the crescendo of light and sound that happens at the peak of Midwestern storms. It turns it was an exploding transformer, that left part of the city in the dark.

I don’t know why I find the weather so fascinating, but I do. I guess I love the intensity of nature, especially when nobody is being hurt. This afternoon, I found this photo on the San Francisco Chronicle’s website. I’ve never seen a photo like this, of lightning striking into the fog. I guess it’s another only-in-San Francisco thing.

If you want to, you can read the whole story there: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/12/BA0319MAI7.DTL.

For the past 3 days, San Francisco has been baked by a record heat wave. What that means in real numbers around here is highs of 86° to 93°. As somebody who grew up in the Midwest, this isn’t too impressive. After all, there I endured months of temperatures at least that high, along with unbearable humidity—not to mention the winters. However, San Francisco is a different kind of place.

The real secret to weather in San Francisco is not the temperature, but the wind. Tucked just inside the Golden Gate along California’s Central Coast, San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by water that rarely exceeds 60 degrees. This gives us mild temperatures year round. In the summer, though, the heat inland near Sacramento draws in the cool air from the ocean. All this cool air passes the coast through the Golden Gate resulting in very cold summer sea breezes that keep the City very cool, often just plain cold. We can always tell the tourists in San Francisco during the summer time as they huddle, freezing to death, at the cable car stops in shorts and flip-flops.

What we get in exchange for this cruel meteorological injustice are amazing springs and falls. Even in winter the weather here is often nicer than during the summer, unless it’s raining. (When it rains here, it often REALLY rains.) This week we got our hottest heat wave so far this year. Since our weather here is so mild there are not many air conditioners in San Francisco, so when it gets hot here, it FEELS really hot because there is virtually no where to escape the heat.

Yesterday, my partner and I went on a long walk to enjoy the heat. It turned out to be a bit much for me. I wore SPF48 sunblock, but still got sunburned. About 2/3 of the way through our trip, I had to give up and take the bus home. The sun had been too much for too long. My head was pounding, and I started feeling nauseous. I felt a little embarrassed, but then I realized that spending 6 hours out in 96° heat was likely to make most people suffer. We returned home to a baking hot apartment that offered no respite. The wind we curse most days of the year had let us down.

For what it’s worth, the record heat and lack of our usual sea breeze offered a rare opportunity to comfortably walk across the Golden Gate Bridge wearing shorts and t-shirt. Usually, this would be a miserably cold experience. The last time I went across the bridge on foot was August 3, 2008, running the San Francisco Marathon. It was 58°, foggy, windy and very cold. This time, it was so hot we had to stop to take shelter in the shade of the bridge tower. I suppose it will be a long time before that happens again, so it seemed worth documenting with a photo.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me well that I absolutely love San Francisco. There are so many amazing things to see and do here. For the most part, visitors tend to stay close to tourist attractions on the east side of town. I prefer the west side of town, especially Golden Gate Park with its museums, lakes, running paths and buffalo. Yes, I really did just say there are buffalo in San Francisco!

In 1989, the largest earthquake since the 1906 quake struck during rush hour. Fortunately, due to the World Series game taking place between the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park, traffic was lighter than expected resulting in far fewer deaths than would have occurred otherwise as freeways and bridges around the Bay Area crumbled.

Less famously, some of San Francisco’s world-class cultural institutions also suffered severe damage that ultimately required them to be replaced. In Golden Gate Park, the California Academy of Sciences and the DeYoung Museum were both severely damaged. In recent years, each has rebuilt and opened beautiful new facilities. I took this picture from the tower of the DeYoung, facing south toward the Academy. The campus of University of California at San Francisco is on the hill behind the Academy on the edge of Mount Davidson, the highest of San Francisco’s famous hills. On a lower hill behind Mount Davidson rises Sutro Tower. Originally built to support the war effort in the Pacific during World War II, Sutro Tower now beams radio, television and cell phone signals to the Bay Area, and satellite signals to the world beyond.

This picture was taken on August 2, 2008. San Francisco is famous for its cold, foggy summers. This August day was a beautiful exception to that rule; an example of why I love living here year round.

I started running a few years ago, mainly because I wanted to avoid the expanding waist line that was creeping up on me. After a year or so of running on the treadmill, I decided to run along San Francisco’s famous scenic waterfront. 
I discovered that in the fresh air, I could run faster and further. I also discovered that by running, I could bring my mind and body into sync.

A few months later, I saw the flier for the National AIDS Marathon Training Program. They trained me to run the S.F. Marathon in exchange for me doing a bit of fundraising for the AIDS Foundation. It was the obvious next step.

Deciding, at age 40, to train for and run your first marathon is no small thing. What I didn’t expect was that I’d also find myself along the way.

I’m excited to announce that I have started training through the National AIDS Marathon Training Program to run in the San Francisco Marathon on August 3, 2008.

It’s an issue close to my heart. I have lost many friends to the disease over the course of the pandemic. I am running in their memory and to make a contribution to my community, which has suffered tremendous losses.

Please join me with your support for this worthy cause by clicking the yellow button below to go to my fundraising page. Donations will benefit the San Francisco AIDS Foundation which serves people living with HIV and AIDS in San Francisco, and it’s global affiliate, Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, which serves people around the world.

I’ve discovered that when I run, my mind and body tune into each other and everything in my life becomes clear. Recently, I’ve been doing long runs a few weekends each month. I run a little over 13 miles, from the Ferry Building in San Francisco to the Golden Gate Bridge and back. It is certainly one of the most beautiful runs in the world.

The proximity of natural and man-made wonders, the contrasts between the City and Presidio National Park, all the wonderful scents of seafood and sourdough going through Fisherman’s Wharf and the salty taste of sweat and sea air beading up on my face as I run all combine with an intense feeling of connection with everything around me leading to an overwhelming sense of serenity.

My life is truly blessed.

Just a quick note to say that there was a significant earthquake here about 20 minutes ago. I was lying in bed watching Discovery Channel, thinking about last weeks’ fires and that sometimes we get earthquakes when we have hot weather out here in California—we call it shake-n-bake—when suddenly everything started shaking.

At 5.6 on the Richter scale, it counts as a big earthquake, but since the Bay Area has been pretty widely strengthened since the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, I doubt there will be any serious damage reported.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, I’m fine. I will now return to my Discovery Channel program, already in progress.

Fall is in the air, and it’s rained extensively here over the past few weeks. San Francisco is one of those places where it is cold when everywhere else is hot, warm when everywhere is cold, and windy, always windy! Basically, there are only two seasons here: mild and wet, then cool and dry. When it rains, it really pours. When it is dry, it is dry for months at a time. But I love it all the time!

When I first moved here from San Diego on January 21, 1993—the day after President Bill Clinton was inaugurated—I had no idea how in love I would fall with this place.  It really is a magical oasis, the kind that dreams are made of, but I just call it home.

It’s been wild ride, to say the least. I even left town for a few years to go back to school at SDSU. After graduation, I took a job in Las Vegas, but San Francisco was always the place where I would return.