Shades of Roma

February 1, 2006

I have to admit, the weather in Northern California in winter just isn’t very good.  It is not like the interminable cold rain of Rome or Seattle, but it has been raining almost every other day. This is time of the year we get all of our rain and it started with a huge storm before we even got home.  Today, Kimberly wanted me to go with her to a lecture at the University of San Francisco, part of a class she’s taking on hot topics in science.  It is only about a mile from our house, but somehow we got a bit late and were forced to haul the local motorino out of the garage.  This Piaggio is not nearly as the Honda 125 that we drove in Rome.  Rome’s clear choice is not Italian but Japanese.  Riding in the rain is dangerous to your health.  We made it in time for an interesting but rather long lecture by an anthropologist from Berkeley.  She was lecturing on cave art and the significance of early primitive art on our civilization.  Kimberly has joined the seniors at the Fromm Institute, a school program for people over 55.  Not only is Kimberly young for this group but judging by the look of it, I am too.  Still I didn’t hear any snoring.  The afternoon program, which I did not attend, was something about ancient Rome.  I think Kim could have taught that class. 

On our way home after the lecture, it was pouring and we were nearly wiped out by a pick-up truck at a stop sign intersection.  I think maybe it was my fault because I had my turn signal on, but I never saw the guy and he apologized.  Shades of Roma.   He missed us and we didn’t go down and no, I am not going to stop riding the scooter in San Francisco, but no more rain riding, please. 

On Sunday, with no football to watch, it was clear enough to hit golf balls.  I trouped over to the macho Sonoma Golf Club and hit zillions of balls.  While in Rome, there was no opportunity for golf and I didn’t miss it.  Here I am wanting to play now.  It is too wet and soggy so the range will have to do.  I meditated on my swing while we were gone and this is going to be my year.  I have only said that now for the past 8 years or since I took up the game in a more serious way when I was 60.  This time I have it and am looking forward to many fine rounds of stellar golf. 

While we were abroad, one of the things that we did not talk about or hear discussed was the real estate market in Northern California.  This is a hot topic of almost every Bay Area owner of real property.  The values around here are super inflated.  As one of those who has invested in too much property here, I can only hope for a soft landing.  Sonoma is so over or fully priced that it requires its own young people to leave town so that they can afford a house.  Isn’t that crazy?  This is not antidotal; all the papers around here write about it constantly.  After hitting balls, I dropped over to see a redo of an old ranch house on the East side of Sonoma.  The Eastside is the pricey side of town.  A friend in the construction business bought this fixer upper for about a million bucks.  I would guess that it is about 2400 square feet and was built in the early 70’s.  I bet it was first sold for about 100K.  He did a nice job cleaning it up and putting in some nice landscaping.  All the cabinets are lovely maple and the floors redone. The bathrooms are nice too.  It can all be yours for the market rate price of 1.6 Million.  Something could be wrong with this picture, but the market for these houses is super hot while softer demand exists both high and low.  I predict it will end soon. 

It is early evening in San Francisco; I am sitting in our office on the third floor looking out over this dripping wet but oh-so charming city.  The dogs are with us and these are things I missed.  Still the chaos of Rome burns inside my head.  I can’t say I miss it, but the memories run deep and it is something I am glad we did.  A real peak experience that short of dementia I will never lose. Speaking of dogs, they dislike the rain and become very hard to walk when it is pouring.  Still, on the good nights, Peanut likes to prance around the square in Sonoma and Cashew will follow.  Another thing I missed.