Yesterday I was driving to the health food store — dark, cold drizzle, damp and raw — and I had a sudden flash of incredibly vivid memory:
…driving from our house on Manila Avenue in Oakland, up Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, shaded by palm trees, past the bright open buildings, early morning sun washing everything with that characteristic pellucid northern California glow…
I shook my head and said to myself: Why did I think of that? I rarely took that route to work; I usually drove up through the Berkeley hills. And why remember a fairly trivial part of my commute at all?
I tried to remember the rest of that drive up Telegraph Avenue, but my thoughts moved on before I could… I guess it was just one tiny fragment of memory dropping into awareness at an odd moment.
because it was 70 and sunny here…though I don’t know what pellucid means, I can say, the streets of the old hood smell like jasmine. I was at a meeting at the Rocky-ridge Methodist Church last night, at that corner on Manila by Hudson Bay – and could hardly stand to walk inside it was sooooo beeeyooooteeeful.
missing you here in northern cali – planning to watch the superbowl at George and Walt’s – even without the Pats….
come visit.
…jasmine…i’ve been drinking jasmine tea for breakfast…maybe that’s what brought this memory to the surface…mmm….