Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Blowing Hot And Cold

I know if I make a statement about the weather here in San Francisco, there will be someone who will exclaim "You call that hot/cold? Here it is (insert extreme temperature here)", as happened a while ago. Californians I think have a reputation among other Americans for being pretty soft as far as the weather goes - a point I was reminded of when I got to the Bovine Bakery on Sunday, and the only other cyclist there noted to me that the previous week, when the weather had been warmer and with no threat of rain, there had been no place to park his bike, it had been so crowded. Also, for anyone who has been through the winter at Tassajara, and endured temperatures below freezing inside their cabins, there is really nothing to complain about here - I don't have functioning heating in my room here in the city, but this is a solid building, and I still have plenty of warm clothes from my Tassajara days. In my first winter there, the heating wasn't working in the zendo when the first cold snap happened, and I think I wore eight layers of clothing to do zazen on a few occasions; here, there was a chilly northerly wind blowing yesterday, so unusually I shut all the windows in the zendo.
With the wind, beautiful sunsets. These are from yesterday at around five:


3 comments:

Tony Head said...

Thank you for the beautiful pictures. My wife and I lived in the City for 30 years (now in Caribbean Mexico)and we not only miss the spectacular sunsets and the fog, but really miss the cool/cold temperatures, especially when the temps get close to a hundred here. So, which is the more difficult illusion to bear while sitting...shivering cold or pouring sweat heat? :)

Shundo said...

Hi Tony,

Ordinarily, I would rather be hot than cold, which is in itself one of the reasons I left England ten years ago. When I am sitting though, I seem to find it easier to warm myself up than cool myself down, especially with the four layers of robes on...

caren said...

Gorgeous pics, Shundo. Thanks for reminding me that we live in a beautiful city. And that there are SOME benefits to the wind! (: