07-01-2016, Friday

On Friday July 1, 2016, my daughter and I went to Half Moon Bay Beach State Park for sightseeing. Because it was a weekday, both the winding mountain road and the parking lots in the park were empty. It was a cloudy day on the Half Moon Bay beach, but there were lots of ocean waves and flocks of seabirds. I felt it was filled with life.

On the soft sandy beach, I took off my shoes and carried them in one hand. I walked barefoot on the soft sandy beach slowly step by step and bowed my head looking at the sand. I listened to the undulating waves that were washing my heart, breathed the salty sea breeze that was clearing my lungs, and collected my favorite beachside objects, like tree branches and roots that had been soaked in seawater for long time, burnt wood coal left by campfire, and beautiful seabird feathers. When I returned to the parking lot with a hand full of stuff, my daughter joked, “Don’t take your treasures home, we already have too many at home.” I said, “Well, let me keep a picture of them.”

Sitting in the open picnic area beside the parking lot of the beach park, I put a pile of lifeless wood blocks full of the vicissitudes of the years on the picnic table that was filled with bird droppings, and put my old leather sandals, which had began to walk with me since 2004, next to them.

Looking at this strange pattern combination, I thought of feet and dreams.
(1)
Foot is a boat
Under storm, unyielding and tough
Reliable, forceful

Dream is the sail
Ride on the wind, very brave
Keeping original intention alive

(2)
Barefoot
Walking along the beach
Collecting lifeless
Tree roots, rotten wood, dead branches and
Feathers that once flew in the sky

Dream
Scanning the long journey of life
Awaking life
Feelings, wishes, thoughts and
The footprints that once touched countless places

Never forget the original intention
Countless places cross over from the beginning and
My dreams
flying freely above the sea into the sky

One afternoon in July 2020 during the empty-nest period, I drove to the Charles River Esplanade in Boston to watch the sunset, as the Internet said it was a good place to watch the sunset in Boston.

Today was Monday, a working day, there were many people in the Esplanade in the city. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most people had stayed at home for the enitire year in 2020, I guessed that most of the people in the park were Bostonians: walking dogs, walking children, doing yoga, cycling, running, skateboarding, walking, and sitting on the ground. Watching the quiet, peaceful and full of life park from a distance, I felt no trace of the COVID-19 blues. By seeing mask-wearing people everywhere however, I thought this was a place full of good citizens who obeyed the COVID-19 guidances of the CDC.

This interesting landscape reminded me of a friend’s recent comment: “The food I stored at the beginning of the ‘stay-at-home order’ in March this year was never used. I guess most of them will be scrapped.” The same was true for the food I hoarded in March 2020 which I basically had not touched yet. The unused food made me feel that the overall situation of the COVID-19 pandemic was much better than we had expected.

While passing Boston to the Charles River Esplanade, I saw that most of the hurrying people on the streets were wearing hospital uniforms of various colors. I sincerely thanked the medical personnel for stabilizing the pandemic situation and enabling ordinary people to enjoy orinary life to some extent.

Today, when I was playing Pokemon GO in the riverside park, I took over a Pokemon gym, called the Esplanade Playspace. After I put my Pikachu in the gym, I took a screenshot as a souvenir and once again enjoyed the new form of “I have been here” in the mobile era.

At dusk, drving on the smooth highway road back home, I felt that the summer night wind on the highway in Boston did not have the same temperature fluctuations as in California because the summer night wind here is softer. Maybe the summer wind on the East Coast is wetter than on the West Coast.

Little Episodes

1. On July 20, 2020, overlooking the Charles River Esplanade:

2. Pokemon Go palyer’s new style of “I have been here”：

I often heard praises about people with high IQ (intelligence quotient) or high EQ (emotional quotient). Recently I heard that people share the same constellation with me have high FQ (food eater quotient).

I used to call myself a food lover, a name I felt too earthy and dry. Now, from a food lover to a person with high FQ, I felt this is a graceful turn, which lets me enjoy the power of knowledge and language in a simple and silly way.

Recently I was planning to meet with one of my friends, a previous co-worker in eBay from 2000 to 2009, for lunch in Palo Alto, the university town in Silicon Valley. She asked me to pick a restaurant, so I did my homework. Carrying the title of a person with high FQ, I wanted to experience the atmosphere of a work day during lunch time in the university town. So I selected a few restaurants located in Palo Alto, and finally picked a Cuban restaurant. Because I never tried Cuban cuisine, the restaurant has outdoor sittings, and it is located in the center of the university town.

On the day we met, I drove on South California Avenue before noon. I immediately felt the difference between Milpitas Square, a place I visited very often during lunch time, and here. Here, small groups of two or three people walking along the street and outdoor seats appeared along the street. It is more open and slow here. The metro parking spaces along the street were already full at 11:50AM. One funny thing was, while I was circling around to find a parking spot, a handsome young man was smiling and waving at me, I guess he thought I was his Uber driver.

When I first bypassed the Cuban restaurant, I saw there were outdoor seats available. After I parked my car after a few circles, the outdoor seats in the Cuban restaurant were all occupied. We had to sit indoors. The Cuban drink and Cuban chicken we ordered all had unique flavors and we liked them all.

While eating, we chatted happily. We detailed the changes of our adolescent sons, shared the working culture differences in our different industries, and felt very good.

Face-to-face with an old friend, I remembered a encounter I had with her in the early growing stages of eBay in 2001, when software developers were always extremely overworked, we worked 7 days a week in office at regular working hours and at home in the evening. One day while chatting with her about how over work made our life as working mothers much tougher and about if we suddenly passed away, She said: “We are replaceable workers to the company, but we are irreplaceable mothers to our kids.” I still remember her insightful comments that helped me to make my mind in terms of keeping a work-life balance in fast-paced working environments …

Old friend reunion, turning back in the past
The same life experience, echoing common thought.

Having Prince Frosty as company makes writing a very sweet activity.

02-03-2021, Wednesday, the beginning of spring in the lunar calendar

Nowadays, we all know that cars are indispensable to modern people.

The first snowstorm in February also made us realize how cars are essential towards ensuring our sound living conditions during snowstorms. This led to a joyful and unique blessing for a car: reciting a poem and pouring a bottle of wine.

On Monday, 02-01-2021, the weather report forecasted that there would be 7 to 15 inches of snow within next two days. The local government reminded citizens to stay home to avoid car accidents on the snowy road which would block traffic; it also reminded citizens to bring water and food with them when they have to go out to prevent starvation in the case where they’re stuck in a snowstorm and can’t get help.

On Tuesday morning, 02-02-2021, after I shaved 5 to 6 inches of snow off of and around my car, I got into my car to start it, then I saw a warning sign: “Auxiliary Battery Malfunction”. This is my first time seeing this warning, so I didn’t know how serious the problem was. I was afraid to drive it out during a snowy day and create more problems. We had to drive another car.

Tuesday, a very snowy day, our other car worked hard for us. In the late afternoon, while taking a short cut and driving over a big pile of snow, we suddenly began to hear a constant loud noise coming from the bottom of the car. After parking, we immediately took a close look and found the plastic undercarriage cover had dropped to the ground and it looked like a big opened mouth. The insides of the mouth were filled with snow already. The open mouth plastic undercarriage cover converted our car into a snow gobbler while driving. The constant noise we heard was the snow gobbler gobbling the snow.

On Tuesday evening, two cars, all we have, had problems. After checked online and found “Because the car will still turn on and some functions will still work. The auxiliary battery does not affect the car’s mechanical functions”, My daughter planned loudly: “Tomorrow the first thing is dropping our snow gobbler to the shop. Then I will drive the car with ‘Auxiliary Battery Malfunction’ warning sign to shopping to test it.”

I replied: “OK.”

On Wednesday morning, in order to be the first customer, my daughter dropped our snow gobbler to the shop before the shop was open.

After driving the car with the warning sign to shopping, my daughter said: “Good news, the warning sign is gone now.”

Our snow gobbler was repaired quickly too.

To make sure the “Auxiliary Battery Malfunction” sign is really gone, we did a test drive to the Walden Pond and visited the snowy pond too. The Walden Pond was completed covered with snow which looked like the clouds from the sky had dropped to the earth, very different from the icy ponds and lakes I often saw around. The scenery of the Walden Pond covered with heavy snow appeared very unique to me.

The test drive to the Walden Pond showed that our car was back to normal. We guessed yesterday’s warning sign was related to the cold weather.

On Wednesday evening, all of our cars were back to normal. My daughter was very happy and decided to celebrate our hard work and try to hold onto our good luck: “Let’s use poems and wine to thank our cars for recovering quickly in such a heavy snowstorm and for bringing comfort back to us, also to appreciate them to stay well and be good to us.”

Maybe because I was bored from staying home, I happily replied: “Sure. How to do it?”

My daughter said: “You go to find one of your favorite poems and a bottle of good wine. First, you recite the poem to your car, then you pour the wine all over your car.”

I carefully found the poem I wrote to myself before I graduated from college in 1985, I also took a wine glass out, prepared to pour a glass of good wine.

My daughter said: “Mommy, don’t be so stingy, please use a bottle of good wine, not just a glass of wine.”

Little Episodes

In June 1985, before my college graduation, I wrote a poem to myself and draw the sailboat. In January 2021, my son sent me rainbow roses as birthday gift.

Building the boat and making the sail for 14 years
In a safe haven
Now let’s set out
Will the boat be stable in the ocean wave?
Will the sail be strong in the storm wind?

Who cares, raise the sails
Gather all the strength, let’s sail to the ocean
The world, the sea
14 year’s preparation, Could
Hold out against the ocean wave?
Survive the wind storm?
…
(14 years staying in school: 10 years public education and 4 years college)

Today is the beginning of spring in the lunar calendar. A unique snowy scenery of the Walden Pond in the afternoon. Blessing for a car with a poem and a bottle of good wine in the cold dark night.