Back on the trail

Posted on November 27, 2006
Filed Under All, My Brain |

I rose at 6:00 AM this morning for the first time since surgery, with Linda who has maintained the dawn patrol that has been a cornerstone of our 25 years together. We walk together the quarter mile or so to Sand Hill Road, then, at the bridge over San Francisquito Creek, we part ways, Linda heading off on a 4.3-mile circuit around Stanford, while Cassie and I walk the 2-mile loop around the Stanford corral. (Since the Pentax died, Linda carries our only small camera: she photographed a beautiful sky ove Roble field on her trek).

This morning I was greeted with one of those experiences that takes you back to boyhood: on the construction site of the new practice golf course, a small team of men were pulling down the old corral fence (one that I’ve come to know these past 17 years). A group of 4 men with hammers had removed most of the long, horizontal 1×8 boards, leaving a long row of 4×4 posts in the ground, some straight, but many canted at the wacky angles decreed by time and circumstance.

A Bobcat appeared, gunned its motor, and charged directly down the row of posts, its bucket held a few feet above the ground. The posts snapped like match sticks: the Bobcat stopping only when it reached a gate that had beefy concrete posts. Watching the Bobcat knock down the posts was just plain fun. Heh, guys really do like stuff like this… this guy does, anyway…