A Matter of Perspective

I have spent the last week sighing, whimpering and whining about the heat.  I am going to try and hush, because in truth....okay those who know me know what is coming...
it is what it is.

While I am sure I will continue to moan and groan, however,  I am going to try, as a friend puts it, "build that bridge and get over it". 

I had thought we would spend a quiet fourth of July evening at home.  Maybe we would go out for a bit of barbecue, but plans change.  Our good friends called and wanted to go listen to the "Pops on the River" and watch the fireworks.  When I called Roger to see what he thought,  he was in the process of checking into getting tickets to the baseball game.  We would watch a little baseball (how American can you get?) and have perfect seats for the fireworks.  With a few more phone calls our evening was planned.



Our friends came over for cocktails, hor'dourves and pre-baseball conversation.  We left late for the game (it was a bit too hot at 5:30), and ended up not getting to our seats until close to the 7th ending stretch.   We still had time to spend with

our "boys of summer".

When the last ball was thrown and teams exited the field it was time for

for the children to run the bases.  They ran and they ran....all ages and all sizes...until the very last child touched home plate...we thought.

And yet there was one child left...the stadium became silent as a young mother pushed her daughter's wheelchair out onto the field stopping at first base.  She let go and the child began her run.   The crowd exploded.  Everyone stood and began cheering louder than I have ever heard at a sporting event as she pushed off on her own.  She was met at each base with a high five, and as she left third they began sweeping home plate for her arrival. Her mother stood waiting, camera ready.  I thought of snapping a picture, but I was too busy applauding; to be honest, my eyes were a bit misty.

After watching this mother's courage to let go, and the child's determination to make it around the bases, the heat didn't seem quite a big deal.

The stadium lights went out and the field was darkened.

The "1812 Overture" could be heard over the speakers...
the fireworks over the river began.

We had perfect seats!

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July

all photos  are property of Living Life

By Foot or On Wheels

The goal of my second day in San Francisco was to visit Grace Cathedral 

and The Haas-Lilienthal House.  If you haven't already guessed I took every hill and step on foot.   I suspect there was a faster and easier path to walk, but not really knowing my way around and having only the map the concierge handed me,  I just zigged and zagged and climbed around until I happened upon The Cathedral.

 Grace Church, ancestor of The Cathedral, built in 1849 during the Gold Rush on the corner of California and Stockton (just at the edge of Chinatown) was destroyed by the earthquake and fire of 1906.



The Nob Hill property, also destroyed by the fire, on the corner of California and Taylor was donated by the prominent Crocker family for a new cathedral.

 "Designed in the French Gothic style by Lewis Hobart," construction began in 1928 and was completed in 1964.   Upon completion it was to be the nation's third largest Episcopal Cathedral.  

Walking up the front steps the first thing you see is Ghiberti's Doors of Paradise.

The original doors,  designed by the Florence sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), were made for the Baptistery of Florence Cathedral.  Each panel is a story taken from the Old and New Testaments.

These panels  were made using the same molds as for the originals.  The molds were later destroyed.   "The Doors of Paradise are considered by many to be the first and greatest masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance."  

The original doors were ordered removed from the church in Florence by the World War II Nazi government.  It is not known if it was so ordered to protect them from bombing or to give to Hermann Goring for his collection.  They were hidden in an abandoned railway tunnel.   The originals no longer hang, but are now kept in a dry and temperature controlled space.  The doors hanging at the Baptistery are also duplicates from the original molds.

The Chapel of Grace, the oldest part or the cathedral, features a 14th century Flemish altarpiece.  The actual chapel is closed by an iron gate.

Murals depicting various images through the history of the church and the nation line the aisles on either side of the nave.  These were painted between 1949 and 1950.  Among the artist known to have painted the murals are John De Rosen and Antonio Sotomayor.

Within the walls of the cathedral are 7,290 square feet of stained glass windows.  In the designs are over 1100 figures, including Adam and Eve, Einstein, Thurgood Marshall, Jane Addams, Robert Frost and John Glenn.

Mary Magdalene Icon 

I have only touched on the contents, the beauty and the history of this magnificent place.  There is so much more.  In respect of the worshipers and mindful of the consecrated ground I was selective in the path I walked; there were things I chose not to photograph because of where they were located.

The mission of the Church reads:

"A place of Religious Immunity
A Place of Anonymity
A Place of Unity"

When I walked through the doors I was met with a sense of quiet refreshment.  My legs no longer tired and heavy, I was where I was meant to be on that morning.



I hope you enjoyed my walk through Grace Cathedral.

Information gathered from 

Visitor's Guide and various other sources.

Pictures are mine.

Too Hot to Worry

All creatures great and small are just trying to survive as best they can.

This baby can't hurt the hosta anymore than the heat, so I am not going to bother him; he doesn't seem to concerned with my presence.  

Pink walks around looking for the sprinkler.  She no longer hides in her shell when I approach her with the hose, but lifts her little head to catch a few water drops.

Yesterday I was giving the turtle a shower and the blue tailed skink ran out to get a little refreshment.  Everything is stressed and feeling fearless.

May you find a bit of relief from the heat this week.