Hot Sauce and Cold Walks – We Escape to San Francisco!

Dr. Andy's wife Kate makes the best photo collages

The comedian Steven Wright once asked, “If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back?” Well, this past Thursday night we saw the heat waving to us, and we decided to wave goodbye, at least for 48 hours.

A week ago Friday, well before the temperatures reached towards 111 °F, we pointed our family van towards San Francisco where later that day we found temperatures a full 50° cooler a mere 70-minute drive from home.

Kate discovered a hotel, the Marriott Marquis on Mission Street, that had two queen-size beds to a room, necessary when you have to accommodate a French Bulldog who prefers to sleep horizontally across one’s feet, and a son, Jukie, who prefers to sleep diagonally while somnolently claiming all his patient brother Truman’s covers and both his pillows.

Even before checking in to the Marriott we drove right to our favorite San Francisco restaurant, The Hard Knox Café on Clement Street, to enjoy some soul food. Still recovering from getting four wisdom teeth extracted, Truman enjoyed the relatively soft choice of French toast with berries, while I dined heartily on a veggie scramble with grits and a corn muffin. Jukie sought to dash El Yucateco hot sauce across his entire meal, especially the red beans and rice.

Fueled up, Kate was eager to try her favorite SF hike, Lands End, for the first time since her April 1^st hip replacement surgery and subsequent foot injury and paralysis. Friends will be happy to know that Kate has long since been liberated from her boot and crutches, and, with the help of physical therapists and assiduous attention to her nightly hip, knee, ankle, foot, and even toe exercises, Kate has returned to her regular walking habit.

She still uses an AFO brace in her larger left sneaker, and she wears a special compression sock when donning her summer-fashion Birkenstocks, but she was determined not to let a little concern like a fully (and now partially) paralyzed foot from keeping her from walking many miles, first in flat Davis, and more recently, up and down the hills along the San Francisco Bay.

Everyone is impressed with her excellent progress, especially the experts who understand how serious such an injury can be. The healing process with nerves takes a long time. But by all accounts, she seems to be ahead of schedule. She still attends neuro PT sessions regularly because she knows that the hard work will pay off, and because she’s determined to regain full use of her foot.

For packing insulated hoodies for our visit to San Francisco, which felt like the refrigerated room at Costco, and for walking all over those City hills like a billy goat (well, a billy goat who would take my arm from time to time), Kate is our hero! Diminutive Margot and I are so pleased to have our walking partner back.

Still locked out of her Facebook account after someone tried to assume her identity, Kate misses seeing updates from her friends, so people have been turning to me to discover “How is Kate doing?” Now you know! I will make sure that she sees whatever messages you have for her here.

Happy July to you. I hope all of you are also enjoying triumphant adventures.

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Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live pub quizzes I host in Davis and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks especially to new subscriber Sophie! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the scintillating Mavens who carefully take note of casual adjectives and precise pronunciations, and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon (where I am also sometimes sharing drafts of poems). I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of supporters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s Pub Quiz:

1.        Unusual Words. Starting with the letter G, what adjective means “lean and haggard, especially because of suffering, hunger, or age?

2.        Island Chains. The Outer Hebrides is an island chain off the west coast of mainland what?

3.        Pop Culture – Television. What was the name of the Starfleet captain of the USS Voyager?