Hillside Break

 

I sure like it when the sun’s out and I can walk through the greening hills to the ocean, but I gotta confess that I do love the rain. It was spitting a little this morning when I started my walk up Hillside Avenue, from whence I live. First I climbed 26 steps to the street, and then navigated a perpendicular -- okay, maybe an 89% grade -- up a few hundred yards to where things flattened out, and then I ambled for fifteen minutes, seeking oxygen for my deprived lungs.

Being on a noble bent -- exercise is good, especially if you can’t breathe -- I scoffed, internally, at the few drops that speckled the pavement, and continued my heroic trek, meandering with the road along the side of the hill. Hence the name. But truth be told, there are few roads in Mill Valley that couldn’t be called Hillside, or ridge-runner or ridiculous slope, or who thought they should put a road here. They’re all twisty, turning and narrow, usually little more than a single lane.

There’s very little traffic; mostly contractors and landscaper pick-up trucks. I’d guess that the actual workers meet in some parking lot down below and get a ride up into them thar hills ‘cause there are plenty of workers and no place to park. That explanation rather than because the moneyed folks who are having the work done don’t want to have to see beaters cluttering up their view.

Which is quite spectacular, it should be noted, from many spots in Mill Valley, which used to be where many San Franciscans came to from across The Bay for the summer. The price of homes here is through the roof. There are a lotta people with a lotta money, and if it waren’t no object, you’d certainly consider building your Valhalla here. Not me, however. As I ply the gilt Hillside neighborhood, I see seven-figure tinder-boxes waiting for the wrong match in an ill wind.

But we’re safe for the moment, this being the beginning of the rainy season. Suddenly the anxious skies seething above begin a concentrated sprinkle, one that if reports are correct -- and who knows why we should think they would get this one right? -- will turn into a four-day deluge. They were even talking about thunderstorms. How neat. I bought two candles today; from a guy named Noah...no, not really.

I look forward to breaks in the tempest, so that I can climb Hillside anew, and witness the storm-pruning of the trees long hungry for a seasonal moult. Ain’t Nature a great mother?

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.

 

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