I'm Going to S.F.

I am going to San Francisco for three days.

There will be a Feral Cat Summit the 9th in SF. My Boston friend paid for a motel room with two beds and I will be sleeping in one of them. Thank you Laura!

It's a long drive and a lot of gas money, even with such an economical car as mine is.

I have not been to SF since I went to college in the Napa Valley. I'd go into SF occasionally, just to get away from college. At that time, Oakland was one rough town, but I did hang out in Oakland, at a dive shop owned by an equally tough middle aged woman. I was a diver back then, an avid diver.

I taught myself how to scuba dive, as a child, by watching Sea Hunt and Jacques Cousteau specials. I wanted to be a marine biologist and follow in Cousteau's footsteps.

At that time, one did not have to be certified to get one's tank filled. I bought a tank off a young friend whose father had given up diving due to a near fatal diving accident. It was a U.S. Divers tank, Cousteau's company. I revered it.

It had no reserve. Then, if you ran out of air, you could pull a lever running down the side of the tank, if you had that type of valve, and that would give you five more minutes of air. I couldn't afford that type of tank, not even used.

I was 13 years old when I began diving, alone, in lakes while my parents and brothers water skiied above me. I didn't like water skiing because my father made fun of me if I wore a swim suit in public. I found escape from my fathers mean comments underwater.

I met Jacques Cousteau twice, before he died and I met Phillipe Cousteau, one of his sons. I also met Jean Michelle Cousteau when I was a student at OSU and involved with the environmental center. The center brought Jean Michelle, then estranged from his father and brother, to OSU to speak.

I got Jacques and Phillipe's autographs also, on the cover of an involvement day folder. A couple of years ago, I gave that autographed folder, in perfect condition, to my friend Keni, POPPA's director. She also is an avid diver and still goes on trips with her family and mother, to exotic locales for dives. My diving now is limited to free diving with a mask I bought at Goodwill.

I met that father son pair, both dead now, when I lived in CA. I only lived in California for two years. I went into SF a handful of times during those years.

And yet it is exciting to think of going back. I've not been to CA since the 70's. I've not been anywhere really. I don't remember SF well, except for the very steep streets and bustle of China Town. I remember I did not enjoy riding BART beneath the bay into town from Oakland or Berkeley. Something about being underwater, trapped and without control in a rapid transit train was not appealing.

I remember the Golden Gate Bridge very well.

It's been 30 years since I saw SF. I'm going back to see it again.

It'll be a quick trip. I'll be driving 8 hours to get there and 8 hours to get back and sharing a hotel room with someone who has helped me out with cat supplies and support when I'm down and out. She lives in Boston and I've never met her. She'll be a vendor at the Summit, pedaling her excellent drop traps.

I can't wait, actually. San Franciso, here I come.