A Nice Day

On Thursday, I decided to treat myself to two of my favorite activities (among those I can do alone, at least.)

I got up early and drove to San Francisco, where I spent a good hour browsing the DVD section of Amoeba Music, actually finding some good deals on hard-to-find titles, which I purchased for almost nothing after trading in some dogs I no longer wanted. Although the San Francisco Amoeba pales in comparison to the Hollywood store, it is still a blissful place to while away an hour or more. The fact that it's perched on the edge of Golden Gate Park makes it even nicer. Plus of course the drive through the redwood forest and Coast Ranges is beautiful as well.

Then I headed up to Harbin Hot Springs, which has been mentioned before in this blog, and which I find myself visiting about every two or three weeks, despite it being just under four hours from home. If heaven turns out to be just like Harbin, I will not be disappointed. I spent the rest of the day lounging and unwinding in the hot (115º) and cold (60º) pools, in the sauna and on the sundeck, au naturel, and then retired to my tent by the creek to enjoy the starry night--and one of the movies I bought at Amoeba. It was as close to a perfect day as I am able to get on my solo voyage.

And it was not until the evening that it occurred to me that, in an alternate universe, it was the 25th anniversary of my FedEx hire date, an irony that Keith and Clare (at least) might appreciate. (If the rest of you are wondering how I could recall such a thing, it is because your hire date is relentlessly hammered into your consciousness, along with your employee number--mine was 39620.) I don't know what my day might have been like had I been in Memphis (shudder), but I can say absolutely, positively that it would not have been as idyllic.