AUTUMN SHIVERS

 It's August and the famous San Francisco fog has returned, and kids are already back in school. We sat in the Spark Lab Food Truck Park and watched a large group of students bustle into the open space.  Some of them were in scrubs. All of them had badges identifying them as medical students. They looked fresh and new and eager.

It's August and the Olympic Games are finished and what an uplift they have been. Baseball season is winding down and we only have a few more games to watch before the long postseason begins.

Living in San Francisco, we don't have much other evidence of changes in season. Mostly, we notice the position of the sun. As summer advanced, the sun slowly rose in the morning moving from the south side of our apartment complex towards the north side. The morning August fog has covered the sun's progress and it is hard to tell if the sun's position has started to slip back to the south.

It's August and the Perseid meteor showers pass over us in the night. We can't see them either because the city lights are too bright. Bill thinks of places he could go to photograph their streaks across the sky.

Temperatures in our area are hard for us to predict at any time of day. We look out the window, see fog in the morning, and assume it will be chilly. We layer, but once we are downstairs and open the lobby door, we find ourselves dressed in the wrong clothes -- either too much or too little. Going outside with the wrong clothing reminds me of Tokyo in June during their rainy season. I would layer up to keep warm expecting the rain to bring a chill in the air as it does in California's rainy months. I ventured from Hiroo Towers and walked into a blanket of humidity instead.

It's August and now we have noticed the clutter of leaves blown from the street trees onto the pavement, huddling next to cars' tires. We are puzzled. Is it the fierce winds we frequently have in late afternoon or an indication of autumn around the corner? We went to Cavallo Point last Sunday and noticed that the eucalyptus leaves covered the ground underneath the trees. I gathered a pile of leaves. Though eucalyptus is an invasive species and a big contributor during fires in California, the leaves are beautiful with many color variations. I painted a set against a white background and another with them piled together. 

It's August and we see traces of autumn's approach.