We have an Alaska cruise and tour planned for this summer (moved, of course, from last summer). It felt like the right time to look at air arrangements, so I checked the flights available through the cruise line (Celebrity). Their price was more than $200/person cheaper than buying the same flights directly from the airline, and buying through Celebrity makes the tickets refundable – I’m hoping not to need to exercise that option again this year.

The replacement for my failed WD Time Machine drive arrived today (by UPS, not FedEx); I plugged it in and started the backup process. At the rate it’s going, it should complete the first backup in a week or two. Good thing I’m not in a hurry.

Diane suggested we take advantage of the time we gained from Covid-related cancellations and walk one of the South Bay Striders Year Round Events today. We’d just been to Santa Cruz on Sunday and didn’t want to drive to the Monterey area (much less do the walks around Los Angeles), so our choices were Los Gatos, Campbell, San Jose, or Union City.

We’d never been to Union City, so that was our decision. The event started at the Togo’s in Union Landing Shopping Center; we had lunch there to thank them for hosting the event, registered, and looked at the directions. We had a choice of a 5k or 10k course. It seemed like we should walk the longer course after having driven 30 miles to get there, so off we went.

The route started with a mile or so of back-and-forth along the busy roads near the shopping center to build up distance, but then it took us across Alvarado-Niles Road and into a residential area with a long linear park in its center – we walked the whole length of the park in one direction and came halfway back before the route took us out of the neighborhood.

After more walking, we were finally into the interesting part of the walk – Old Town Union City. We saw the Union City Historical Museum (closed due to Covid) and some interesting old buildings, like the one housing Hippies Brew Coffee, still advertising their soft opening in 2014.

We stopped briefly in the Old Alvarado Park to eat the cookie we’d gotten from Togo’s (tastier than the Mediterranean Salad but less healthy) and look at a bit more of Old Town before being directed to walk a kilometer along Union City Boulevard to the Kaiser campus and eventually to the Union City Trail which parallels Alameda Creek.

There wasn’t much wildlife to be seen along the trail, but the ducks seemed to enjoy being there. I was surprised to see a little art exhibit attached to the fence separating the trail from a business complex – there were no signs explaining its presence, and no one trying to sell the pictures.

We walked the trail until its end at Sugar Mill Landing Park, which also holds Union City’s Flight 93 Memorial. It was a surprisingly quiet place for being so close to busy roads.

And then it was back to the shopping center and the car and home.

This wasn’t the most picturesque volksmarch we’ve done, but it was enjoyable; I think it’d be more colorful in the spring, so we might try it again then (but maybe only the 5k course which omits most of the long stretches of busy road).

We usually visit our chiropractor twice a week – it helps counteract the wear and tear that our trainer inflicts on us. But last night, we got a note saying the office would be closed for at least the first half of this week because he’d been exposed to Covid (his tests have been negative, which is good). We went to the gym this morning and our trainer showed no mercy, so I hope the chiropractor is really back in action on Thursday!

And just now, I got a message from our house cleaner suggesting that she not come tomorrow because her son has Covid – we took the suggestion.

I’m lucky – as far as I know, my most recent infection is virtual. I’ve fallen victim to the Wordle virus, thanks to the New York Times article last week. Fortunately, there’s only one puzzle per day, and it’s easy to finish – so far, I’ve solved each day’s Wordle in three to five tries. It’s a nice way to take a short break.

On a brighter note, the Silicon Valley Storytellers had an enjoyable meeting this evening. One speaker was a visitor from a local club – she gave her Ice Breaker for her second Path and told us about her multiple identities. The other speaker is a tour guide in Japan who’s a club member thanks to Zoom – she told us about interesting things her clients did on trips to Italy. We’re having an Open House on January 24th, and I’ll be one of the speakers – we’re as close as your computer!

FedEx kept us busy this morning – they delivered our replacement Costco order and then called me to tell me they were SURE that the original order was somewhere in San Jose and they’re still trying to find it. We’ll see.

After lunch, we drove down to Santa Cruz to see monarchs and enjoy the weather. We started at the Butterfly Grove at Lighthouse Beach State Park – it took a few minutes before we started seeing butterflies, but there were plenty of them once we found the right place.

We also wanted to see the butterflies at the more famous grove in Natural Bridges State Park, about two miles away. We walked there along West Cliff Drive so we could enjoy the scenery. The first thing we found was a small surfing contest – I think it was for students, but I’m not sure.

The Surfing Museum was nearby; we’d visited it in pre-Covid days and might go back again, but not today.

I like the rock formations along West Cliff Drive.

So do the birds.

And other people.

We had to take at least one selfie, right?

Finally, we reached Natural Bridges State Park and the Monarch Trail. There was a naturalist at the viewing area on the boardwalk; he pointed out some of the bigger groups of monarchs that were still active this late in the day.

Many of the monarchs were settling in for the evening.

We walked back to our car – this time, we only took West Cliff part way, but it was still lovely.

We turned inland about a mile and a quarter from Natural Bridges; even though we were away from the beach, there were still lots of nice flowers to look at in people’s yards.

And then we drove home while it was still light. Not a bad way to spend Sunday!

Torah Study resumed at Shir Hadash today – we will be using A Year with Martin Buber: Wisdom on the Weekly Torah Portion to guide our study for the first half of 2022 (replacing Mussar, which wasn’t terribly popular amongst the group). Today, we were joined by the book’s author, Rabbi Dennis Ross – the discussions were lively, and Rabbi Ross summed things up at the end.

This week’s Torah portion is Bo (Exodus 10:1-13:16), and the book and our discussion focused on one phrase in Exodus 12:38: “And there was also a mixed multitude who went up with them.” Was the “mixed multitude” just a random bunch of people following along, or was it a group of people who wanted freedom badly enough to convert to Judaism? And what is a “mixed multitude” today, and how would we view it through Buber’s “I-Thou” lens?

Yesterday, I’d listened to the first episode of Chutzpod!, a new podcast from Joshua Malina and Rabbi Shira Stuntman; it, too, focused on the “mixed multitude” in Parasha Bo, looking at how we can deal with the various beliefs in today’s society.

And Diane had chosen that section of the portion to chant today, too.

Much to think about, but I have no conclusions to offer.

No new developments on the FedEx shipment front, but Costco has shipped the replacement order – by FedEx. And they claim it’ll be delivered tomorrow. I can hope, right?