Run DMZ

I miss mornings when the only goal was for him to be on Zoom with a full belly and clean(ish) shirt by first period. I miss the soft openings, the overheard banter between the teachers, aides and students before getting down to business. I didn’t get much of my own work done during online school hours, but I did learn a lot.   We opted to send our child back to school last week, as did about half of San Diego Unified parents and guardians. This meant our middle school could offer on-site classes four mornings a week, versus the planned two. But it also meant half of all students have something still holding them back. Those that are on campus must sit farther apart and follow one-way foot-traffic flows and, of course, wear masks at all time. No water fountains work, but there are bottle-fill and hand sanitizer stations. Every single child is sent home at 12:30 with food for lunch, dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast. The online kids’ families line up in their cars for their food bags. ...

With pandemic restrictions rapidly lifting, and tourists pouring in, I’m sharing some of my favorite weekend walks. Last Saturday, some friends and I took in iconic Sunset Cliffs between Ocean Beach and Point Loma proper. Let’s start here.   A Brief History of The Cliff’s Rise and Decline There are several spots in San Diego that generate the lion’s share of  FOMO-worthy photos on Instagram and other social media. Sunset Cliffs is one of them .    Historical websites often open with how a sporting goods magnate spent a couple million dollars in the 1910s to make the cliffs publicly accessible with Japanese-inspired landscaped walkways and stairways, shelters and benches, caves and even a saltwater swimming pool replenished with each high tide. Albert Goodwill Spaulding bequeathed his 64-acre seaside park to the city of San Diego, which did nothing with it. A decade later, developer John P. Mills assumed ownership and restored some of the park’s features. He too gave...

I don’t have many memories from my days at  Deans Mill School , but a big one began like any other day and ended with blood, sweat and so many tears.    A team converted the auditorium into a makeshift clinic to mass inoculate students from diseases already in decline: polio and smallpox. My mother wasn’t so sure about the polio vaccine, given how badly the Eisenhower Administration botched it more than a decade earlier. Prone to provide as little government oversight as possible, a shipment destined for children’s arms was  sent with the virus, not the vaccine . Some recipients died, and others were damaged for life. By the time I was eligible, the Sabin oral vaccine was preferred over the Salk injectable. Small pox eradication, however, still required a bifurcated needle that left quite a scar.   Classes lined up along the main hallway to wait their turn. As we moved closer to the double doors, schoolmates would come out. Some were wailing; some whimpering; al...

This time a year ago I was in another city and without my phone when the school principal called to let us know the campus lost electric power. I was still out, and therefore unaware of the emergency, when the principal called again to ask parents to come get their children. By the time I arrived at a darkened main office lobby, most students had been united with their parents or guardians. My sixth-grader was both relieved and highly annoyed to see me.   Hours earlier, when the electricity shut down, a student with a history of violence took advantage of the initial chaos to chase our then-11-year-old around campus, intending to harm him. Someone in some official capacity intervened before an actual assault.   That was the last time the school held in-class instruction. It currently appears students will return in some capacity next month. And that makes me sad. Not for them—goodness, our children need each other’s company—but for me. I’m not ready to give up the dawnlight ru...

  One of the most popular hikes in San Diego doesn’t involve climbing mountains or crossing rural roads. It’s a walking tour through some of the city’s nicest, most densely populated neighborhoods with seven bridges as focal points.    I first did this 5-mile loop with friends shortly after it was publicized in the San Diego Reader. We liked it so much we came back to Balboa Park about a year later to do it again, and this time I documented our trip with my GoPro (RIP, dear camera companion). It’s been four years since I made that video, so we were overdue when everyone gathered this morning to start the trek.   I MPORTANT: You can start from anywhere since the course is a loop.   However, you are more likely to find free parking if you start and end in Balboa Park.   1.       Park Blvd Bridge No coincidence the hike starts at the bridge spanning Park Blvd. on the east side of Balboa Park. The bridge links gorgeous gardens to lawns ...

  This week we were supposed to soak up Polynesian culture, take in Pearl Harbor and a pineapple factory, hike Diamond Head, snorkel in Hunaume Bay and just pretend all of the problems plaguing us in the Lower 48 did not exist.   I also was to run 8.15 miles through the streets of Honolulu with 25,000 others. I figured I could do the early morning race and make it back before our party of eight had finished breakfast. The entire trip and my purported athleticism represented magical thinking on my part, given the streets remain relatively barren and I can barely walk 4 miles at a time, let alone run fast for twice as far.   Well before I called to cancel our resort reservations and those incredibly cheap Southwest flights, the Great Aloha Run had added a virtual option. (See? What did I tell you .) So, in January, coming off a serious illness, I began to plan a seaside route and download a Hawaiian music playlist for this weekend. Then I realized I would be walking for at...

  Both of my daughters moved this month. One to a townhome one town over and the other a mile from her current home. Most people approach moving with dread. There’s the purging and the packing and the physical shuttling of a homes’ worth of contents from one place to another. Nothing ever fits in the new place like it did in the old, and there are always surprises that can make or break the day. The state of disorganization can quickly grate on nerves as you search for places to put everything. And then there are the endless trips to big box stores to replace what broke, went missing or is now needed.   Oh, how I miss such a mess. Since starting this blog, I’ve moved residences only three times (and packed up one place once it was mine). I say only because before then, I’d never lived in the same house more than 5 years—EVER. My dad’s job required frequent moves, as did my husband’s until he retired and we started to stay put for much longer than I expected. I’ve wanted to mo...