What I'm up to now

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Five days off the grid

Mid-July I went backpacking with my aunt, my brother, and my cousins. Four nights with no signal except satellite texts to update my pops. We lingered by the stream and sat in the pools, day hiked to a crystal clear lake with a gross name, stargazed from camp. We took two inexperienced llamas, one of which almost ended the trip halfway to camp. This used to be my dad's trip, and he's still the hero who equipped us all so well. Mostly I just felt lucky to be out there with these people. We're already talking about next year.

Panoramic view from camp: the sun setting over granite slabs, pines, and high-country ridges under a clear sky

Camp paradise, earning its name.

Fifty-five banana slugs

O and I hiked Butano State Park on a Sunday, ducking under cloud cover into drizzle just off Highway 1. We counted 55 banana slugs. By far the most I've ever seen (I know others who've seen hundreds). O wanted to explore along the creek and didn't mind getting his shoes wet, so we followed it. Afterward, the best reuben sandwich of my life at the Loma Mar Outpost, a cabin-cozy spot that's a destination on our map now. The next morning V read the park pamphlet over her steamer and probed the map, wondering what she'd missed.

The back-patio debate

On V's last full day of summer, over coffee and a steamer on the back patio, she asked me whether AI really uses a gallon of water per question. Neither of us knew for sure, so we dug into it together and then she proposed we turn it into a mock debate, trading sides back and forth. It was freaking awesome. There's a lot of gloom around this technology right now, and I get it. Then my eleven-year-old meets a hard question with pure curiosity, and I feel the opposite.

Twenty-one days in France

Loir farmhouse, Utah Beach at low tide, an overnight at Mont Saint-Michel, Monet's gardens at Giverny on the drive home. The best moments were the unplanned ones: plunging into the Channel with V off the beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer, wandering Granville's streets, the Le Mans 24-hour race finish, a village Comice Agricole (farm) fair. One caveat: the heat never let up — 100°F in the Loir — and I wouldn't send anyone to inland France in summer right now. Parts of it caught fire after we left. Yikes. But we loved it, came home with super memories, and I can feel a WWII history bug taking hold in my advancing age.

A weathered wooden bridge crossing the still, green Loir, mirrored in the water and framed by trees

The Loir, holding still.

Holy shit, Canepa

O picked the outing: Canepa in Scotts Valley, to see the electric hypercar he'd been touting. We were not prepared. A tour of the McMurtry Spéirling before its public introduction, and then the shop let us back to see one of the three original Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantics in the world. O was beaming.

Learning to love cars again, through my son

I loved cars as a kid. Loving them again alongside O is even better. The afternoon we spent tracking down an old Lamborghini at a Portola garage and cruising Pleasure Point. Then Monterey Car Week together: GTs at the first stoplight in town, an impromptu free lot full of the coolest Japanese cars and BMW mods we'd ever seen. So many peak moments it's hard to hold them all. All that wealth on display is strange to stand next to, and we talk about that too. Mostly, though, the cars get us talking, and the talking is the good part.

A sky-blue widebody Nissan GT-R parked curbside at Monterey Car Week while onlookers stop to photograph it

One of the coolest Japanese cars we'd ever seen, curbside.

Brunch in Livermore

Drove out to celebrate my dad's belated birthday with him and my mom. Short and sweet and fun: catch-up in the family room, sandwiches and a frozen lemonade at Monica's downtown, a scoop at Lappert's. It was 76°F when I arrived and 96°F when I left. Even the drive was a treat: an hour each way to think out loud, and I got home with actual notes.

Screens with O

He's coaching me through Halo co-op, patient and sweet: “this level can get a little repetitive, sorry.” We're working through The Good Place together and trading back scratches. New season of Silo on my own time.

Reading and roster math

Stephen King's The Body, which paired perfectly with getting O to struggle through Stand By Me on the Fourth of July. And an unreasonable amount of Warriors offseason daydreaming, playing out trade scenarios nobody asked for.

🐢 > 🐇

This is my now page: a small, timestamped answer to what has my attention these days. I recommend one.