Clearing Fog

It's been very foggy lately here in San Francisco. I have noticed I often open these blog entries with talk about weather, but not just out of conversational habit. The weather is around us, we live in it, we breathe it in, our bodies become it in a way, and it has a huge effect -- at least for me -- on moods and ideas and states of mind. Living in the fog in San Francisco, it doesn't seem any coincidence that the sayings "I'm in a fog" or "I'm kind of foggy on that" are part of our vernacular. When it's been grey, misty, dim, and you can't see further than 50 yards ahead, it really becomes a state of mind to contract your vision, focusing on the immediate mental landscape as well.

But when the fog clears, suddenly I feel like the whole world begins opening up to me again.
The front windows of my apartment are floor to ceiling and the presence of a parking lot (and therefore absence of trees directly ahead) provides us an amazing view to the west... unless of course the city is overcome by a fog bank. On a clear day I can see 30+ miles, out to the Pacific and the Farallon Islands hovering in the distance. After days of fog and not seeing past the middle of the parking lot, this distant view has come back into sight. Today I gasped and grab the binoculars, always handy, like I'd spotted a long lost friend off in the distance.