A very happy Deepavali to every one

2020 is the year of staying at home. Deepavali is a stay at home festival for the morning but in the evening, you go see all your friends and relatives and join them in the firecracker fun.. 

This year it has been a muted affair. The gatherings are smaller and we meet only people in "our bubble" which is a good thing.

We did have new clothes, great eats and some sparklers! San and me teamed up to make a lot of sweets and savories (and she got some guidance from our neighbor on some sweets and they reminded me of my grandma cooking with her aunt Ambulu when we were kids.. they would spend days planning before the cooking started!). We did go solo on some items..

She sparkles better than those sparklers..It was a good thing I adjusted an almost underexposed shot and realized this was actually a good thing!

This is the first Diwali without jr. being present at home. That was constantly in the back of my head and I am not sure how many years it will take for me to realize that you cannot expect to see kids for Diwali or take that for granted anymore! Given every now and then I manage to go to India to celebrate with my parents, know that the kids will come back home after they grow up to celebrate.. maybe more often than I did.

The little one knows of my secret plan to keep her closer to home and continues to roll her eyes everytime I suggest colleges within a 20 mile radius. 

Life comes full circle.. What I did to my parents, my kids will do to me. Good news is that I am already in the "brace" position. 

It is my sincere wish that we get over COVID soon in the coming year! People are still dying and folks are still denying the truth and reality. Diwali or Deepavali is literally the triump of truth over lies, light over darkness.. knowledge is the true illuminator! 

May knowledge and facts make a comeback after this Diwali !! 

For someone who is staying at home, we have done a good job dressing up at every opportunity.. 

Still don't know how my wife is able to handle Jr.'s being away so calmly compared to me. Either she is made of different stuff or she is faking it really well. Have some things to learn and understand.

Once again, wishing you all a wonderful Deepavali/ Diwali!!

A first time for everything...

While the rest of the US is going nuts over the elections, yours truly has been extremly happy and stayed away from most coverage.

Bikram Yoga San Jose opened its doors for Hot Yoga classes. . . Hot being the keyword.. and I have been drenched in glorious sweat every day and my sanity is on a different track. 

The little coverage that leaked through thanks to my family and walking buddies did keep me amused. Sooner or later, someone will win. Hopefully sanity will return.. The country has already gone past a point of no return in 2016 and has had a massive heart attack. It is living on borrowed time. There is only hope left.

No one in my company has gone anywhere on vacation given COVID and we have all been working pretty much round the clock since March. There was a policy change where if you exceed PTO, you take it or lose it. 

So every three weeks, taking a Friday off. The last such day off saw me go up to Hunters point and get a view of the silicon valley from the south west side. 

Today it was a much more ambitious plan to go up Mission peak in Fremont. Even though I average 7.5 miles of walking a day, it is mostly on flat terrain around the block. Don't like steep climbs as it makes my ankle swell. 

My wife encouraged me a lot to climb this by reminding me of my glory days of climbing with a 30 lbs camera bag on my back in what seems just a year ago in truth, but a decade ago in my memory. 

Off we went and thoroughly enjoyed it. Took us exactly 2 and a half hours to go up and come down from the parking lot. Some pictures..

We got a great view from the top..

The views enroute were beautiful..

For the most part San walked ahead of me.. she cannot stop on an uphill climb or she finds it difficult to start again..I cannot stop downhill or I get stuck! So we had an interesting arrangement.. 

we walked with her leading up and me leading down but with stops to catch up.. and take selfies! We met maybe a total of 10 people on either way.. had our masks in our hand and had to wear it only when we saw anyone in the other direction. That made things easier!

We got drenched on the way back with an unexpected downpour. That made this an adventure of sort, running down in rain watching the city lights..

It has taken me at least the last few hours to get my warmth back and get back to normal after what has defintiely been some exercise outside the yoga mat! 

Still prefer walks on flat terrain compared to a non stop slope, but walking with San is something that I have missed for a long time.. Just realized that today!

That grin on my face says it all !!!

Devils slide - an afternoon trip

Given the last 7 months, we decided to take another short ride to a place within an hour radius that has not been visited in the last 20 years.. San found just the place in Devils slide near Pacifica. 

The weather was pleasant and we drove almost an hour to the parking lot there. Then there was a hike that was 3 miles back and forth from one parking lot to the other and back. This is a beautiful bike and walkway that goes around the mountainside overlooking the pacific ocean. 

There were 6 whales there breaching, but we could not catch it. 

We had great visibiilty while we walked one way and it started raining on our way back. For some reason we were just happy to be there and didn't care. 

We met an interesting old man called "Uncle Ericson" who was an 84 year old retired plastic surgeon who walks this path every day. we got to chat with him in the drizzle on the way back and he told us some stories about the place. That made the return walk interesting! He told us about this Jeep that was rolled down the slope by theives and how it has been there since 1999 and now trees are growing through it!

Got to take some pictures with both the iPhone and the Canon this time. 

It is all mixed and matched here (some of the iPhone photos adjusted in snapseed as well)

 a slideshow of the rest of the pictures..

Loved the place and the walk.. we were both happy to walk together someplace after a long time!

Hope we find more local gems like this!