Seeing The Difference

I was thinking of writing some more about the slow loss of strength in my arms, mostly only visible to me. I was going talk about what it's like to see the incrementalism, to feel the weakness slowly, inexorably increase. My plan was to detail some of the measure of loss, some of the things I see which others don't see. I had thought I would start with the beginning, where a great many people thought is was my imagination, then carry it through to today, where some still wonder but many can see.

Instead, I'm going to talk about Sacramento. I love going to Sacramento, especially Old Sacramento. No trip to California would be complete without a stop here. I started going to Old Sac way back before I had kids. My ex-wife bought one of her most treasured possessions there, a creamer shaped like a cow. The milk comes out of the cow's mouth. Old Sacramento is a rebuild of a true "western" town, with wooden sidewalks and places to tie up your horse. It has immense charm, plus some great restaurants and watering holes.

Getting to Sacramento from San Francisco is another treat in the journey. There are dozens of different ways to get there, most making good use of the freeway system here in the San Francisco basin. You can head across the Golden Gate and up to San Quentin, just to check out the prison. You can head over the Bay Bridge, then take either the I-80 direct or take the 680 across Suisun Bay to check out the US Navy graveyard. Most others are subjuncts of these routes. The beauty of all of them is that they all take about the same amount of time. It just depends on what you want to see.

Today I plan on taking the 680 across Suisun Bay, so I can check out the Navy graveyard. Over the last decade the navy has been slowly removing and scrapping ships they had classed as "reserve". It appears that even organizations as large as the US Navy like to keep old stuff around "just in case". About a decade ago, when I was here with my kids, we went that way and I was impressed with the number of ships. This time there will be substantially less. I want to see the difference.

You see, just like my arms, I want to see the difference. And just like my arms, I will see it more clearly because I have an original marker point. There were once many ships. I was once very strong. Now there are few ships. Now I am weak. It's all about seeing the difference.