For a while, there, we had a Summer. Several days in a row with clear, blue, daylong skies, and warm nights. The first few of them were clear, at least, and from the 34th floor of the building I work, you could see for miles.

San Francisco skyscrapers basking in the heat

And then the smog descended, and I found myself sniffling, along with the rest of the city, with some of the worst air quality I've seen here. And finally, yesterday, everything returned to normal when the fog came in. This was my first full week in the office in who knows how long, and I was busier than ever. I'm now being pulled into three different projects. So that's a plus.

At work

I never expected that running would ever become so important to me. But when I'm out there in the sun, feeling the cool wind against me, sensing the strength and stamina in my body, I feel a sense of joy and exhilaration. Last week, for the second time, I entered "the zone", for the first time - a magical moment where your fatigue just drops away and you feel like you're a locomotive. It was towards the end of my forty minute run, but I was able to go faster than ever before. Running also gives me forty uninterrupted minutes every two days where I can just spend time thinking with no other distractions. I think it's easy to build up a life for yourself where you're left with no time for reflection, and running has given me a natural way out of that pattern.

Mid-week, with the heat and sunshine at it's best, I took a long lunch-break, and headed over the Bay Bridge in my jeep, to Berkeley, to revisit my old office for the first time since I left at the end of June.

It was funny running up the stairs in my old building, bound for my old department - it felt as if I'd never left. But when I got upstairs, all I saw was a sea of unfamiliar faces. It turned out that they'd moved our department downstairs. I soon located them and it was truly heart-warming how welcoming and friendly everyone was. Over the course of two hours, I must have chatted with forty people. I heard all the latest gossip - morale is at an all time low and a lot of people think the company might fold within a year, myself included. I had lunch with two of my bestest work buddies, Wendy and Mark.

Lunch with Wendy and Mark