This weekend I bought a little fig tree for the back steps. Fig trees ripen two crops, one in the early season that was set the previous fall, and one in the late season. If I had to guess, my baby tree will have all of two figs in its first crop (would have been three, except one unripe fruit got knocked off in transit). I have lived in this apartment since fall of 2012, so really I am kicking myself a bit – if I had thought of this fruit tree idea three years ago, the baby tree would be an adolescent tree by now, and I ought to be looking forward to many pounds of fresh figs this summer.

I suspect the best time to have planted this tree would have been three years ago, but the second best time is now. And if I had been keeping track of the interesting things I have seen, heard, or read over the past three years, maybe – well, who knows. Referencing Dear Sugar, that would be the ghost ship that sailed. So here is a renewed attempt at jotting some thoughts down; at the very least, if we truly think we are living in historical times in San Francisco, I will be my own chronicler.

May we all live in interesting times.