Saturday morning every San Francisco outdoor surface was thoroughly wet after night-long rains, and then there was all this sudden sunshine making shadows and reflections. The adobe wall above encloses Mission Dolores Cemetery, a certified historic site.
Somebody gave the damp, whitewashed Sorrowing Mother of God (built into a niche in the cemetery wall, and venerated by many of the neighborhood residents) an extra halo in the shape of a used-up Christmas-wreath.
On the sidewalk beneath the statue, fresh wax from the devotional candles that devotees are always renewing. These particular candles must have been set in place and lighted (with fervor) at the very first opportunity after the rain stopped.
Another series of showers came and went in the middle of the day, but by late afternoon the sun in the Castro looked even more resolute than the early morning sun had looked.
And no more rain fell as evening descended on the borderland between the Mission and SOMA, where I was a little early for a massage appointment at a tiny studio recommended by a friend – which gave me time to register how night fell in the clear cold aftermath of these many rains.
