Blustery Day 2006

Until I put on Mike Doughty's lovely album Rockity Roll, the song stuck in my head today was

The rain, rain, rain, came down, down, down
      In rushing, rising, rivlets
      'Til the river crept out of it's bed
      And crept right into Piglet's

      Poor Piglet he was frightened
      With quite a rightful fright

Good luck out there, everybody! Drive safe and stay home if you can.

Such a GOOD weekend! 2005

Creatively productive day Friday. That Certain Someone picked me up after work. Dinner at Citrus Club on Haight. Sitting in bed surfing the web. Spooning.

Farmers' Market at the Ferry Building Friday morning. Aidells Maple & Smoked Bacon sausage sandwich with Seeds & Suds mustard. Fresh snap peas. Tasting cheeses and balsamic vinegars. Selecting and eating Recchiuti chocolates - Peanut Butter Puck, Honeycomb Malt, special of the day (Fleur de Sel caramel topped with pecan encased in bittersweet chocolate; simply fucking incredible. One of the top ten chocolate experiences of my life.), Fleur De Sel, Cardamom Nougat, Tarragon Grapefruit, Bergamot Tea - on a bench looking out at the bay. Sailboats. Clouds. Sunshine. The Bay Bridge. Yerba Buena Island.

Walking up Sacramento to Mason and down to Geary. Buying tickets at the Curren for "I Am My Own Wife" (about which more in a couple weeks no doubt). And then seeing Kung Fu Hustle at the Metreon.

Stop what you are doing now and go see Kung Fu Hustle. It's got more life and fun and excitement in it than the last 10 American films I've seen. If I could pre-order the DVD today, I would, and I'll definitely be seeing this one at least twice in the theater.

Grinning like maniacs. A Manhattan and a cheese plate at The View atop the Marriot Hotel looking at, well, the view. Trying to figure out what was going on at the ice rink. Walking across Yerba Buena Gardens to find it was a demonstration game of sled hockey. Very cool. Chatting briefly with a player as he got back into his wheelchair. Coming home and watching the original Star Wars "A New Hope" (laser disc version, not this bullshit "Greedo shoots first" crap).

Sleeping in. Languid lazing around. Puttering around the house. Soup for dinner. The win-win debate: movie or play a game?

New Year's Walk 2004

Here's my first SF Bay Guardian column of the new year.

Absent and Relaxed 2003

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Mine was lovely.

Mendocino is beautiful, my friends are great, and we saw whales spouting!

Two Moons? 2003

What would Earth be like if it had two moons?

I started out thinking of various natural differences - the tides, for instance - and then got to thinking about how most human cultures seem to be fixated on duality - light/dark and male/female and good/evil. It's interesting to speculate on the societal impact of a third heavenly body. If night and day were less uniform and distinct - no moon nights and one moon nights and two moon nights - would humans be better able to deal with the shades of grey between right and wrong? Is our morality a by-product of our planetary configuration?

He did it! 2002

I just got the email from Edmond - he's in Manning Park, British Columbia, Canada. He just walked there from Mexico.

Hooray for Edmond!

I've posted his log entries on his site.

I am so very proud of him. What a great adventure!

Northbound 2002

Edmond's getting close! I just talked to him on the phone. He's in Snoqualamie and that means only two more resupply points left between him and the Canadian border.

Visit his site for more news about his return and the festivities to welcome him home.

Walking Walking Walking 2002

I've mentioned to many people my goal of walking the entire city of San Francisco, every street, every block. The supportive responses have been great; when people visit they say "Well, shall we take a different route back from the restaurant so you can get in a few more blocks?" I'm making good progress, but it's a lot of walking so it will take me a while. No problem; I've allowed myself until the year 2050 to finish the project.

The helpful man I spoke to in the department of public works estimated it's about 1400-1500 miles of streets. That's mighty impressive and I well understand why it's taking me a while. However, if I made it my full-time job instead of just a happy hobby, I could be a lot further along by now. How much further along is alarmingly well indicated by a certain friend of mine.

My pal Edmond would be done by now if he'd chosen my project instead of his own. Edmond is walking the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexican border in southern California to the Canadian border in northern Washington. He started April 27th and he's now walked over 1800 miles to reach his last reported location in Crater Lake.

1800 miles, folks.
And he's got another 800 to go.

His journal entries are really fun and he's going to have wonderful pictures to show off once he has time to start setting up the galleries and captioning them on his return. Pay him a visit and send him a hello. He loves email.

Sunday was better 2002

Yesterday morning I woke up in the cozy guest room at my parents's home in Mendocino. I always sleep really well there and I felt great. I had a little breakfast with my Grandma Susie, packed up my clean laundry (they have a washer & dryer *in the house!* so cool!), said fond farewells and had a beautiful, quick drive back down to San Francisco.

It was so lovely, clear & warm when I came over the Golden Gate Bridge that I coaxed Chris out of his house in the Presidio within half an hour of arriving and we went walking. Oh boy did we walk! We walked through the Presidio to the bridge and then over the bridge and then all the way into Sausalito. We were very very hungry by this point and feasted on two pizzas (a medium Catalian & a small Italian) at Giovanni's. Then we got ice cream at Lappert's (Spumoni for him and Kauai something (Kona coffee, macadamia nuts, fudge & coconut shavings) for me) - mmm! - and wandered over to catch the ferry back to San Francisco. What a great time!

Now it's Monday and I'm in the warm & stuffy office nodding off. I could use a little Kona coffee ice cream about now...

Trail Preparations 2002

I'm not posting much lately because I've been very busy helping Edmond get all moved out of the Mountain View house and ready to hit the Pacific Crest Trail. Read all about his adventures which I'll be updating as I receive mail from him during the summer.

Signing out from Mountain View for possibly the last time, this is intrepid hiker supplier Dinah saying "keep your socks dry and don't step on the rattlesnakes!"

p.s. I have it on good authority that the potential hazards of the trail do not in fact apply to those staying home & mailing out the GORP.

Earthquake! 1979

earthquake at 1:24 (approx.) Man on radio wondered if it might have been Skylab (!) [I think I knew that was an absurd notion]