13 posts tagged “california”
I've always maintained that it's bad luck/unwise to talk about replacing a possession in front of said possession. In my last car (which was twenty by the time it bravely protected me from a Cadillac and broke its axle in the process) I'd NEVER talk about getting a new car, and if I slipped, I'd pat the steering wheel and reassure it that I loved it. (I really did. I cried when they took him away.)
My phone must read my blog, then, and found out that I'm getting a new one. How else to explain the fact that it ran away from home? Better yet, I'm GLAD it's the phone that is missing, and actually, grateful that I pulled a temporary crown out of my tooth as well.
Confused? Stay with me!
Yesterday I met three women to bike Mount Diablo. You can see some pics of the general area at this link; I found this photo here -
At this point let me note that I *knew* my brakes were getting a bit mushy. I'd meant to do something about it.. but hadn't. I DID make it down in one piece, but the down is a DOWN and it took lots of braking. I was glad the road wasn't too full of other bikers or cars so I could take it at my own comfort level, weak braking and all.
Anyway, the ride was tough at that point, and we still had about 20 miles to get home. When we had only 5 miles left we stopped at a farmer's market to take a break, and one of my fellow riders offered me a chewy little energy/candy thing (made by Luna/Clif Bar, it's got electrolytes & stuff and is quite yummy). I was happy to chomp on it, and completely forgot that I had a temporary crown in... that is now no longer attached to my head. What's incredibly lame is that I did something similar to a different crown last summer! Me and gooey things, not so good.
At that point I was tired, sore, and rattled because I had bits of temporary tooth in my hand, instead of in my head. Fortunately I wasn't in any dentally related pain. So we hopped back on our bikes to finish the ride. At the VERY end of the ride I realized my bike-seat bag was unzipped... I did a quick check and my keys and wallet were safe. But when we got to the car I realized my phone was gone! *sad* My passenger was super nice and didn't kick up a fuss when I tried retracing the last five miles to look for the phone, but we got lost halfway in the retrace, so we wound up only following half the route and didn't find the phone.
I think it's gone.
But that's not all! after the whole mushy-brakes on a BIG DOWNHILL deal, I brought my bike to a local shop for some adjustments and love. I found out I'd been riding with my front brakes not fully engaged. That was incredibly stupid and, frankly, dangerous.
So to sum up, on a ride in which I could have broken my collarbone, OR lost my wallet or keys, I ONLY pulled out a temporary crown and lost my phone. I'm in the strange position of being incredibly grateful about it.
I swear, I may have to stop seeing movies in the theaters of SF. Another earthquake tonight, in a movie theater, and it took me right back to March of this year, when I sat through an earthquake right in the middle of a movie! Again I missed a bit of plot... not sure why the dude got arrested, but it wasn't too critical to the overall plot.
I tell you, it's distracting when the earth is all shakey rumbley rolly. It's not supposed to do that! But, no harm done, even though it was pretty good-sized.
Oh, the movie? Into the Wild. It was excellent! Beautifully shot, really well acted. E felt it was a bit too long but I thought it was just right.
Wow. As promised, it was stupidly beautiful.
I think this sums it up:
I participated in a true San Francisco classic yesterday, joining Booboolina at the 96th annual Bay to Breakers event. There are lots of articles about the event, and you can also check out a billion pictures (and video, I'm certain) at various sites.
I've got a set on flickr, and they've (finally!) improved the slideshow setting. Now you can go to an album, click "view as slideshow" and when the first picture comes up, there's a faint (i) iun the middle of the pic. Click on it, and you'll see the photo heading & captions overlaid at the bottom of the pic. Nice!
Pics here but be aware there's some nudity!
Whew, the weekend was a lot of fun, AND very productive: Lisa got to meet a few of my coworkers, I finally got to check out my neighborhood bar, Lisa helped me pick out curtains (and she did most of the work of getting them hemmed with fusion tape-stuff) AND we went on a hike. Throw in some yummy meals, a cameo visit by her husband (who rode his motorcycle down, so arrived at noonish Sat and left at 4 am Sunday), and a bottle of wine, and you've got a great weekend.
Curtains:
And hike & flowers:
Okay, back from 5 days at Yosemite, with two coworkers, Mark and Esther. I posted the highlights on Flickr so suffice to say, we saw all kinds of weather:
Did a killer hike with amazing views:
And I took lots of pictures of flowers:
Well, now I know at least one person reads this, I had a demand for a post. It's tricky to type right now, as I'm ripping a cd to my work computer and it's choking like mad. It's a cool cd, which I learned about years ago on NPR's All Music Considered:
What else: I'm off to Yosemite again! I went there in September and, although I posted only briefly, I loved it. And now I should get to see waterfalls and maybe some flowers, and maybe some snow - sad though that is, it'll be the first snow I've seen in a year (or two?) so I don't mind.
Work lunch group continues apace: I brought in Cajun beans & barley, and spicy kale for today's lunch. I have a metric ton of leftovers, which I shall combine with broth and call soup!
Booboolina and I are watching
and are 2/3 of the way through season 2.5. Tonight, we finish, and will be left with QUITE a cliff-hanger, I hear. Crap! But it's awesome, although I find Dr. Baltar annoyingly whiny a lot of the time.
I know there is more, and if I think of it tonight, I'll post it. Otherwise, be prepared for lots of great photos of my latest trip to nature. Fitting that it's Earth Day on Sunday - I'll be sure to hug a tree!
Yesterday I went on my first ever whale watch, with SF Bay Whale Watching - who, I just discovered, also run a blog about, you guessed it, whale watching! The trip went out to and around the Farallon Islands which are a bird preserve 27 miles beyond the Golden Gate Bridge.
It's amazing to me that I have lived within miles of one coast or another for just about my entire life, and this was my first whale watch! But, it's not cheap at all, so that's probably got a lot to do with it. Unfortunately, it was a gray and blustery day, which made for some choppy water.
Guess what? I get seasick! On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is vomiting and 10 is scampering happily about the deck in the fresh sea air, I spent most of my time at 6, with a long period of time at 4, and one perilous dip into 2-land. The tour operators recommended that if we saw our friends looking green, we try to engage them in conversation to distract them, but when Esther tried to do that for me, I found that removing my fixed stare from the horizon made me feel far worse. That was when I dropped as low as 2, but I managed to get out "Don't talk to me" and resumed my coping techniques, namely staring ahead and singing softly to myself: I considered that part of the logic of sea chanties may be that they distract the crew from their troubles by engaging their minds in something OTHER than how their stomachs are feeling. So, I spent at least 3 hours gripping the hand rail, fixing my eyes on the horizon, and trying to sing every song I knew.
Unfortunately, though I'm killer at Radio Singalong, I don't know that many songs. I can sing "Me and Bobby McGee" and most of "Margaritaville" and an incredibly obscure song called "Buck Tempo" that was covered by a musician I really like named Matt the Electrician (Bay Area people note, I want to go see him play in SF on Thursday the 12th of April). So, anyway, not knowing many songs meant I spent a lot of time singing Christmas carols. Only this morning did I finally remember that it's Eleven Pipers Piping! Also I sang a few patriotic numbers. And for a while we were hitting 10-foot swells and I was getting rather drenched. It all felt a bit grim, really, but that feeling is rather familiar from some of the less-pleasant bike rides I've done, so I knew I could withstand grim. I managed to choke down a piece of bread from my sandwich, and that, combined with having smoother going on our return trip, buoyed me up as high as 6 or maybe even 7.
We did in fact see at least 3 whales, but "seeing" means spotting a blow of water/air, and then noting a distant dark shape that looked a lot like a wave, as the whale went back under water. It wasn't quite what I expected.
So, lessons learned: do take Bonine again, as it may be all that kept me from dropping to 0. Eat a solid breakfast at least an hour before heading out, as all I'd had was coffee and I think that was a big mistake. Try to go when it's warmer/smoother waters (like end of summer/fall), and try to see different whales next time. Gray whales just aren't that visible from the boat. I guess also I should find out what type of whales DO make for good whale-watching.
But, believe it or not, I think I'd go again. Just not any time soon.
(Reposted, because the formatting on the last post was hosed.)
When I moved to Oregon, I thought it might be neat to learn a new plant or three every year. My first year, I leanred to identify trillium and also maiden-hair fern ... and that's as far as that project went.
Living in the Bay Area I hear more spoken Spanish than at any other time in my life; some of it is Mexican Spanish, some Spanish-Spanish, and some I really don't know enough to identify. Last night I learned a new word, taken from context in a conversation. I heard "blah blah blah tremblor blah blah blah retrofitted blah blah blah mi casa."
Since I was leaving a completely-full movie theater that had experienced an earthquake mid-show, I had no doubt what the subject of that conversation was! We didn't have to evacuate, and no one panicked, but given that we were on the 3rd floor of a building, and I felt a distinctive rolling feeling, and it lasted several... long... seconds - it was definitely the biggest one I've felt since I moved here.
The movie, by the way, was Zodiac - I was there for a sneak preview, and the theater was huge and completely full. It was pretty good. I really enjoyed it, but part of it was getting glimpses of local history. I'm glad I didn't pay to see it. But I enjoyed it - you could say (and I feel compelled to) it rocked my world ;)
yeah, the title sums it up, but it's so much better and more clever than that can possibly describe.
So there's this guy, Charles Ross, and he's in a black jumpsuit on a bare stage with no props. Somehow he manages to hit the high points (and many of the low ones) of three cult classics in just over an hour. He's incredibly skilled at expressing volumes with his voice and posture and body language, and the excellent lighting certainly added a lot to the show. Does it hurt that he's funny and Canadian and easy on the eyes, in addition to being clever? No, no it does not hurt at all.
To top it off there were locals there in costume! The best part was when I was at the front door of the hotel, and some Japanese tourists went by and gasped when they saw the Storm Trooper hanging out in the lobby.
The show is in San Francisco until March 11, so check out the theater site and find a show you can attend!
As a side note, I was there with Kristin and she's attached to some media types, so I got to hang out afterward and see a few interviews go down. Digital gadgets are cool, and Charles was a gracious interviewee. Keep an eye & ear on Geek Entertainment TV and photomatt to see or hear him answer some burning questions.
Ooh: late-breaking post: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/one-man-star-wars.htm
