Again with the overstatement. When I used to be able to run, I would drive to the top of the Oakland Hills and go running in Joaquin Miller Park. Every time I would drive up the hill, I would see the signs to the Woodminster Amphitheater and say to myself that I should check it out.
I started at HRS in 1998 and only now in July 2005, did I finally go to a show at the Woodminster Amphitheater. I learned that every summer for the past 39 years, around 3 musicals have been performed over the course of each summer. This years line up has Hello Dolly and Jesus Christ Superstar as the latter show, but the summer started with Oklahoma! which is my favorite musical of all time. Scott and I invited his friend Lyz and I invited Carlos, who came up from Santa Cruz.
The amphitheater itself was a 1940's WPA project and it still retains that simplistic look. To me it felt like a throwback to the 50's in New England. The concessions were not commercial, no one searched our bags upon entering the amphiteater and there were raffles galore. We four agreed that the evening was so fun that we are thinking of getting together a larger group for a performance of Hello Dolly in August.
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Friday, July 15, 2005
Just when I thought I was totally cool....
Oh, I know that I'm not cool, it's a slang term that can be used universally. So, remember yesterday's great achievement of successfully connecting the electrical wires of two lights? I got to ride that high for all of 24 hours.
Last summer, when I was on my big roadtrip, the oven stopped working. When I returned, I bought a new surface ignition and installed it myself. This required me to hook up the gas lines and such.
A couple months ago, the oven stopped working and the smell of gas would permeate the kitchen. Obviously, I stopped using it and baking things in the small toaster oven.
I had PG&E come out and see if they could help me out. This is what I received:
What an ego destroyer!
So now, not only do I not have an oven, but I have no stovetop. Joe, the PGE serviceman, told me not to try and repair this myself. It was the job of a service profession given the fact that the surface ignition I bought and inserted wasn't the one that matched this model of range. How was I supposed to know that there were different designs of surface ignitions.
I humbly accept Joe's directive and am now in the midst of trying to find an Amana approved service dealer in San Francisco. What a crush to my budding sense of home repair ability. Just kidding!
Last summer, when I was on my big roadtrip, the oven stopped working. When I returned, I bought a new surface ignition and installed it myself. This required me to hook up the gas lines and such.
A couple months ago, the oven stopped working and the smell of gas would permeate the kitchen. Obviously, I stopped using it and baking things in the small toaster oven.
I had PG&E come out and see if they could help me out. This is what I received:
So now, not only do I not have an oven, but I have no stovetop. Joe, the PGE serviceman, told me not to try and repair this myself. It was the job of a service profession given the fact that the surface ignition I bought and inserted wasn't the one that matched this model of range. How was I supposed to know that there were different designs of surface ignitions.
I humbly accept Joe's directive and am now in the midst of trying to find an Amana approved service dealer in San Francisco. What a crush to my budding sense of home repair ability. Just kidding!
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Biggest Hurdle is Done
I have always been one to have doubted my abilities with those things that aren't considered "academic pursuits". Solve a math problem. Easy. Write a personal essay? With my left hand tied behind my back. Analyze the fall of the Roman Empire. Come on, challenge me! But if you ask me to try and fix my car? Or hook up my television so it could play from both my computer and vcr. (I didn't say DVD player because this one doesn't even own a DVD player.) Dreaming....
So, I've been showing you all these projects I'm doing (like changing the pane of glass in a window) because it's ME doing them. But with each success, I am feeling better about my skills in these things. So today, I topped even myself.
Where the wall is being torn down, there are two separate overhead lights that were controlled by two different switches. When the wall was standing, there was a wire running through the wall to control the left light in the picture below. It was decided that I would lose the switch controlling the left light, but instead control both lights with the switch on the right. That's right, the plan was for me to add a light in series, which I understand now but man did it totally baffle me in Physics.
Yesterday, I went down to my local Cole Hardware and asked the very nice woman how I should proceed. Three minutes and $4.05 of materials later, I was theoretically ready to go.
This morning, I cut the circuit breaker, spent about 15 minutes working on cutting wire, capping wires and connecting wires and VOILA, I flipped the switch and both lights came ON.
Two lights, one switch!
I AM SO PROUD OF ME!!
So, I've been showing you all these projects I'm doing (like changing the pane of glass in a window) because it's ME doing them. But with each success, I am feeling better about my skills in these things. So today, I topped even myself.
Where the wall is being torn down, there are two separate overhead lights that were controlled by two different switches. When the wall was standing, there was a wire running through the wall to control the left light in the picture below. It was decided that I would lose the switch controlling the left light, but instead control both lights with the switch on the right. That's right, the plan was for me to add a light in series, which I understand now but man did it totally baffle me in Physics.
Yesterday, I went down to my local Cole Hardware and asked the very nice woman how I should proceed. Three minutes and $4.05 of materials later, I was theoretically ready to go.
This morning, I cut the circuit breaker, spent about 15 minutes working on cutting wire, capping wires and connecting wires and VOILA, I flipped the switch and both lights came ON.
I AM SO PROUD OF ME!!
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Stuff
Now that you have been overloaded with pictures and information about my trip, here's a motley assortment of things for your viewing.
From The Onion...The Mason-Dixon Line is renamed the IHOP-Waffle House Line
Back to our regularly scheduled programming. On Sunday afternoon, we drove down to Saratoga to hear and see the The Indigo Girls. It was a gorgeous sunny day with no humidity. We had lawn seats and so we sat in the back under a tree and lounged the day away.
The Indigo Girls, Amy and Emily
Yesterday, I took my car in because I thought that it was running a bit "lame." Back during the time I was trying to figure out how to pursue my case with Subaru, the only automotive place that would help me with my questions was Art's Automotive in Berkeley. To honor their willingness to help, I took my business there. Turns out I needed a new oil filter and I was low on transmission fluid. But otherwise, the mechanic says that I was probably much too used to the great performance a new engine gets and now that it's been driven a couple thousand miles, it's settling into it's normal state.
Since, I had to wait most of the day, I had Shahana come and pick me up. I went into school and officially closed the book on the 2004-05 year. It's now time to start up 2005-06. I couldn't get a ride back to Art's, so I, get ready for this, took AC Transit.
Not only did I take the bus, I had to TRANSFER
I've heard someone say that to have a better experience on the bus, don't think of it as trying to get somewhere. Instead, view it as performance art, and sooner rather than later, you'll be where you need to go before you know it. So true, so true.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming. On Sunday afternoon, we drove down to Saratoga to hear and see the The Indigo Girls. It was a gorgeous sunny day with no humidity. We had lawn seats and so we sat in the back under a tree and lounged the day away.
Yesterday, I took my car in because I thought that it was running a bit "lame." Back during the time I was trying to figure out how to pursue my case with Subaru, the only automotive place that would help me with my questions was Art's Automotive in Berkeley. To honor their willingness to help, I took my business there. Turns out I needed a new oil filter and I was low on transmission fluid. But otherwise, the mechanic says that I was probably much too used to the great performance a new engine gets and now that it's been driven a couple thousand miles, it's settling into it's normal state.
Since, I had to wait most of the day, I had Shahana come and pick me up. I went into school and officially closed the book on the 2004-05 year. It's now time to start up 2005-06. I couldn't get a ride back to Art's, so I, get ready for this, took AC Transit.
I've heard someone say that to have a better experience on the bus, don't think of it as trying to get somewhere. Instead, view it as performance art, and sooner rather than later, you'll be where you need to go before you know it. So true, so true.
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