A tenuous connection with the outside world

I answered the phone as I was driving home from a colleagues birthday picnic. I see the wireless headset plugged into its charger, but where is my phone? Usually, it'll take me no more than 3 minutes to find it, on those rare occasions I do place it down and not conciously remember where I put it. However, this time, it's been three hours and I still can't find it. It's not in the car and it's not in the washer and dryer (that being my ultimate fear as I washed the shorts I was wearing). So where did it go? I have no way to call anyone to tell someone to call my phone so it will ring and I can locate it. So, if you read this anytime in the next day or so, call my home/only number and help me out.

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Thanks to those who aided in the search for my phone. I got my neighbor to call my phone and after three attempts, I found it at the foot of and next to the washer in the garage. There it was. And I was this close to going out and spending $$ to buy a new phone. How pissed would I have been?

Summertime in San Francisco

"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" I'm not sure who said that quote (I want to say Mark Twain) but it is OH SO TRUE. Except for these past few days where the weather has been perfect. In the afternoon, I again tackled a set of stairways, this time in the Corona Heights/Upper Market neighborhood. The chronology of the walk started me in the saddle up at the top of 17th St where it meets Clayton. First to Upper Terrace and then down to the Vulcan Stairway and then up Saturn Staircase, up 17th and up to Clayton again. It was a short, sweet, yet rewarding walk.

Stairs to Upper Terrace

The view from Upper Terrace

I've either loved or hated brown shingled houses and the juxtaposition of these two houses answers the question why. It's all about the trim, baby.

Throughout San Francisco, there are numerous long stairways lined with residential homes. These homes are can ONLY be accessed via the staircase. When tree-lined and well maintained as the Vulcan Staircase is, it can create a quiet paradise in the heart of the bustling urban environment. It's the best of both worlds. I think I covet one of these home.

A Vulcan Stairway home

Most of the homes on Vulcan line the North side, however, here is one of the three that are on the South side.

Here's what homeowners and architects have to deal with in their work.

Oh, and today, I went in for jury duty and after an hour, there were no cases to be tried and our group was excused and given credit for showing up this afternoon. Actually, kind of a anti-climactic ending to this civic duty in comparison to the drama of a few months ago.

The Never Ending Saga of J.D.

I can't even bear to write out the words. I asked that my service be sometime this week starting on Monday June 12th, 2006. As it works in many places your service can start anytime during the week. I called in every night and was told to call in the next day after 4:30PM. As of Thursday June 15th, 2006 I had not yet been called. So, this afternoon, I called in and my service will begin on Friday June 16th, 2006 at 1:30PM. Are they freaking kidding? They are going to try and start seating a case on a Friday afternoon? I am SO going to do my best to get excused. Watch this trial be something that might last two months. UGH!!

Summer Begins

The wonderful months of summer adventure began with a visit from a friend of mine Rochelle R. She's one of those friends who you meet in the living of life and end up sticking. We went to dinner at Little Nepal in the neighboorhood. We had a wonderful post dinner hike to the top of Bernal Heights and then I made sure to show her the Esmeralda Street slide on our way home.

She left this morning on the bus to another friends place and I decided to ride part of the way with her to get to another one of the stairway walks that I've been doing. The following are a series of pictures of interesting things I saw with occasional commentary. This walk took me through the northern part of Noe Valley and eastern part of Eureka Valley.

Dixie Stairway linking Market Street to Grandview Avenue

This house reminded me of a castle with a crown on top

These uneven dirt steps lead to.....

Kite Hill Open Space

This end of the street house is tucked right next to and under the Market Street Foundation

Someone has a planter fetish

Local neighbors have taken a city owned vacant lot and turned it into a community garden and playground. Results such as Corwin Gardens, shown here, is typical of the the power of communities that work together.

Along that big curve where Market turns into Portola sits the huge Joost house. Joost (yes the same one as the steet) was the man who built the first electircal railroad from downtown to what is now Daly City.

Noe Valley Victorians

An alley between Caselli and 19th Street

I end the photos section with this alley because it follows the tenets of New Urbanismwhich avoids putting garages on the front of the house.

Last comment. As Rochelle and I were walking around last, we were looking at individual buildings, some beautiful and well maintained and others being 70's boxes that were dilapidated. However, when looked at as a mosaic, it all becomes beautiful.

Where's the Beef?

Remember that famous line from the 80's Wendy's commercial? Takes us all back, eh? Anyway, this has nothing to do with Wendy's, but more to do with grassfed organic meat. Lots of it. A while back, I got an email from family friend Lynn asking if anyone was interested in going in on some grassfed organically raised (hmm, I'm not sure if this means that the grass that was fed was organically raised or if the fact that the animal was grassfed makes it organically raised), regardless, some high quality meat. She has contacts in that world and every year about this time a herd of steer (cow? I have no idea) is slaughtered, and the meat is pre-sold to those who are interested in this kind of meat. From what I can gather, one animal produces some 160-200 pounds of meat, which Lynn sold in 20lb units. I'm a sucker for good meat and am just interested in seeing if there is a distinct taste difference, so I ponied up my cash and purchased 20 lb of meat.

Here's what 20lb of frozen meat looks like

After yesterday's class of 2006 graduation (where I was simply there for show and had little investment in this class because I had taught only 7 of 77 because when they were freshman I was recovering from my accident), I went to Lynn's to pick up my meat. My haul brought it 1 London Broil, 2 Sirloin Steak, 1 Sirloin Tritip and 9 pounds of Ground Beef.

So any of you who come over will probably hear the refrain, "Want some meat?"