Halloween Happenings

Friday, October 29th – Halloween weekend: Garry and I have been getting into this Netflix show that is really spooky but in a rather old-fashioned way. The program absolutely avoids the slasher sort of directing that generally permeates these sorts of projects. Instead, Midnight Mass tells a story with character development and lets it play out. There are shocking moments naturally, but you are already invested in the island folks.

Undoubtedly, there will be viewers turned off by the use of Christianity (thru organized religion) to explain it all. I found it to be a creative cover for the evil that is brewing on the island. At six episodes we are hooked. The direction for this TV thing is uncanny. It has depended on long monologues. I mean, there are scenes between actors that go on and on before a cut is even made. My guess is that anyone who likes to read a good horror story might actually enjoy watching this; it does take time to unfold.

San Francisco will be hopping this weekend with the Outside Lands festival at Golden Gate Park and Halloween in the Castro. The weather for both will be perfect San Francisco weather. Yes, wear a t-shirt but carry a lite…whatever.

We are going to catch the new Wes Anderson movie: The French Dispatch. Anderson is the sort of filmmaker that cares more about making characters as quirky as they can be rather than employing a more satisfying conclusion to a story. This director is not a three-course meal, he is an appetizer, and then the waiter forgets you are there. I like to describe his movies as watchable. It is not that I don’t enjoy Anderson’s movies. I like some of them, but that enjoyment is measured. For my tastes: The Royal Tenenbaums and the Isle of Dogs are memorable for different reasons. His wildly popular Rushmore I never finished.

On our own isle of dog, Luna continues her rehab period. There is no more cone of shame, and we are back to some walking in the neighborhood. She puts pressure on the operated leg and walks on it, but she is not quite 100 percent back yet. Naturally, she wants to do more and misses using the entire backyard to run around like a crazy dog (zoomies), but that has to happen gradually as per the Vets order.

October 30, 2021 0

Quality of Work

I’m back down to one day of working remotely. I’ll make a weekly appearance in our Pacific Heights campus but work a couple of days in the Mission. This is roughly what it was before the pandemic and it suits me fine. I love seeing all the doggies. There were some nice perks to working at home. If my dog could speak she would talk at length about it (for the price of a treat).

Anyway after several months of having one schedule, I have another one and there really was no adjustment period. I dove in. Well, I did forget my sandwich card and Tuesday’s is a double-stamp sandwich day but what are you going to do? It doesn’t always rain free lunch in the city, sometimes you get fog spit.

With more face time you tend to bump into familiar faces “Is Luna here, “ someone I know from softball asked, when spotting me, “She is fine, I work here”. We actually take her to a more local vet that we like but on off hours we have made the trip to the Pacific Heights campus. She has been pretty healthy overall. “I thought you were at the Mint, “ he said. “Ah, that was several years ago.” That was back when I was walking around town like a mummy version of myself, working graveyard shift and not sleeping, I thought but didn’t share.

It was nice to make the coins for a bit but the law of average catches up to you. You keep flipping coins, it’s going to be tails sometimes and that’s okay but I didn’t want to live in tails, I didn’t want to work another 20 years in there, until I retire. I believe in having some quality of life even during my working years. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want time off and a regular sleep schedule.

I was pretty lucky to hook on with such a feel good pet organization. They do great work in the community and I feel like a cog in that machine, making sure the hospitals have their drugs.

After my softball acquaintance placed his little dog in the car. I asked, “and how is your dog?” “He’s got an ear infection. They gave me drops to take home.” I nodded, yeah, we got those. The coins we made at the mint were for coin collectors and while that was interesting, it was completely devoid of any personal satisfaction, in that the coins weren’t necessarily helping anyone. It’s one of the reasons I enjoyed my time with the American Red Cross and now with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, I can get behind the endgame of that organization. It makes a difference to me.

May 1, 2021 0

Where the Fireworks Pop

It’s a bright, cool beginning to July.

The non-stop personal fireworks over the last two and a half weeks have finally taken a day off. San Francisco has been popping nightly, reaching the usual zenith of explosions on the fourth. And the fireworks on the 5th of July were a total surprise, “you mean somebody has got some left after last night.” Garry didn’t go right to sleep on the night of the fourth. The noise finally quit at 2:00 a.m..

My very curious pit bull is more suspicious over sounds than afraid of them. Which I think is weird. There are many dogs in the city that are racing under the bed or couch not comfortable with the sounds but Luna always wants to go toward the sound, as if she can aid in whatever is happening. Perhaps there is another treat waiting! She is frightened of things falling however, always jumping away at something succumbing to gravity. That leap always looks comical because at 60 lbs, she isn’t a petite beast.

Half of a crazy year is in the books. We keep going forward, adjusting to our evolving reality and hopeful that time and science will iron things out. The stagnancy of this period does not eradicate my desire for travel. It’s there, lurking in my subconscious. Occasionally, I’ll see something on TV, filmed outside the U.S. and my brain turns on (okay where is this being filmed). I also randomly search the internet from time to time for airline tickets that I can’t buy yet, “Oh look business class to…” and I’ll see a deal. Who doesn’t like a deal? It’s unfortunately not real. It’s a holding pattern we’re in.

At work, we made it through our busiest time of the year with only a few hours of overtime. Also, a client has been keeping me hopping with website changes; video and audio editing. I do prefer being busy during a pandemic. 🙂 I’m happy to see Garry’s classes continue online. He enjoys doing them and the video feed must be unusually different than actually having live students (small class of five) interact across the living room from each other but that is the way at the moment (and longer).

There is a smaller version of the softball practices that we’ve been doing on Saturdays. It’s the unofficial practices for the season. The season that is awaiting cancellation. It will surprise no one. In fact, if the season happens (fall) that would be a shock to the entire softball community. As players, we get it. I will say, we’re enjoying our Saturday sessions, as both physical activity and mental therapy. We’re careful; masks, distance, and sanitizers. I also shower as soon as I get home. It’s not hard and it’s necessary.

It’s July 2020 and we’re halfway to the end of the year. I’m hopeful even before the year’s out, we will have something big to celebrate for a hopeful 2021, say maybe something in November? I’m confident folks can find fireworks to use for celebrating that.

July 7, 2020 0