Tag: san francisco

No Court Appeal

It was a quiet Friday. Between walking the dog, watching a few tv shows, and packing a few eBay items, this was an extreme low key day. I’ll take it.

Early in the week I didn’t know if I’d be serving on a jury for a criminal case. The case, that involved a stabbing on public transportation, would have gone until mid-April. As a resident of San Francisco for over 20 years, I have done my civic duty before and like a lot of folks, I wasn’t anxious to get on a long trial.

It was close. They were wheedling down the number of potential jurors and they chose a few folks from my group. My bunch was the last and that may have been advantageous. I thought that being the first 12 jurors was lucky because they didn’t end up keeping any. The first few rounds of people to sit, never got a chance to get comfortable. It was non-stop: “Number 6 thank you for your service you are excused.” I was watching a runway of jurors modeling the latest get out of jail smiles. As they left I imagine each skipping in the middle of the street, laughing maniacally as they dodged traffic. Damn them.

When the two lawyers found agreement on a jury, I couldn’t have been happier. I thought I was going to burst a blood vessel. I started daydreaming about getting on public transportation (yes I know, it’s a case about a stabbing on MUNI). There was one slight moment before they swore in their 12 angry men and 6 alternates, when they made absolute sure that these choices would be in court for the ENTIRE run of the case.

A few folks did try to squirm out. The judge wasn’t playing. The “I might be at a wedding the end of the month” or “I need someone to watch the kids for a few days” didn’t go over big. The “I found out my boss will not pay for this and I have to pay for rent” person was interesting because it brought up, via an attorney, a new program beginning in a week. San Francisco is beginning a new program that will pay jurors $100 a day for serving. The judge asked no rent guy, if that would make a difference and he said: “no, not at all”. Everyone laughs at this because…we all live here.

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Bus Riff

After getting my steps in for the day, I climb on on the 24 bus. It’s a beautiful day in San Francisco. The 24 let’s me ride through a few neighborhoods before getting to my destination.

The different buses give you revolving flavors of the city. If I want a simple no nonsense ride to Pacific Heights, it’s the 24 bus. That’s not to say this line is without public transportation drama. Almost weekly, I comment on my Twitter feed about something that happens out of the ordinary (#talesofthe24). In general, it’s an easy ride.

As a huge theatre fan if I want my ride with almost a complete guarantee of a one person show, I can get that. Hey, it’s free theatre. When you see a ton of it you feel you can be a critic. For instance, I didn’t connect with Mary’s bump, grind and grunt on the 16 bus but I found Franco’s “bitch stole my money and my fu***** drugs” to be deep and Chaucer-like.

img_0527I’m in a good mood. The X-Ray’s on Luna’s leg repair looks good. She gets a total green light (longer walks, full unleashed use of the backyard). It’s a relief. And not carrying a pit bull up and down a flight of stairs every day is sweet.

At the intersection of Market and Castro, we stop for a long red light. I can see from my seat folks out enjoying the day. The realization for me is that I’m loving it myself. I’m on my way to work for a few hours and happy with the Luna news.

On that corner: The Twin Peaks Tavern (a bar folks call the glass coffin) is lively with patrons in and out as they continue with pandemic seating. An older man is sitting outside comfortably sporting blue Jean shorts, hoodie zip, and underneath the shorts are black stockings. The stockings have a sizable hole in them. It was big. My guess is he new about it and didn’t mind. This image struck me as a decent metaphor for San Francisco life. It’s not perfect but it’s not the holes that matter.

There are times when I listen to headphones on the trip or read something from my phone but more times out of not I take in the ride. There are a few side views as you ascend the hills. On clear days you can see downtown or the fog (or both).

The restaurants along Divesadero street are busy with Sunday brunchers. I’m my head I start playing back Sunday from Jonathan Larson’s Tick Tick Boom. I love what Lin-Manuel Miranda did with this show. He added a few numbers (where Hollywood directors would cut), one number that Larson cut in the stage show. He made it work visually. Andrew Garfield turned out to be the right choice for the lead.

Ah here comes my stop.

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City Scrape

I am very happy to see some fog today. This week has been a touch of summer, peaking around 80 degrees per day (since Monday). And like ice cream I melt into a sweet puddle of dissipating ambition. Its puffy existence obstructing the sun early Thursday.

I headed out to Union Square around 10:30 a.m.. There was a small line of tourists waiting for the Powell Street cable car. You can immediately hear the noise of the car on the cable when ascending from the metro underneath. 

It’s the scraping metal of normalcy here. Folks out and about hitting the shops, asking change for $100, or peddling hot dogs. The square itself is fraught with squatters; humans and bird’s alike caffeinating and picking at anything.

We are the masked marauders of the city walking up and down these cement hills. I’m heading up to an old deco building to get my usual teeth cleaning. Dentist visits aren’t my favorite, but I keep up with it. It helps that they are friendly people. 

My dentist is on the same block as a theater we used to have a subscription with then the pandemic hit. I’m happy to see they are going again. They began with shows online first, now they are offering both options. Different avenues for theater is a good thing in general. I do prefer a live performance. It’s a different sensation.

My dentist is always chatty. I find it a bit challenging to meet her level of chat with a drill in my mouth. The best I can do is a gurgling noise to indicate I’ve heard the statement. To her credit: she can translate gargle.  

After the usual scraping of she recommends invisalign for my lower half as a few of my teeth want to go in different directions. I sigh, wondering who I’ll be putting through college. I know she is right though and it needs to happen, at least the cleaning is covered with insurance. Can we agree that dental insurance in the United States is not adequate?

Back outside San Francisco decides to be warmer. I guess it’s time to get some sun for a couple of hours before the fog rolls in. It will be a beautiful night. Maybe the not-so-full moon will be shining down over the palm tree outback.

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Speedy September

Does anybody else feel that September is flying?

With some September rain predictions, unusually early in San Francisco, I guess it does already feel like October but seriously this month has been a blur. I mean, I feel like I’m looking up from my desk and September 20th is Monday.

Perhaps this is a positive sign. Life as we know it continues to change around us and we try to catch up with and adjust to it: vaccine cards, COVID tests, masks, etc. If the days are going quickly maybe psychologically we’re expecting change and are more ready to roll with it. However, it could also mean we’re busier than usual and there is more stuff on your plate to juggle.

Luna started limping again last week. Her hind left leg. This strain is not a new thing as she had a similar injury several months ago. Then, the Vet gave us pain and anti-inflammatory meds and it subsided. It’s back and X-Rays are saying operate. She’s got a tear in there. We’ve got her on meds until the procedure on Friday.

She’s in real good hands. We like our Vets and so does Luna. They’ve already done her right knee a few years prior and that worked out great. Currently, the doggie drugs are helping and she’s not even limping.

I really can’t forget her grogginess with the last operation. I had to carry a 65 pound pit bull up the stairs carefully. She stood halfway in the foyer and living room staring ahead, unmoving for the longest time as if in a trance. It took her a bit to shake off those meds.

Hopefully that’s the last big operation Luna will have to deal with but with dogs there are no guarantees. We want to keep her happy and healthy. She is a sweet thing.

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Thursday

It’s a Thursday in late July, Fog City was doing its best to represent with a cool 55-degree outlook. The coffee was flowing because I care deeply for all the living things around me. Garry, who was awake earlier, left some for me in the coffee maker. I think I’ll keep him.

My half week at work turned out to be pretty busy and that’s normal for post-end-of-year inventory. I mean it makes perfect sense when we are in the middle of inventory, every other thing stops. When we are done with that, the floodgates open. The next few weeks will be more of the same.

I’ve got some website updates to do today for a client but otherwise, the weekend has begun. The only thing I’ve got scheduled over the weekend is a softball game Sunday. The potential for a really lazy weekend exists but I’ll throw in a few chores to keep it real.

We will actually miss the Russian River Softball Tournament this year. This is that weekend but the team didn’t vote to do it this year so the league kept us on schedule with a regular-season game. My wallet is alright with this decision. We did Denver. We did Seattle. At the end of August, we will be in Columbus, Ohio for an entire week and absolutely none of it’s free. The river would have tacked on an extra $700-900 to my softball budget. I enjoy the river but I definitely choose the Gay World Series over it.

It’s been a fun softball year. Our team has undergone some changes with new fun additions. There continues to be a sense of relief and gratefulness of being able to play this year. We started the season a month later due to COVID restrictions from the winter. The league was able to open up in April. We had almost a month off between mid-June and mid-July, in what was deemed as the first half of the season and the second half. It will be the first time the schedule pulls us into August, as our last game is the first of the month.

Thankfully, I’m playing pain and injury-free. I’m in my mid-50’s and still running around the bases with these youngsters. I’ll do it for as long as I can.

For now, though the coffee is flowing, the sun will break through the clouds in the next hour or so, my pitbull will finally wake up and look at me as if to say; “let’s get cracking, I’ve got to get out there and smell stuff.” It’s Thursday.

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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.

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Pulling the Blinds Back

April 21 is almost over. Life as we knew it before the pandemic is peeking in, like sunlight in mostly closed blinds. Exterior activity that was already pretty lively in the city has a new mask-free lease on life, following the latest CDC recommendations.

I’m heartened by the vac numbers, locally and beyond. Where the country began so poorly in managing this effort, they have reversed course. Effective leadership makes a difference.

Physically, I’ve felt like a bear slowly coming out of hibernation. The new softball season began on April 18 with a doubleheader, then some of us had lunch. It seemed to mark the longest stint I’ve had outside with a group of (vaccinated) people in a long time. The off-season practices have kept me with at least a paw in the sunlight, but it’s fair to say I’ve had a hermit-like year and even more thankful for the company of my husband and my dog.

Between the weeding and the fact that it’s bloom time of the year, the garden is exploding in color. One thing that didn’t make it this season was the stinky Voodoo Lily, a certain pit bull that will go nameless, flattened it in one of her many wild runs. It’s impressive that we have plants.

Yesterday I walked to the BART train station without a mask. It felt good and weird. Like a gunslinger, I had it, at the ready, in my pocket should I encounter other town folks. You’ve got to be careful here in the Wild West; folks will pop out of anywhere. And naturally, my cloth barrier was back on before I entered transportation. This is where I’m at.

Next week, I’m rolling up some blinds, as my friend Joel (vaccinated) is visiting from Las Vegas. I’m looking forward to catching up and talking about our fall travel trip to London (we hope). If theater is happening again, I want to check it out.

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Octoberness

October in San Francisco: it seems like we’re getting past the days of bad quality air days. The Glass Fire is about 70-75% contained. Covid restrictions continue in the city but things are beginning to open up…carefully. Our numbers in town have been lower than other parts of the state.

Personally, we’ve continued our semi-shelter here at home. There are no trips planned (yes, no softball tournaments and no London Theater trips) and while this is a depressing thought I don’t fancy the idea of a hospital stay. What I tell myself is this…those places aren’t going anywhere. The show must go on. It’s the stage and we’re all the players. We can press pause or stop or go.

It’s a semi-shelter because I still go into work when I physically need to and I’m still arranging “safe” softball workouts at Balboa Park for my Cougar CUBS. We distance, we wear masks and there is no hugging (tough for our softball guys). If a new season happens it will be in March so this is not practicing for that, this is practicing for sanity.

Softballers miss the game. No season? No game? You pull the rug out and you will find an attempt by some to get back on the field. We’ve been at it for a few months but we were pretty strict about what we wanted, safety wise and any players that wouldn’t comply would not be invited. Fortunately for our group, it was preaching to the converted. There have been zero issues.

In other news: I don’t have the energy to go on about the Trumpster fire in the White House. VOTE. We received our absentee ballot in the mail. We filled it out. On Monday, October the 5th, I walked both signed and dated closed ballots to City Hall: the main ballot drop in San Francisco…end of story.

I understand complaining, it can be therapeutic but make a plan and do something about it. VOTE. Here endeth my voting ad.

Anyway the rainy season is right around the corner in the Bay Area and I have to say that I’m looking forward to it. It should do a number on some of the leftover fires and maybe save a few trees in the process. We’ve got a few weeds to pluck in the garden and more will show up because that’s an ongoing natural cycle of growth back there.

At the end of the month I’ve got a week off from all things work. It will be a staycation. Perhaps I’ll dream about being in Spain or watching a Shakespeare Play at the Globe Theatre in London. A break is still a break so I’ll take it. 

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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. 

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