October 1

This is from another Dive Bar activity...I missed it (hospice meeting instead) but came by later to take pictures of the results. This plate is someone else's idea, not mine. It made me laugh.

The activity was to create submissions for the design of the California quarter. Entries were drawn with a sharpie on a paper plate.

This was a day-of-running errands...here I was driving down Market street...PhotoShop made it look more interesting...

Day-o-errands...with brunch with a friend, a tape exchange, some carpet cleaning & an evening hospice shift at the end of the day.

We went to the Western Railway Museum.

On the way there, we drove over the Bay Bridge & saw many boats lined up near the Port of Oakland, waiting until the dockworkers are back to work.

More Western Railway Museum.

It's a closet. Under construction.

Today, I went to Emeryville to meet with my Dharma study group. We talked about death.

Later, I went to a friend's birthday party, starting at the Tonga room and ending at a Thai restaurant.

Someone had a little trouble with the turn. And the stop sign.

I found this sideways stop sign when walking up the hill to have lunch with a friend.

This is kitty-guard...a method for keeping the cat from jumping out the bedroom window.

This evening, I drove to Cupertino for dinner with my investment club.

See the face of evil in this morning bagel?

Maybe I've been watching too many soaps where they talk about Evil coming to town.

This afternoon, I went to Rounds at the Laguna Honda hospice.

Tools for changing the locks...

In the evening, I went to my knitting circle gathering.

Kitty got catnip on a towel. Kitty liked it.

A bit later in the evening, I heard sirens, a lot of them. Then I heard the sirens stop, kinda close to my house. I looked outside & saw fire trucks heading down the narrow street one away from my house. I poked my head out the back window and smelled smoke. I grabbed my camera & coat & went to take a look. Whatever it was, the fire trucks must have gotten it. The trucks were gone by the time I got there. The burning smell was mostly gone, too. What is it about fire & this neighborhood?

October 10

This is actually another image that I took earlier on the tour of electric streetcars. I've been playing a bit with the image.

This is Laguna Honda Hospital. The place reminds me of the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The building was built in the 1920s and I doubt much maintence has been done since. I do volunteer work at the hospice, through the Zen Hospice Project.

This evening, we braved dark, blackberry covered paths to climb to the highest point in San Francisco, the top of Mount Davidson. After looking at the giant cross, we took in the City views.

The night was clear with no fog.

Earlier this summer, I went to the performance of the wall dancers against this mural. Now that the performances are done, the dancers have been added to the wall.

We went to Open Studios during the afternoon. This is after going to Farmer's Market with a friend & then cooking brunch for five that morning. This was a full day. I still missed another friend's housewarming this evening...

This is the West Portal MUNI station. I went on a City Guides walk of the West Portal neighborhood.

Later in the day, we went to Ikea, a retail shopping experience.

One good part about the commute is that I get to see the sun rise on a regular basis.

Cool closet, right?

I never know what I'm going to come home to. Today, I saw shavings from drilling in the bathroom. I looked and discovered a new coat rack thing. Oh, and the hand towel ring had been swapped with one downstairs...all these details...it's very nice. I like it.

I went to my knitting group tonight.

Life without a job was interesting. I'm hoping that life with a job will continue to be interesting. Still, I see many "Oh this was my commute today" image in my future.

Look at the clouds..very pretty.

After spending all day at work, I went to hospice for another 5 hour shift.

It's the doggy diner head.

Doggy Diner doesn't exist anymore but the head lives on. We were supposed to meet some people at Ocean Beach. The directions said to park at Doggy Diner (Sloat). Then look for the bonfire at Stairway 28, near Lincoln & Fulton. Well, that about spans the entire length of Ocean Beach. We found many bonfires, but none with the group we were looking for.

This means I still have This Thing Haunting my house.

Why, it's the Bernal Hill Festival on the Hill, complete with petting zoo! Here's a sheep from the petting zoo. The festival also featured a dunk tank & pony rides for the kids. If I didn't know better, I'd think I lived in a small town somewhere.

It's a twisted toy! For a twisted boy on his birthday.

I take the train, sometimes...this is the Menlo Park Cal Train Station.

I took the train to/from work today. From the train station, I caught a bus to my knitting group. Then home...late night this was.

I brought flowers from my garden to decorate my cube.

Busy shift at hospice tonight...it seemed that there was a lot going on.

I bought wool.

I went to Farmer's Market first thing in the morning. Then I went to dig in my garden for the rest of the morning. I found a jalapeno pepper and paperwhites just starting to blom.

Later in the evening, I had dinner with an old friend from college. After dinner, we went to an art thing but I was too tired (head cold) so we left at the intermission.

I saw this appliance on the back of a truck on the way home.

I made gazpacho. The base is blenderized tomatoes. I put cucumbers & red onions on the top.

Garlic, red pepper, chopped tomatoes& spices still were to be added.

We started the day with banana pancakes and the Sunday paper.

Next stop was Hunter's Point for Open Studios. We found some very cool art. I took a few photos of the shipyard which someone said I shouldn't be doing. We rode an old train and found out about an opportunity to ride a steam engine in December, dressed as Santa.

Then we went to Bernal Hill and saw the last soap box racers of the day. Not all (any?) of the racers were made from soap boxes. They were pretty much whatever anyone wanted to put together. The only requirement was that every vehicle needed a drink holder.

I came home & found this hanging in my garage.

Sometimes I come home & find new fixtures in the house. Or new electrical work. Sometimes it's a three foot tall Hello Kitty pinata with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and a can of Bud in one paw.

This is the wool I bought from the Shetland Islands, after I'd put it on the swift & turned it into center pull balls instead of hanks. . Mira (the cat) is checking out the giant (size nineteen!) knitting needles. No, I won't use the Shetland two ply jumper weight with the giant needles.

On my way home, I briefly stopped by the Voodoo Lounge for Voodoo Night with Dive Bar. Then I went to the new, remodelled We Be Sushi for dinner with a friend. Then home to play with yarn.

This is the Palace hotel in downtown San Francisco, from the front lobby.

I was here for a ghost tour. City Guides did a Halloween Ghost Tour, telling all fhe old ghost stories of the hotel.

This image is also from the Palace hotel. I took this at the bottom of a lot of stairs. I almost thought there should have been a ghost story about someone who fell down between these stairs (there has to be a word for this...stairs that wind around a central open area?). If there was a story about this place in the hotel, we didn't hear it. We did get to hear about some of the seismic retrofitting that happened at the Palace after the Loma Prieta earthquake.

This is kitty in the tub, her favorite place to be after someone takes a shower.

My Halloween this year was pretty dull. I spent the day at work & the evening at hospice. It was a very slow night at hospice. No one died so I didn't get to go to the morgue.