Some time ago our friends J&K G. lost their cat Beaner who was a very respectable age and who was too old to be saved even by a diet of French ham and pate' and drinking directly from a faucet. After a suitable wait, J&K adopted a rescue cat, now named Cleopatra.
Cleo is a nice cat and a long cat. Cleo is so long she can easily catch her own tail should she be inclined. Measured from the ground up, Cleo is an average medium sized cat. Measured nose to tail, Cleo is a cat and a half. Front to back there's a lot of Cleo to go around. Cleo is a happy cat, but still shy and J&K were worried about putting her in a kennel while they vacationed in the desert SW, so we volunteered to house-sit Cleo while they were gone
(A largely free vacation in the San Francisco area was hard to take, but dw and I sacrificed for friends)
So we drove to Mountain View (just south of San Francisco) and stayed in their lovely condo in a lovely neighborhood and took care of their lovely cat -- which was very easy since Cleo would either stare at us from as far away as possible, or hide under a bed or the couch. And as a courteous cat, Cleo didn't express displeasure with any misplaced poop or vomit. Easy cat patrol.
dw and I are in training to walk another section of the Camino (I'll write about that in a later blog) so most days we took long walks -- some in the Santa Cruz Mountains, some on urban routes. We walked to Stanford University (10 miles), and across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito (9 or 10 miles -?-), and after visiting a friend we walked around Pacific Heights (8 miles or so)
agave in Palo Alto
The route we took to Stanford passed through modest neighborhoods, with modest houses, largely one story or one and half -- 900 or 1200 square feet -- small yards all very nice and middle class, and according to the occasional real estate flyer we saw -- all priced at $3,000,000 to $6,000,000 (The expensive houses (Steve Jobs lived in the general area) are largely hidden with hedges and walls) -- It's a different world.
Stanford's art museum is better than I thought it would be (and it's free) -- (even for Stanford, which is not a poor school) with a large collection of Rodin, including maquettes which show how some of his pieces evolved. A bunch of world ethnic stuff and the standard classic stuff and a new annex with modern art. (After looking at a thousand "Madonna col Bambino"s or a thousand "Saint Sebastian With a Hundred Arrows And an Axe In His Head" modern art is refreshing.)
In San Jose we lucked into a tour of the Cathedral. The chatty docent was happy to pass on bits of interesting gossip (old and new) and was very informative. The church has an unusual Greek Cross shape, with the altar in the center (church in the round) and in it's present shape dates back to 1876 with assorted repairs over the years.
We also went to the San Jose Art Museum. The SJAM is entirely modern art and has a very small permanent collection. Mostly they seem to host temporary exhibits. We lucked into a Diana Thater video and light installation exploring the relationship of our galaxy and the dung beetle. It occupied several large rooms and featured four videos of zooming stars projected on a wall and a dung beetle projected on the ceiling, and other walls draped and lit with glow-in-the-dark blue light and in the center of one room a big blue glow-in-the -dark box with a door (which I touched, even though dw said I shouldn't) To be truthful, we didn't quite get the connection between a dung beetle and the galaxy even though (according to the artist's statement) Thater has long been fascinated with the dung beetle and the galaxy (compare and contrast)! The gravitas of the installation escaped us.
The dung beetle has a near tragic and little known history. Many thousands of years ago the dung beetle, an ordinary beetle at the time, was mouthing off to Kushiel (the beetle was kind of a low key jerk) and Kushiel finally said, "Eat shit and die!" so the beetle had to. -- The dying part takes some time which makes the "eat shit" part more tragic.
We took a train into San Francisco, then walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and on to Sausalito. The walk was enjoyable. A fair number of people were also walking across the bridge but it wasn't too crowded, and the view was wonderful. Bits of fog moving in and out, boats (motor and sail, and tour) moving about with a few sailboats being amusingly incompetent (one lost control of his spinnaker, another seemed to get a good whack from his boom when he came about). On the north end a couple of seals were nosing about the rocks -- all in all the walk was much more interesting than our average training walks. The walk from the bridge to Sausalito was along a road with light traffic.
We wandered around Sausalito: had a good pizza for lunch, walked around the docks and looked at boats (if we sold everything we own we could outfit some of them with new sails), and checked out art galleries --- The Great Bay Area Artist Colony of Sausalito. What a joke. 95% of the stuff wasn't just garish kitsch, it was bad garish kitsch. And naturally all of it was grossly over-priced. I get particularly annoyed at places which pretend giclee is anything other than ink-jet printing. We have seen much higher quality work in Ashland and Astoria, let alone Portland.
We took a ferry back to the city -- the windows were scratched and filthy but the weather was good enough to stay on the open deck. All in all a lovely day with 9 or 10 miles walking.
Another day we visited an old college friend, JC (he's my age, almost to the day). He has some sort of mental thing going on -- he's lost a large part of his short-term memory -- the kind of thing Oliver Sacks might have written about. He's fully aware of his loss, and while much of the time he converses like the witty and intelligent person he's always been, he will repeat the same question time after time, each iteration separated by a few minutes. He lives in an assisted living place which seems to be a good arrangement, and which he needs because he really can't safely wander around unsupervised. His situation is sad and yet he seems content enough. Much of what he was remains and he has contented himself with his present life. Of necessity he lives in the moment and he seems to be OK with that.
After the visit we did a mansion tour of Pacific Heights, including a walk-by of the Spreckels (of Spreckels sugar fame) Mansion, now occupied by Danielle Steele -- who knew that a crappy romance-novelist could make so much money.
Photo from the web
After picking up J&K from the airport we started the drive back to Portland, stopping for the night in Yreka. Before I've only driven past Yreka, at most stopping for gas, but this time we looked at the downtown and it's an appealing, turn of the 20th century area, that so far hasn't been killed by an edge-of-the-freeway shopping mall. The downtown actually has two Thai restaurants, leaving Bismarck, N.D. as the only town in America without a Thai restaurant. Even Ely, Nv. has a Thai restaurant. It's owned and operated by one woman, who cooks, waits tables, delivers takeout (!) does dishes, etc. -- all by herself. And the food is good. A couple of years ago, we entered the café, sat down and waited. There didn't seem to be any activity and we were getting restless, finally two couples at another table said: "She's just out delivering some pad thai to the Wilkersons, she'll be back in a few minutes."
"Oh," we said. "Is the food any good?" (thinking -- What!? there's only one person here?)
"Yeah", they said, "She does a real good job. She runs this place by herself and she's a real good cook."
And so she was -- leaving Bismarck with no excuse at all.
A flyer I picked up in Yreka: "Waiting to be seen by a doctor at the emergency room can be stressful, especially when out of town. With the Dignity Health North State hospitals, you can visit our website and select a projected arrival time at any of our emergency rooms. Spend less time in the waiting room and more time at your hotel, office or anywhere that is convenient."
So if you're in a traffic accident, for example, you can whip out your laptop, schedule an arrival time and then go to the nearest bar for a beer and a bump while you wait for your ER appointment. With just a little planning, you can be sure your underwear is clean or that you're wearing your new bra. Have your next accident in Northern California and THINK AHEAD! Scheduling your ER visit a week ahead of time is not too soon. Folks, planning is no accident.
JOKE OF THE DAY: "OMG, OMG!! Amelia's? On Alberta? They sell gluten-free lipstick!!!" ---- (really --- at least according to a sign in front of the store)
WORD OF THE DAY: "mouton enrage'" -- literally, angry sheep. (French -- in honor of our upcoming trek through France) --- a normally mild and calm person who suddenly becomes uncharacteristically angry.
A MOMENT FROM HISTORY --The Oregonian (4/4/2011): (Shirley, Mass.) One man was killed and another injured when the two fell out of a restroom window of a tour bus that was returning from a brewery in New Hampshire, Massachusetts State Police said Sunday. --- The two were believed to have been mooning passing traffic. --- Police said they believe alcohol was a factor.
And so it goes. DJA
Cleo is a nice cat and a long cat. Cleo is so long she can easily catch her own tail should she be inclined. Measured from the ground up, Cleo is an average medium sized cat. Measured nose to tail, Cleo is a cat and a half. Front to back there's a lot of Cleo to go around. Cleo is a happy cat, but still shy and J&K were worried about putting her in a kennel while they vacationed in the desert SW, so we volunteered to house-sit Cleo while they were gone
(A largely free vacation in the San Francisco area was hard to take, but dw and I sacrificed for friends)
So we drove to Mountain View (just south of San Francisco) and stayed in their lovely condo in a lovely neighborhood and took care of their lovely cat -- which was very easy since Cleo would either stare at us from as far away as possible, or hide under a bed or the couch. And as a courteous cat, Cleo didn't express displeasure with any misplaced poop or vomit. Easy cat patrol.
agave in Palo AltoThe route we took to Stanford passed through modest neighborhoods, with modest houses, largely one story or one and half -- 900 or 1200 square feet -- small yards all very nice and middle class, and according to the occasional real estate flyer we saw -- all priced at $3,000,000 to $6,000,000 (The expensive houses (Steve Jobs lived in the general area) are largely hidden with hedges and walls) -- It's a different world.
Stanford's art museum is better than I thought it would be (and it's free) -- (even for Stanford, which is not a poor school) with a large collection of Rodin, including maquettes which show how some of his pieces evolved. A bunch of world ethnic stuff and the standard classic stuff and a new annex with modern art. (After looking at a thousand "Madonna col Bambino"s or a thousand "Saint Sebastian With a Hundred Arrows And an Axe In His Head" modern art is refreshing.)
In San Jose we lucked into a tour of the Cathedral. The chatty docent was happy to pass on bits of interesting gossip (old and new) and was very informative. The church has an unusual Greek Cross shape, with the altar in the center (church in the round) and in it's present shape dates back to 1876 with assorted repairs over the years.
We also went to the San Jose Art Museum. The SJAM is entirely modern art and has a very small permanent collection. Mostly they seem to host temporary exhibits. We lucked into a Diana Thater video and light installation exploring the relationship of our galaxy and the dung beetle. It occupied several large rooms and featured four videos of zooming stars projected on a wall and a dung beetle projected on the ceiling, and other walls draped and lit with glow-in-the-dark blue light and in the center of one room a big blue glow-in-the -dark box with a door (which I touched, even though dw said I shouldn't) To be truthful, we didn't quite get the connection between a dung beetle and the galaxy even though (according to the artist's statement) Thater has long been fascinated with the dung beetle and the galaxy (compare and contrast)! The gravitas of the installation escaped us.
The dung beetle has a near tragic and little known history. Many thousands of years ago the dung beetle, an ordinary beetle at the time, was mouthing off to Kushiel (the beetle was kind of a low key jerk) and Kushiel finally said, "Eat shit and die!" so the beetle had to. -- The dying part takes some time which makes the "eat shit" part more tragic.
We wandered around Sausalito: had a good pizza for lunch, walked around the docks and looked at boats (if we sold everything we own we could outfit some of them with new sails), and checked out art galleries --- The Great Bay Area Artist Colony of Sausalito. What a joke. 95% of the stuff wasn't just garish kitsch, it was bad garish kitsch. And naturally all of it was grossly over-priced. I get particularly annoyed at places which pretend giclee is anything other than ink-jet printing. We have seen much higher quality work in Ashland and Astoria, let alone Portland.
We took a ferry back to the city -- the windows were scratched and filthy but the weather was good enough to stay on the open deck. All in all a lovely day with 9 or 10 miles walking.
Another day we visited an old college friend, JC (he's my age, almost to the day). He has some sort of mental thing going on -- he's lost a large part of his short-term memory -- the kind of thing Oliver Sacks might have written about. He's fully aware of his loss, and while much of the time he converses like the witty and intelligent person he's always been, he will repeat the same question time after time, each iteration separated by a few minutes. He lives in an assisted living place which seems to be a good arrangement, and which he needs because he really can't safely wander around unsupervised. His situation is sad and yet he seems content enough. Much of what he was remains and he has contented himself with his present life. Of necessity he lives in the moment and he seems to be OK with that.
After the visit we did a mansion tour of Pacific Heights, including a walk-by of the Spreckels (of Spreckels sugar fame) Mansion, now occupied by Danielle Steele -- who knew that a crappy romance-novelist could make so much money.
Photo from the web"Oh," we said. "Is the food any good?" (thinking -- What!? there's only one person here?)
"Yeah", they said, "She does a real good job. She runs this place by herself and she's a real good cook."
And so she was -- leaving Bismarck with no excuse at all.
A flyer I picked up in Yreka: "Waiting to be seen by a doctor at the emergency room can be stressful, especially when out of town. With the Dignity Health North State hospitals, you can visit our website and select a projected arrival time at any of our emergency rooms. Spend less time in the waiting room and more time at your hotel, office or anywhere that is convenient."
So if you're in a traffic accident, for example, you can whip out your laptop, schedule an arrival time and then go to the nearest bar for a beer and a bump while you wait for your ER appointment. With just a little planning, you can be sure your underwear is clean or that you're wearing your new bra. Have your next accident in Northern California and THINK AHEAD! Scheduling your ER visit a week ahead of time is not too soon. Folks, planning is no accident.
JOKE OF THE DAY: "OMG, OMG!! Amelia's? On Alberta? They sell gluten-free lipstick!!!" ---- (really --- at least according to a sign in front of the store)
WORD OF THE DAY: "mouton enrage'" -- literally, angry sheep. (French -- in honor of our upcoming trek through France) --- a normally mild and calm person who suddenly becomes uncharacteristically angry.
A MOMENT FROM HISTORY --The Oregonian (4/4/2011): (Shirley, Mass.) One man was killed and another injured when the two fell out of a restroom window of a tour bus that was returning from a brewery in New Hampshire, Massachusetts State Police said Sunday. --- The two were believed to have been mooning passing traffic. --- Police said they believe alcohol was a factor.
And so it goes. DJA
