Jumbo Barking

Goodbye, Les Paul

Grayson, Survivor

This is Anna's cat, Grayson. I took care of him and his sister, Gwen, while Anna and her family were in L.A. for a week. When I got back from Kettle Point on Monday Grayson was missing. My mom was a little confused about whether there were two cats or one. After looking around the house I realized he was gone. Didn't have much hope. Started walking down the street and calling his name. When I got half way around the block I could hear his little meow in the distance, so I followed it to a porch where he was waiting and I carried him home. I'm pretty sure he had been out all night. A neighbor said she had seen him around her front door at about 5 a.m. Wow. Miracle. That's all I can say.

[MP3] LCD Soundsystem - New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down

Roxy, the Beautiful

The Dragster at Cedar Point in Ohio

Crazy butt-kickin' ride at Cedar point in Sandusky, Ohio. You take off in these race car thingys and before you know it the g-force is right on ya and you're shooting up one side of that very tall structure and then plummeting down the other side. I cannot explain the feeling. It's something like: "What just happened?" How long did we wait in line for this ride that lasted about a minute? Two hours.

Fog in Noe Valley, San Francisco

Random tidbits from the last month:

1. I went to Cedar Point with Lora yesterday and it kicked my ass. Rollarcoasters are about twelve times as fast and edgy as they were back in the olden days. We went on the Blue Streak, which is about as old as I am (built in '64) and even that was humbling.
2. Of course I went thrift store crazy in San Francisco. My best find was a pair of Mia Spago brown suede Italian boots for ten bucks.
3. Karin's girlfriend, Kirstin, is great. I ended up spending a lot of time with them and what could have been kind of awkward turned into something quite settling. We even cried together a couple of times.
4. We spent some time with Tess and Liz in Napa, toured Mumm and tasted some sparkling wine.
5. The Redwoods in Guernville blew me away in a peaceful strong sort of manner. That's a place in my mind I can go to for comfort. I only wish I could go there, physically, whenever I wanted to.
6. I met my first hairless cat, Ripley, at a science fiction book store. She was named after Siguourney Weaver's character in Alien.
7. Went on the Alma for the second time, but it was a bit weird not having any loved ones with me.
8. Craig's puppy, Roxy, kept me company the entire time I was there, cuddling with me in the morning after Craig left for work.
9. I played Garage Band with Veronica, Jacque, and Kat and I kind of sucked. On the way over to Kat's house in Bernal Heights I was like: "Yeah, I'm good at it." Veronica was cracking me up on lead vocals and Kat whacked her with the drumsticks at one point.
10. I watched a pedestrian get run over by a bicyclist who was going really fast through the Mission.
11. Anna called to tell me that Cindy, the schizophrenic woman who lived with Anna's mom, who I used to transport to and from appointments occasionally, died. She got hit by a car walking across Middlebelt.
12. My mom was not doing well while I was away, but she claims she didn't miss me.
13. Lora missed me and, of course, I missed her. I underestimated how long two and a half weeks really is.
14. Went to Glenn and Carol's cottage in Kettle Point this weekend, but the weather wasn't very good. We got totally rained out on Saturday. Stayed inside. Good thing we golfed at 8 a.m. because the rain didn't start until the 8th hole.
15. There's a huge difference between life in San Francisco and life in Livonia. At least I don't feel like spending so much money here.
16. Got together with Sunil and Richa about four days before Richa had the baby, Sidhartha (Sid for short).
17. Hung out with Dorota and Tatiana from Vienna, which was cool. When Lora and I take our European vacation we'll definitely drop in on them.
18. Spent some time with Marcia and Peter and saw the new conversions to Marcia's studio, which is now their living space as well.

Back in "The D"

Ah, yes. Who needs the Golden Gate Bridge when you have Woodward Avenue? It was a pretty full two weeks. Didn't post to the blog much because I was scrambling around having too much fun. And, besides that, the Bay Area is, believe it or not, not very iPhone-friendly. There are more than a few dead zones and I was often not working on a wireless connection so the battery was draining quite rapidly. I have lots to say about my two weeks in California, but right now I'm just too spent.