On the sidewalks

Wanting to check the actual location of a place I need to be tomorrow, and craving a few grocery items, I decided to head downtown this afternoon. It was an interesting time on the city sidewalks.

I tried a new BART stop, thinking this might be closer to my final destination than the Powell station where I normally get off for downtown. It really wasn’t any closer, and it took me through more crazy streets than I really want to traverse. Oh, I don’t mind; it reminds me of teaching in the inner city high school, but if I can avoid it, I will. I also had to go by the federal courthouse where there was a crazy protest going on about Proposition 8, California’s marriage amendment. I will not get started on that. Please don’t ask, don’t tell.

After checking my destination and noting the time it took to get there, I continued on my way. (Yes, it is my OCD that makes me do these trial runs; I cannot be late to anything.) Three different people or groups, going in the opposite direction, were either discussing on the phone or with their companion the difficulty of finding housing. One gentleman, with few teeth, was telling someone on the other end of his cell phone that there was no senior housing at all and he didn’t know where he was going to live. Another man was asking his buddies if he could use their SRO room (single resident occupant) in one of the hotels nearby. A younger man, better dressed, was lamenting to his walking partner that he didn’t have this kind of trouble finding an apartment in DC. I gave thanks to God for the tiny apartment and a place to lay my head and then asked God to provide for these people.

Outside of Whole Foods, on the sidewalk, was a group of young people, old enough to know better, but younger than 30, trading bites of the food they had just purchased. Come on, guys, move out of the way to have your picnic lunch.

Heading back towards home after making my small purchase at Whole Foods, I turned and took a little different route than I usually do when walking home. Not paying attention to the ground, I stumbled on a rough spot of concrete and took a tumble. Fortunately I didn’t fall, catching myself, but losing my shoe. Two well dressed business men behind me said something about suing the city. Nope, the city is broke and I’m not.

Another Monday in SF

We are in whiteout mode here, 17 floors up.  The fog has come into the bay, obliterating all hint of any water or bridge out there.  The streets aren’t bad and traffic is flowing nicely, well below the fog ceiling.  I could probably go a few blocks west and be walking in sunshine. The fog horns consistently blow to keep track of the ships and barges coming in and out of the bay.

There is quite a mess left on the streets after last night’s flash mob pillow fight.  There were even feathers in the elevator as I went down to the Starbucks for paper and soy mocha.  The innards of a foam pillow littered the sidewalk and I could see the remains of another pillow had been tossed on top of the canopy of the apartment building.  Someone has a big cleaning job today.

Although a holiday, there are many who are working, but in more casual attire than I saw last week.  Starbucks had a line out the door and tables were filled, at 8 a.m. with Apple laptops.  I am always happy to see Macs as I have a love/hate relationship with PCs.  Mostly hate.

Terry and I had a conversation about this, though, when I returned from my morning walk, and I realized that most of my PC experience is based on the computers at school which are controlled by Oz, the district’s IT department.  I don’t struggle with my Macs at school because I am the one to control them.  Of course, the district will no longer allow me to update machines or software.

Tomorrow is an inservice day, so although I will be at work, there will be no children there.  I had considered staying an extra day in SF, but I don’t want to use any more of my sick days than absolutely necessary.  I have so many that they add almost another year to my retirement schedule.  I have rarely been sick in my 21 years of teaching and most of my sick days have been taken for doctor or dentist appointments and an occasional stress day.  I am scheduled for jury duty in March and this time I am not putting it off until vacation time like I have in the past.  We’ll see how that works.