An old light blue 1995 Toyota Corolla

Over twenty years ago, tired of all the beaters I’d driven for years, I bought a two-year-old Toyota Corolla with 45,000 miles on it for about ten grand.  

Read Full Post »

Home for a Holiday

I went home to my parents house in Rochester, Minnesota for Thanksgiving. While waiting at baggage claim I got an email from a former coworker, who wrote:  “Pretty cold there right now, huh?”

Read Full Post »

Tiring and Retiring: In which I remove myself from the workaday world

It’s time. I’ve saved for years. I bought five extra years’ service with the state, bolstering my pension. I don’t have to work in the court system any more. The judicial process is painstaking, and as a citizen I appreciate the serious efforts of the courts to apply the law, to resolve conflicts, to get things right — at the same time, I don’t have to take those pains myself any more.

Read Full Post »

Minneapolis’s skyways

On our last day in Minneapolis, we checked out of the Normandie Inn (which we had enjoyed), and decided to go for a walk before I drove the missus to the airport. During prior visits I’d wonder at how quiet the sidewalks downtown are. In San Francisco’s Financial District, the sidewalks are always busy. Okay, perhaps there aren’t as many people in downtown Minneapolis; I don’t know how many white-collar workers per square yard each city has. I just know the sidewalks midday had seemed eerily deserted, even during my visits between May and September. It took me a while to realize they are all using the skyways. 

Read Full Post »

Home Just Before the Holidays

You might think visiting at that time of year might mean lots of hiding in doors, visiting friends and avoiding getting out and doing things. You might want to think again.  We had a great time, and never let the weather slow us down. You just prepare for it, ferrcryin’outloud, and go about your plans.

Read Full Post »

Returning to Minnesota in December

I’ve lived in California for over three decades now, yet return home periodically.  Maybe 15, 16 times total, and almost always between May and October. Twice as late as Thanksgiving (and met by snowstorms each time—even a blizzard). This year for the first time since I left, I went back in December. 

Read Full Post »

Just Another BART Altercation

Last night I saw this large, balding guy follow a short man onto the BART train, hollering at him. When the short fellow tried to laugh it off, the balding guy got right in his face, aggressively laughing back, mocking him as his head bobbed up and down. 

Read Full Post »

The New Bay Bridge

Twenty-four years after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, we finally got a new bridge to replace the damaged eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. It’s pretty, despite SF Chronicle architecture critic John King’s dismissal.

Here’s the new span next to the old span.

 

Read Full Post »

The War for Couth Continues

So I mentioned the ferret-faced woman in my last post, and how a month or so went by until I saw her again.

When I got on at Civic Center this time, someone was in the window seat next to the chair I usually go for, so I sat an aisle back. The train got crowded quickly after that, and I noticed an elderly couple  looking for seats together; they might have been Indian immigrants. They hesitated by that open aisle seat before passing me by. Just then I saw ferret-face get on the train, looking for her best opportunity.

Behind me I heard a woman offer a seat to someone, and then an Indian-accented voice politely decline. Ferret-face passed me by, then began demanding someone move.

Read Full Post »

Further Setbacks in the War for Couth

I’ve stopped using BART regularly for my morning commute. Whether or not our so-called economic recovery has been jobless, my anecdotal experience is that the BART trains are now regularly packed with commuters headed somewhere, so much so that when I went in early one morning last week, on the train at 6:15 a.m., it was already standing room only into the City. SRO? At 6:15?

My feet, knees, and ankles are no longer what they were when I ran cross country all those years ago,  and years of standing on buses and trains have taken their toll. I need to sit. So I’ve been doing the casual carpool thing. Most often it’s quiet and uneventful, but every so often there’s a livewire.

Read Full Post »