Saturday Afternoon Ride

Summer has finally showed up here in San Francisco and it has been a nice 80 degrees warm for the last couple of weeks. Typically we get a few weeks, maybe a month if we are lucky, of this weather and then comes the cold drizzle. I took the opportunity to hang with newbie rider, co-worker, and NY transplant, Frank (hell on wheels) LaMonaca. We headed south to Half Moon Bay and then cut inland to the world famous Alice's Restaurant for lunch and then back to the city. We missed the big Sunday ride but had an great burger, saw our share of cool bikes and had an excellent ride.

Pears a Plenty

Another exciting post about my yard! I realized that not everyone has seen my place and I thought I would post a photo to show everyone the plenty of pears that are just about ripe and ready for eattin' Bonus question: Does anyone know what kind of pears these are and what the hell do you do with several dozen pears? More exciting deck photos to follow...

Oktoberfest in California

I had an exciting weekend as I joined a few friends to celebrate Andrea's birthday at Oktoberfest at the infamous Tourist Club. For those of you that don't know the Tourist Club is a funky little bar / hostel over looking the Muir Woods in Marin just north of San Francisco and is only accessible via (at best) a short hike. They have a few events every year but by far the most popular is Oktoberfest. If you are looking for a way to combine hiking, nature and drinking, I recommend it!


It was a great summer day filled with plenty of Lederhosen, Tubas, Accordians, Polka, dancing, Knackwurst and beer. Hmmm... lots of beer related events this month. BTW, the homebrew is happily gurgling away in the closet. T minus 6 weeks and counting..

Updated Deck Project Photo Albums

Just a quick note to check out the updated photo albums of the deck project. I should have the rest of these up in a few days that will bring this up to date. Check out page 2 and page 3

The Never Ending Deck Project

Always inching forward. The more I work on this deck the more I realize that this is just like life. There are no quick solutions to substantial projects. It is coming up on one year since Ken and Cheryl decided to come out for a week and help me do this thing. I took a little while off to recoup, then it rained for about 4 months and since then I've been picking away at it like a itchy scab. Today was a big day as I put the first section of actual "stop you from falling off the thing" railing on the deck. You want to see the whole saga? I'm still building the pages but here are a couple of photos from page 1. I'll be posting the rest as time permits (cause I'm busy working on the damn thing). This is at the very beginning where I had to pull out a few tons of cement, a tree and a couple bushes to make room for the deck footings.

For more photos check out the link below

Deck Project Page 1

Beerfest!!

Yes, this is just as exciting as it looks from the photo. A pot of boiling hops and malt (a wort in beer making lingo), that with some time and love, will soon be a couple of cases of American Hefe Weizen. I guess I should have had this ready for the big NFL kick off this weekend but wasn't thinking that far ahead. It'll spend a week in the plastic bucket, then 2 weeks in the large glass bottle and then 5 weeks in the actual beer bottles.


I had forgotten that my Dad used to make wine in the closet back in the 70's. I guess it all comes back around. So show up in October for some free beer and let me know what you think.

Birthday Poem

A friend had a birthday recently and it reminded me of one of my favorite poems. You might know about Billy Collins (Poet Laureate of the United States, from 2001 to 2003) but if not check him out. He has an easy to read style that evokes beautiful, touching images while not taking himself too seriously and is down right funny. You can't say that about many poets! Let me know what you think.
...

On Turning Ten

The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I'm coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light--
a kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.

This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.

-- Billy Collins

Yuba River 2006

Last weekend Robert and I headed to Nevada City and specifically to the South Fork of the Yuba River for a little camping and R & R. For those of you who don't know, the Yuba River is one of the most relaxing, tranquil places I have ever been and I (almost) always end up returning feeling refreshed and full of energy. For those of you not living in California, it's about an hour or so north of Sacramento. It's hard to tell the size from the photos but these huge, deep clear pools of water run the entire lenght of the river. The large pool below is about 70 feet long and 30 feet wide and 15 feet deep. I usually bring my swimming goggles because the water is so clear you can swim right up to the fish (or snakes) on the bottom.

for more photos check out the link below

Yuba River Photos