Sights and Memories of MY City by the Bay

Right now the winds of western New York are blowing past 30 mpg and while we have experienced in walked in winds past 50mph, it's still interesting to be inside and hear the howling winds! 

I am always remembering my hometown and its sights, colors, events and Beauty! How can I not think of it when I have so many fabulous image files and memories?

What is your favorite city or place in this vast place we call Home?

 

Can't live without them...

Well, the unthinkable happened. After having my car in the shop twice last month, I didn't think it would happen where my car would return to be worked on, so soon again and so unexpectedly. Yesterday as I prepared to go pick up my sister from work - and leaving earlier than normal as more cars are on the road in warmer temperatures than in colder weather, plus lots of road projects are in progress in the downtown area causing jams and headaches - but the car wouldn't start! The starter was okay but the car engine just wouldn't crank. After a few moments of several attempts, I just gave up. Called my sister to inform her (she doesn't check for messages and didn't hear my voicemail mesages) and called AAA Emergency road services. They gave me an estimated time of arrival at my North Beach location of 40 minutes, so I settled down, made phone calls trying to find a vehicle, etc... when after only 10mins I saw the yellow tow truck coming down the steep hill toward me. I didn't have to even flag him down; he turned on his emergency flashers and drove to my side of the street where the car was parked on the street and instantly went to work.

After a few tries, he simply asked me where I wanted the car to be towed. The AAA service will have the car towed to a place of your choice within five miles for free, so I asked him to take it to a garage I've been using with great results, then called them to advise them of my car problems and that the car would be there soon. This tow truck driver hitched up my car, assembled the little rear tires wheel jack, and faster than I could finish moving out my things from the car, flipped out his clipboard for a signature and took off even before the estimated time he was supposed to be here!!! wow!!! Talk about service!

This morning I rented a vehicle from Enterprise at Fisherman's Wharf, just a quick four blocks from my sister's apartment - it was a tiny 4-door Chevy Aveo. RED - same color as my car!! It's strange to be renting a car because first-off, I usually don't have money to do it. Second, I've never rented a car in my hometown of San Francisco! sigh... I am doing so much here that I never was able to do as a youngster! I did a quick check and adjustments, then drove off. Spiffy power, handled well on the hills and stops, and then I was home. Parked on the street in exactly the same spot as my car when it died on me, then spent five minutes looking for the little buttons to raise/lower the windows, etc. I had opted for a economy-priced car that didn't have electric windows, or electric door locks. Boy, this nice Honda has really spoiled me!! I finally found how to roll up the windows: it has the same devices as in my old car in Spain... roll them up manually in a circular motion!! hahahaaaaa

So, I drove around all over the place while delivering my sister to various medical appointments and running errands. I called and got updates on my car repair and by early afternoon, came the call that my car was fixed and waiting for me. Now, trying to juggle driving my sister here and there, and getting to the garage to get my car before they close, plus turn in the vehicle so I'm not charged for another day! Impossible? Never! Difficult, perhaps... fun and an excuse to walk up hills: YES!!! Her last medical appointment would get her back in the rental car at about 5:30pm, and we were way across town and rush hour was at its peak, BUT still possible. It took 32 minutes driving in streets and traffic that makes a marine boot-camp training seem baby's play, zig-zagging in and out of traffic... but I finally arrived at her favorite place on Lombard Street, half a mile from the garage. So, I dropped her off there, drove to the garage and parked the rental. Did I say I hadn't eaten much over the day previous and this same day? ;-) Got my car, then drove back to the restaurant. Walked back to the garage and got the rental, then drove it half a mile towards the rental car agency at Fisherman's Wharf, about a mile away now. Using this method of "leap-frogging", I succeeded in a very slow manner to get both cars closer to the rental agency to return it a day earlier.

Things along the way... I had to do the last fill-up, so drove to a gas station where I promptly waited behind a sedan with Oregon plates and three girls each trying to get the pump working - with no success. I stepped out and made a joke about customers not needing to pump their own gas in Oregon, to which they agreed, and thus when necessary not knowing how!! We all laughed and I helped them with the credit card and pumping... they were very excited about being in the City.... an hour before while leap-frogging the two cars, I had seen a man walking with a Oregon "O" hat on!! hahahahaa

While parking the rental on a steep hill on Hyde street, a tourist helped me guide the car backing UP the steep incline.... nice tourist - must be from the boonies!!

And finally when parking the rental at the garage's top floor to finally be DONE with the rental, it was a gorgeous view from the top of the garage, so I snapped the below pix with my cell camera!

Dam cars; cannot live with cars and can't live without them!!! But when I live in Spain again, I won't be buying a car!!! ;-)

busy day in the City

The morning started early with my files... During the previous day I had tried to copy/move my milllion image files to the newer hard drive... it took hours so I would leave and go shooting on the streets of San Francisco... when I returned, the operation aborted for some unknown reason and now I'd have to compare both folders on the source and destination locations, and copy the files not moved.... what a pain. So, I decided to just back-up all of the files. It'd just be a slight duration of a few days!

That operation in progress, I started by climbing the hills again to Telegraph Hill. Today Coit Tower was celebrating its long existence and was offering free elevator rides to the top; something I've never experienced in my life though I faintly remember a school field trip as a very young child. The view was amazing from the top, and it was well worth the trip up those hills and the stairs! Plus there were old fire engines and a display of period callsic old cars, and the Mayor would be speaking later that day - I didn't stick around but did get pixs of the engines and cars.
Last night I had heard online that a zeppelin would be flying over the city! So, I drove to Crissy Field then walked toward Fort Point at the base of the southern tower of the Golden Gate bridge..... stopping enroute to snap away at birds and more.
By time I reached a halfway point, lo and behold there was a huge white airship coming toward the bridge from the south... I started taking pixs with both a 170-500 and the wide-angle, finishing up with my standard 28-300. Many sunning at the beach were looking up at the airship, and there was a fireboat throwing up streams of water in celebration; this is the first time since the 1940s that an airship has flown over the City!!

That done, I went walking back to the Crissy Field marsh and photographed the birds there...
it's a "clean" marsh but getting filthier every week... but still... getting close and tight one can see the water and not the cups, plastic and filth... though it's still there!!

That done, I drove home, parked the car and walked toward Chinatown to see a friend who was participating in the San Francisco ARTwalk... I wanted to participate too but didn't have the money for printing the pictures, storing them in some protective sleeves, etc. It's not cheap nor easy to sell or even display images!! This morning I was starving as I hadn't eaten anything all day and had already walked a few miles, plus now will be walking up some steep North Beach hills, so I stopped at my previously favorite dim-dum place for a few snacks. They had depleted their supply of shrimp dumplings, so I took what remained - two - then grabbed some pork thingies that I liked too... the taste of the shrimp dumpling wasn't what I was used to... much has changed in the few months since I'd stopped there before. I went and found my photographer friend on Mason Street in front of the Cable Car Museum and stopped and chatted for an hour... she has an uncanny eye for flora details, and I love her work!!

After that I walked up and down those same steep hills again and drove my sister to a birthday party for her grandson and her brother-in-law.... I dropped her off to finish with the backing up of my files, plus to download the images of the morning and the zeppelin, etc.

I now went to the birthday party and spent over 3 hours there and finally returned to discover the backup operation continuing and now only two days and quite a few hours remaining!!

a running fool's life

... imagine seeing someone running through the streets... obviously not dressed to be a jogger since he's wearing street clothes. Another indication he's not a jogger could be he's holding in his hand a very big camera with a long lens.

Not a jogger!!!

Well, if you thought that scene to be out of a flick, think not! That would be me, running about two miles Tuesday night as this idiot wanted to catch the almost full moon rising over the East Bay hills.... then after waiting 20mins realized that the moon's angle is wrong and want it "lower" in the sky, so now I decided to run from about Union Street and Vallejo to the Embarcadero and Pier 14. Gasping for air, snaps a bunch of the Bay Bridge with the moon above, then decides to run back toward Broadway and ~ seeing the Transamerica Building ~ stop to capture that in the darkening night sky, then on a sidestep, spies that green Sentinel Building and now distracted, spend twenty minutes snapping that too..... after all, it's not often this lad with a camera gets out at night to discover the night! And all this without a tripod!!

Pooped to hell and back, he rests till today when he spies a great cloudy sky as sunset nears, and decides on a whim to get the sunset from a different spot, so he runs up Greenwich Street to Telegraph Hill, where ~ out of breath again ~ encounters a tourist couple whose boyfriend is busying "watering" the green bushes by the walkway leading to the top of the hill... I detected a spanish-sounding accent and in Spain it's commonplace for males to look for any place to urinate.... I was going to ask if he was from Spain but thought better of it as I was in a hurry to get the sunset which was minutes away.... gasp, pant, gasp....

Near to the top, I see a spot not blocked by tree limbs or bushes. I stood there for about ten minutes while not even two feet away a man dressed in dark clothing burned a small stove in the bushes, crouched below the bush-level. As I started to capture the setting sun, he started banging a spoon on metal chant-style, and I wondered if what he was doing was a spell to shoo me away from his camp location for the night. I left in a few minutes, running again to the top of the hill, only to see trees and even taller bushes blocking any possible view, but I did see the statue of Columbus there backlit by the setting sun's golden glow upon the clouds.

I looked skyward; a BIG mistake and decided (I'm really crazy when I go snapping away and I've had an otherwise boring few days standing for hours for four days shooting the roaring jets) to go DOWN the backside of Telegraph Hill to the Embarcadero (ooooh no, not again!) and snap Coit Tower against the red flaming clouds above...... so I ran down the 300+ steps and was shocked I didn't fall not once - usually I fall when I have camera in hand) and started snapping away yet again at street level....
....then I see a lighted water fountain and those glimmering lights and that dark and shiny reflections of light caught my eye...... if you're a technie type, the data on the fountain pix is about a four-second exposure without a tripod, the camera on the ground, me lying next to it and keys and whatever else I had in my pockets to level the camera and angle the lense down to my subject.... wot fun!!

An hour and a half later I got home..... I think I'll stay away from my camera for a few days. Maybe if I moved everything around again, I'll lose my camera and I won't have to run anytime soon.....

yea right!
This is a picture captured with my cell phone camera, showing my camera on the ground (without me) as I snapped away at the fountain to get the picture above.... neatoooo tripod, huh? hahahahaaa

I saw an interesting scene during that chase for the full moon: I am walking ~ slow for once ~ down the street and notice a man loudly talking in chinese but holding at shoulder-height a square object in his hands. As I near, I can see that object is a laptop, and instantly, I know what he is doing... I've done it myself! He is holding the laptop equipped with a webcam toward Russian Hill and the dying golden glow of that night's sunset. Through this modern technology that we so take for granted these days, this man is probably talking to friends or family in China and using his wireless net access, walk outside with his laptop and share that sunset with his friends a world away.....

Then, on the other hand, why can't people direct their thoughts in one precise direction? Why does someone have to talk using this same technology but act in such a confusing matter that it's a headache foir both that individual and myself? To make matters worst, this individual acts as if they are talking to someone else. Nooooo, this person doesn't say my name, but refers to other named persons. Not only is this insulting that they cannot say my name, but it's confusing.

I don't get headaches often.... maybe once every two years, and this is the first one in probably that period.... and I don't like having a headache caused by someone's tactlessness.

grrrrrrrr

.... and still, as in every country I've lived in... why am I still watching sunsets alone? I hate being in this place and wish I were elsewhere. Anywhere but here.....

the party's over.....

at least, it is for me! I've recorded and created about 3,762 in the past few days, and probably deleted about 3,761 of all of those images!!! hahahahaaa I almost feel as if I were at a tennis match, watching the ball tossed from one side to the other... at least I don't have to look at aircraft any longer, till next year perhaps! I've been standing an average of 4-5 hours per day, except for Saturday where my volunteer-time had me standing in the biting cold from 9am till 4:30pm... guess I am not the young man I have always been and my bones were really hurting! I could barely bend and just to sit in the car and drive home was painful enough....

For this final performance day, I had decided to sacrifice detail for distance. I walked onto the Golden Gate Bridge to take some of these most recent pixs of the Blue Angels to share with my good European and other friends, who aren't from this area {or never seen this area xcept in fotos/film} so they could "see" a bit more than just some tiny jets and even smaller propeller planes flying against a blue sky. Puting the City skyline in the background creates a terrible picture for me as it's too busy and hard to see the low-flying aircraft, but this does put into perspective the vast area being used by the planes during the performances, plus also gives them an idea of the size of the aircraft flying in comparsion to the city.
This last pix below are of some seals who were playing in their backyard below me on the bridge. I also saw what I thought was a dolphin who never reappeared again, but these seals stayed around for some hours. I also saw some huge jellyfish thinking it was strange that those would appear in the water at this late time of the year, but oh well. enjoy the fotos!!