I’ve got my heart set on a cruiser bike. I perused ye ol’ Craigslists and found that people who sell “cruiser” bikes here in the Bay Area are outta their friggin’ minds. See now, you can get a brand spankin’ new oh-so-purty pearly-white-with-pink-decal-hula-flowers gettup in the $160 range. Hit $200 and you got yourself one nice piece ‘a steel - 3-speed even - just right for coasting down long hills with the wind in my ribbon wrapped pigtails. But these folks on CL must think that their ugliest of gold-pinstriped Schwinns are oooh ahhhh vintageand so the going asking price for a used clunker cruiser is at least $150. Well, color me extravagant, but when the choice is old, squeaky, and brown ($275), nothanks I’ll use my $75 to buy a basket and bell and take the pink.
So I get a card in the mail from the gynecologist. It says “it’s time for your next appointment!” and lists the names of all the docs included in the practice. No where on the card does it say “‘Women’s Health Center” or anything like that, because golly gee I wouldn’t want the postman or my housemate to know that I need to go throw my feet up in steel stirrups and have my cervix scraped in my annual ritual of women’s health. I start making fun of this fact and Ken says, “yeah, don’t let anybody know that you have a vagina; it’s a secret!!!!!!”
I just wanted to chime in here about how darn proud I am of California’s Supreme Court decision affirming that consenting adults have the right to marry whomever they choose. California rocks. The first same-sex marriage ceremony in San Francisco will take place just after the clock strikes 5 on Monday. The brides to be, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, are octogenarians who have been partners for 53 years! Quite a different face of same-sex rights than many people are used to envisioning, I’m sure!
While there have been some news reports of county clerks shutting down their marriage services starting next week (they still are required to issue marriage licenses), another county clerk solicited community volunteers interested in performing the ceremonies. The folks who showed up ranged from young to old, all races. One man who was interviewed, an older white guy in a collared shirt with khakis, when asked why he was there, said “well, I’m retiring soon, and I wanted to find something to do that would involve being around happy people, and this seems like something I can do around happy people.” So cute. San Francisco city employees from engineers to paramedics are jumping in to officiate too.
It is really great to see the implementation of the court’s ruling march on even while the haters try to “defend the sanctity of marriage”. Don’t they know that the sanctity of marriage is created by the two people in the marriage, not by the state?
We’re well into our CSA experience this year. Going on week 13, methinks. The past couple of months have been especially great, with weekly organic strawrberries (yes, I say strawrberries), carrots and greens, accompanied by yummy things like turnips, cauliflower, broccoli, avocados, summer squash, herbs, shitake mushrooms (!!), leeks, etc. etc. Aside from a couple of weeks, we’ve been pretty darn good about using most of our share. Our CSA is actually all booked up for the season, attributing to the rising demand for local and organic veggies.
This week’s CSA newsletter had a great little tip. For those greens that get wilty before they make it to stir fry,along with limp carrots, etc., toss them into a freezer bag. When the freezer bag gets full, use the leftover veggies to make a vegetable stock. I don’t know why this hadn’t occurred to me, but what a great way to make sure your share doesn’t go to waste!
The remodel of our new-old house (hereafter Casa Amarillo) is in full swing. The upstairs was gutted. Beams went up, new walls followed, and old walls fell. An arch defines the space between the entry and the kitchen/great room, and another arch frames the hallway. A coffer ceiling adds a couple of feet of height to the ceiling. The built-in bookshelf and entertainment center are framed. Ken and his guys are making quick progress.
I am very pleased with how the layout has turned out. It’s one thing to stand in the room and say, with grand sweeping gestures of the hand, “I think we should take down that wall - and that one too - and move the kitchen from there to here”. It is another thing to draw it out ourselves with our Costco architect’s software, black and white lines on bleached white paper. And is a it is a very different thing still to stand in the room you have dreamt up…and like it.
Next comes electrical and plumbing. Windows. Then drywall. Then cabinets! Then floors. Then paint! ETA is still ~3-4 months till we get to move outta our little duplex and into our forever house.
Before
Some things we’re doing to reduce our impact during the remodel:
all job debris is going to a facility where they sort and recycle
we’re reusing as much of the good timber as we can
light fixtures got adopted by Ken’s sister
we used a light colored roof to minimize cooling costs
installed extra ceiling vents and a whole-house fan (no air conditioning - weather here doesn’t warrant it but a couple times a year)
swapping out an old furnace for an energy efficient one
installing solar panels on the two roof sections that get good sun
using low-VOC paints (more research needed on this)
using reclaimed lumber for the floors (hopefully)
planning to install greywater system for irrigation demands
I’ll reuse some of old single-pane windows for garden cold-frames, and put the rest of them up on Craigslist for like-minded people to reuse.
all the interior and exterior wooden doors are FSC certified lumber
installed fewer than planned (but surely enough) can lights, and those are just 26 watt flourescents
The past few weeks have been not so good. I have been way so behind at work. I have been on edge, too quick to snap and get defensive. Not present. Just not good at all. I had a major meltdown (again) this weekend, totally illogical, wholly emotional. Boom. Snap. Crack. A basket case, if you will. Certifiably not nice, impatient, and oh so lame. My only redemption is that at least I can admit this, that at least my pride is not so big as to obscure my view of my imperfect self. And, too, that Ken has the patience and love for me work through it and not put up with it at the same time.
Here’s to digging out of the overwhelmedness of it all….
