Tuesday Triptych: Elks Lodge #2121

Para el sol y para el agua...

It's a riddle.

Translation: "For the sun and the water..."

Something in this picture can be used for sun and water:

Loteria Grill in the Farmers Market, Los Angeles, CA.

Did you find it?

"¡Lotería!"!

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign...

Previously:
Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign...

San Francisco Autumn Round-Up 2010

Last week was crazy here in San Francisco.

On November 1, the SF Giants won the World Series!

(For those of you from other countries and/or nations: We're talking baseball; And we call it a "World Series"- but it's just the United States. And parts of Canada. I hope it expands to include Japan and Cuba some day. We can call it the "Galactic Championship" or something...)
 
Then, on November 2, SF voters made it illegal to sit or lie down on the sidewalks from 7am-11pm. And California voted to keep marijuana "illegal". (unless it's for medical purposes).

(We voted on lots of stuff, actually. In SF, California and the whole nation. But, I'm going to narrow my focus in this post for brevity's sake).

So, the day after that, SF had a big parade to welcome the Giants home from Texas!

I took this picture on my way to work- 2 hours before the parade. It got used by sfist.com (I'm #8 in the thumbnails)

I had to work, so I wasn't there to be sure; But, I assume the cops kept people from sitting or laying down. It is the law now, after all. I'd hate to see it applied only to certain people in certain places. But, that's the very reason it was voted into law by so many SF citizens...

Full disclosure: I voted against the sit/lie law, in case my subtle sarcasm wasn't apparent earlier. Hey, if it makes the Haight safer I guess I'll just have to accept I was wrong, right? Stay tuned!

There must have been lots of people with prescriptions at the parade. I hear the air was thick with a certain aroma.... Feel better, folks!

(at least former Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill to decriminalize marijuana before his term was up. That's something, at least).

Speaking of former CA governors: Welcome back, Governor Brown!

Our mayor is now our Lieutenant Governor. And I'm glad. You go, Gavin! SF will be OK. Seriously. Go. And don't look back, baby.

If the status updates from my various Facebook friends are any indication (oy, I can't believe I just typed that phrase): Nobody- no Democrat, Republican or Tea Partier (I think there might be one)- is 100% happy with the way the mid-term elections turned out.

So, see? The system works! We're all equally pissed off. U-S-A! U-S-A!

Enough about politics; Let's go back in time a few days- before all this "you're not allowed to sit on the sidewalk and smoke weed" nonsense became a reality. Let's talk about October 31st: Halloween!

I have to admit, Halloween at the Fireside hasn't been the same since The City shut down the Castro Street Halloween celebration. Lots of people would stop in on their way to the Castro. It was great! But, the Castro street party got too big. And then 9 people got shot.

That was four years ago. And there have still been some lively Halloweens since then. But, this year was pretty quiet (at least for me). I was without my Halloween sweetie. Donna was going to be a killer bee and I was going to be her beekeeper/parole officer. But, she ended up having to work. As fate would then have it, we found an awesome pair of butterfly wings at Goodwill:

So, Donna worked her shift as a butterfly...

Donna is a beautiful butterfly

And this ended up being my costume:

I'm not really sure what I was supposed to be. But, I hadn't worn my pith helmet in a while, so... 

Not helping matters was the fact Halloween fell on a Sunday this year. AND, people still had a World Series to focus on. So, yeah, it was a low-key Halloween.

Well, that wraps up my autumnal update, gentle reader. Thanks for stopping by!

Previously:
Sunsets of the Inner Sunset: October Orange

Sunsets of the Inner Sunset: Smoky Red June

Remember all those wildfires back in 2008? (This map from the Silicon Valley Mercury News is pretty informative, too)

The air in SF was tinged with smoke for days.

I snapped this while walking home from work one evening.


Previously
Sunsets of the Inner Sunset: October Orange

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign...

Click the pics for a better view...
 

Crosswalk Colorforms Part 2

A few weeks ago, I posted about these crazy lil latex(?) sticker(?) things (robots?) I've seen in crosswalks all over SF.



Looks like the good folks at Haighteration have seen them, too.

We here at Beej Weir's Blog suggest always using the crosswalk to cross the street. And be on the lookout for little yellow robot-things.

Previously:
Crosswalk Colorforms

One Hawthorne, SF, CA

I work near this new building full of high-end condos.


While I do worry about how much broken glass will fill the streets if The Big One hits and I'm at work, I can't help smiling a little when I look at her every day on my way in.

Why?

Because I know that in her basement/foundation whatever the fuck's down there exists a wall that used to be part of an older building in SF and on that wall there's this:


I love bacon.

Perfect Products.

Praised be the pig.

Previously:
This is Why I Always Try To Have My Camera Handy

Downieville Addendum

Now's as good a time as any to test out the Photobucket account. I've already burned up half of my flickr account allotment for August. Just click on the lil image and theoretically you'll get a bigger image. And if you click on that? A bigger image still. Great! Let's begin...

So, the Lure Resort is a nice place. It's divided into 2 sections of cabins: the side WITH electricity, indoor plumbing and quaint adorableness.

And the side we were on: just quaint adorableness and a communal bathroom & shower.

But, that was the idea. Campin. "Roughing it". No worries. I make pretty good fire!

And at least we had a roof, 4 walls and a thing that was sort of a bed.


A few more random images...


Here's Downieville's movie/live(?) theater. They were showing a documentary. Pity I didn't get more details. I didn't want to appear obnoxious all snappin pics like a ditsy tourist...

Destination: Downieville

At the end of July, Donna and I joined our friend Marie on a little Gold Rush country getaway- the Lure Resort in Downieville, CA to be exact.

Downieville has a pretty colorful history. It's hard to believe this tiny place with a population of 300 or so was once home to 5,000 49ers (as in gold miners, not football players). It must have been a fucking madhouse.

It's also the only place in California to have ever lynched a woman. Her name was Juanita. She stabbed a miner. There's a breakfast named after her at the local diner.

Interesting place.


There's more on my flickr page...

The North Yuba River...

Downieville, CA July 31, 2009 01
Originally uploaded by beejvision

or maybe this is the Downie River. Not sure which. It was a delight to dip in, though. More pics from our lil trip to Downieville to come...

Starfish Trooper

Starfish001
Originally uploaded by beejvision

I'm testing out this whole Flicker/Blogger connection. Pretty slick!