Our third year in San Francisco
and counting …Archive for September, 2007
Wet Paint
This sign appeared stapled to a fence next to the mini-park near our house this week. It’s so San Francisco, with it’s international multi-lingual bent. But the best thing about it, I think, is that there was actually no wet paint anywhere near it.
Office party
USS odopod
On Friday night my office had a party. It’s theme was “Yacht Club.” I wore my terrycloth nautical flag shirt, and K. wore a perfect yacht club dress. On Saturday morning, thanks to that party, I didn’t feel so good. Thank heavens for prescription headache medicine. I made it to my 9:30 a.m. ukulele class, but just barely.
Scooterin’ SF
K. rides off to work for the first time
K. rode to work on her scooter for the first time on Thursday last week, making her an official scooter commuter. Then, this weekend, we took our first ride together — we scooted over to The Haight for lunch at Massawa on Saturday. I’m still looking forward to being ready to carry a passenger, but we had a lot of fun riding our two scooters simultaneously. We were a gang of two. It gives you a real feeling of freedom to think that you can go to the museum and it won’t take you more than an hour to get there. And it was a beautiful weekend for a ride.
Bringing home the kibble
Yesterday I got my for-real M1 motorcycle endorsement, making me a 100-percent-legal scooter driver. I’m now allowed to carry passengers, and I haven’t done that yet, but I did try carrying home a 36-pound bag of dog food yesterday. That’s kind of like carrying a passenger, albeit a very small one with no muscle control. I used bungees to strap it to the bag hook under my seat and set it where my feet would usually go. I had to put my feet on the little passenger foot spots. This seems to work fine, as long as I don’t try to park and dismount on a hill; I also only really have to go about half a mile like this.
I’m also legal to drive at night now, so I did, meeting K. out at We Be Sushi for dinner.
Today K. got her license too, and is talking to insurance folks about getting her scooter all 100 percent legal. I expect she’ll be commuting to work on it by the end of the week.
Another good thing that happened yesterday is that Haylee’s tests came back, and the growth on her toe is nothing serious. Whew.
A pleasant afternoon
Waiting for our tea at Samovar
K. went with me this afternoon to Yerba Buena Gardens, where they were having a ukulele festival, with lots of free music. It was fun and pleasant to sit on the grass in the garden, but we were hungry, so we had lunch at Samovar. It was really lovely and pleasant, and we could hear the music, at least sort of, from our outdoor table. It seemed really nice inside, too. It was very relaxing and lovely.
We left for a while, then I came back for the big finale, a performance by Jake Shimabukuro. He’s pretty darn impressive. Here’s a video so you can see what I mean.
Scooter mileage
So, I’m wondering if I’ve topped out at the best mileage I’ll get on my Fly. I guess I’ve expected it to be a little higher, but I’m not exactly disappointed. I’d like have amazing gas mileage, of course, to keep me from feeling guilty about driving a gas-powered vehicle at all, but I still feel pretty good.
I do know that having a scooter has given me a level of freedom in the city that I just wasn’t getting with busing, BARTing and biking, and now I’m completely addicted. On Saturday, for example, I went up to the Japanese Community Center on Sutter for a ukulele lesson. On public transit, that trip would have taken me 48 minutes. On my scooter, it took me less than 20.
K. and I completed California’s motorcycle safety class weekend before last. It’s the same as the Texas motorcycle safety class, except that it’s in California. Oh, and I didn’t crash. I’m scheduled to go get the M1 endorsement on my license, which will allow me to legally ride after sundown (nice), ride with a passenger (well, maybe after I get better at it), and ride on the freeway (no freakin’ way!). I think I’ll be able to opt for cheaper, better insurance coverage as well.
K. is now a scooter owner as well, although she hasn’t been able to ride her new scooter much, since she’s also still waiting on a license and insurance. She got a perfect score on her driving test during the safety class, kicking everyone’s butt, including mine. Soon she’ll be shortening her commute, which I think will be great for her.
Odometer at previous fill-up: 310
Odometer this fill-up: 389
Miles between fill-ups: 79
Gallons of gas put in tank: 1.647
Miles Per Gallon: 47.97
$$ spent: $4.81
Cost per mile: 6 cents
Haylee’s foot
Haylee’s $800 foot
It’s been a while since I’ve posted, I see. I’ve noticed that I’m less likely to post here when I’m worried about something, and I have been worried about Haylee’s foot. She’s been limping around for several weeks, and I thought maybe she’d stepped on something and it had gotten infected, but it was really hard for even a vet to tell what was wrong.
Turns out there was actually a little growth of some sort on the bottom her foot. On Wednesday she had part of the growth removed, and there are some tests being done to determine what exactly it is. Most likely, it’s a wart. We have high hopes that soon she’ll be back to her old annoying self. The bandage makes her more comfortable, but she’s still not back up to long walks up Bernal Hill yet.
UPDATE 09/11/07: The biopsy came back and the growth isn’t anything terrible, it’s just a big, expensive wart. Yay!
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Our third year in San Francisco 