![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Jul. 1st, 2013 11:52 pmA busy but enjoyable weekend.
SAFEWAY BUMMER. The weekend actually started off a bit annoyingly, with my Friday night grocery shopping. I went to the Safeway on College and found it in partial chaos. The shelves were maybe 60% full, with much of their breadth gone. The worse problem was that the store had apparently let go about half of their checking staff, so long lines fouled up the entire front of the store, making it hard to walk from aisle to aisle (and we won't even speak of how long I had to wait in line at the end). This is all because they're closing the store on July 9th, for demolishing, then rebuilding ... I just hadn't expected them to let the store go to hell two weeks early. Suffice to say, that's my last trip to the store until next Summer, when there's a newer and nicer store ready to go ... if the Rockridge NIMBYs didn't do too much damage to the project. (And, sadly, its closure kills our closest grocery store. From here on out I'll be travelling 2+ miles to the north Berkeley Safeway or further to a Target.)
GREAT RIDES. Things started to perk up on Saturday, when I essentially planned to reverse my great ride from last weekend by going up the Ohlone Greenway, then up Wildcat Canyon, then through Tilden Park and out. It was pretty exhausting because it was hot out (even though I started at 9.30), but it was a fun ride, at least in the shade. I also went up the backside of Tilden which I wasn't planning to beforehand and got up to Inspiration Point. I need to get back there some time to ride the paved path that runs the east side of the park ... but I didn't on Saturday, because I was entirely tired out. (And I'm still sore today, two days later!) It was all I could do to circle around the park to get out, then head down the hills.
SUPREME COURT UPPER. I was so thrilled to hear the marriage equality decisions come forth from the Supreme Court on Thursday. It was entirely historic, something that we're going to remember like the Berlin Wall coming down. I was sad we couldn't make it to Pride on Sunday afterward, which I hear was craaaaaa-zeeeee, but there was no way Kimberly was up to it. Still, thrilling news.
CHEVYS! Kimberly and I haven't been getting out and doing much lately due to her ongoing sickness, but on Sunday she offered to take us out to Chevy's for dinner. She's not up to biking, so we had to bus down, but we just read lots of our current book while waiting for the buses (Trumps of DOOOOOM by the late, great Zelazny). The dinner was terrific; she was right, it was nice to get out and do something together. We've talked about going out to Baja Fresh in Lafayette for the Fourth ... if BART is actually running.
BART! I am entirely grateful for labor unions. They got the whole country/world great things like paid vacation and sick leave and they still remain extremely important in many industries. I wish that computer programmers were smart enough to form more unions, as they get terribly taken advantage of at most computer companies (not even speaking of sweat houses like EA). With that said, I don't think the BART unions realize how quickly they're pissing away any public good will they have (and I don't think they have a lot). I personally can't feel a lot of sympathy for people with high school educations that are earning $60-80k a year, with a 90%(!!!) load of benefits, including a fully funded pension — at least not in the current crappy economic climate. Not even when an old friend and co-worker is probably on the picket line. Especially not when they threaten strikes every three years or so. (I was amazed to see the last strike was in 1997; I was sure it was more recent due to the frequent threats.) I was unsurprised to see SFGate's comments entirely filled with bile about the union and the strike; I was more surprised to see about 50% of commentators on super liberal Dailykos feeling about the same as me. If the strike is still going on for July 4th and people miss their cookouts, baseball games, and fireworks (and Baja Fresh trips) as a result ... the public is going to be begging for BART to replace the strikers. In the super liberal Bay Area.
DESIGNERS & DRAGONS. Work on this book continues slowly, but I got my second new '00s article done this weekend, on John Wick Presents. It just needs some editing. I'm determined to figure out how to speed up those newer articles, but the podcasts that all the info is embedded in continue to slow me down ...
SAFEWAY BUMMER. The weekend actually started off a bit annoyingly, with my Friday night grocery shopping. I went to the Safeway on College and found it in partial chaos. The shelves were maybe 60% full, with much of their breadth gone. The worse problem was that the store had apparently let go about half of their checking staff, so long lines fouled up the entire front of the store, making it hard to walk from aisle to aisle (and we won't even speak of how long I had to wait in line at the end). This is all because they're closing the store on July 9th, for demolishing, then rebuilding ... I just hadn't expected them to let the store go to hell two weeks early. Suffice to say, that's my last trip to the store until next Summer, when there's a newer and nicer store ready to go ... if the Rockridge NIMBYs didn't do too much damage to the project. (And, sadly, its closure kills our closest grocery store. From here on out I'll be travelling 2+ miles to the north Berkeley Safeway or further to a Target.)
GREAT RIDES. Things started to perk up on Saturday, when I essentially planned to reverse my great ride from last weekend by going up the Ohlone Greenway, then up Wildcat Canyon, then through Tilden Park and out. It was pretty exhausting because it was hot out (even though I started at 9.30), but it was a fun ride, at least in the shade. I also went up the backside of Tilden which I wasn't planning to beforehand and got up to Inspiration Point. I need to get back there some time to ride the paved path that runs the east side of the park ... but I didn't on Saturday, because I was entirely tired out. (And I'm still sore today, two days later!) It was all I could do to circle around the park to get out, then head down the hills.
SUPREME COURT UPPER. I was so thrilled to hear the marriage equality decisions come forth from the Supreme Court on Thursday. It was entirely historic, something that we're going to remember like the Berlin Wall coming down. I was sad we couldn't make it to Pride on Sunday afterward, which I hear was craaaaaa-zeeeee, but there was no way Kimberly was up to it. Still, thrilling news.
CHEVYS! Kimberly and I haven't been getting out and doing much lately due to her ongoing sickness, but on Sunday she offered to take us out to Chevy's for dinner. She's not up to biking, so we had to bus down, but we just read lots of our current book while waiting for the buses (Trumps of DOOOOOM by the late, great Zelazny). The dinner was terrific; she was right, it was nice to get out and do something together. We've talked about going out to Baja Fresh in Lafayette for the Fourth ... if BART is actually running.
BART! I am entirely grateful for labor unions. They got the whole country/world great things like paid vacation and sick leave and they still remain extremely important in many industries. I wish that computer programmers were smart enough to form more unions, as they get terribly taken advantage of at most computer companies (not even speaking of sweat houses like EA). With that said, I don't think the BART unions realize how quickly they're pissing away any public good will they have (and I don't think they have a lot). I personally can't feel a lot of sympathy for people with high school educations that are earning $60-80k a year, with a 90%(!!!) load of benefits, including a fully funded pension — at least not in the current crappy economic climate. Not even when an old friend and co-worker is probably on the picket line. Especially not when they threaten strikes every three years or so. (I was amazed to see the last strike was in 1997; I was sure it was more recent due to the frequent threats.) I was unsurprised to see SFGate's comments entirely filled with bile about the union and the strike; I was more surprised to see about 50% of commentators on super liberal Dailykos feeling about the same as me. If the strike is still going on for July 4th and people miss their cookouts, baseball games, and fireworks (and Baja Fresh trips) as a result ... the public is going to be begging for BART to replace the strikers. In the super liberal Bay Area.
DESIGNERS & DRAGONS. Work on this book continues slowly, but I got my second new '00s article done this weekend, on John Wick Presents. It just needs some editing. I'm determined to figure out how to speed up those newer articles, but the podcasts that all the info is embedded in continue to slow me down ...