Post Thanksgiving
Nov. 24th, 2012 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_a"RESTING" FRIDAY. My main goal on Friday was rest. Which means that I spent part of the day reading, but also part of it writing. The latter got me most of the way through a first draft of an article on Leading Edge Games, one of my biggest goals for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Mid afternoon I went out to pick up drugs and supplies from the evil CVS, but it was nice out so I took my time and swung out to the Ohlone Greenway "on the way". Those idiots in Albany *still* haven't finished their Greenway work. It was originally supposed to be done in March or June, but more recently, in September, BART reported that all the current work would be done by the end of October. And how far off can you be just a month out? Apparently 1 month+, as some work still looks like they haven't done anything but destroy the old trail.
*)(#*$)(. Someday. Meanwhile, the mayor of Albany should fire his relative that's apparently doing the Greenway work.
CVS was fine. After that it was back home for more reading and writing. And some grocery shopping in the slightly later evening. Hopefully that's the last week I need to do it on my own (as Kimberly recovers from bronchitis).
BIKING SATURDAY. Today my main goal was to get in some good biking. I'd originally considered the Iron Horse Trail, as I've been out there before at Thanksgiving time, and it's really beautiful. However, I ultimately decided that I didn't want to get back on BART and be out all day again. So instead I decided for a more local (and as it happens more exploratory) ride.
The micro-city of Piedmont has been in the news lately for their ongoing refusal to offer much financial aid to the local cities that they leech off of. This made me look up its boundaries, and I was surprised that it was bigger than I'd thought. I'd always figured it was just a strip of a few blocks along Grand and was surprised to discover it was a pretty big patch of land going all the way back to Monclair. So I decided to ride up there today to explore it a bit.
THE PARKS OF PIEDMONT. When I explore a city, I more often than not explore its parks, and that's what I did today — going from one Piedmont park to another. While there, I discovered why they refuse to give more money to Oakland for the libraries they use. It's because all of their money (apparently) goes to upkeeping their absolutely gorgeous parks. Fortunately, I didn't have a dog with me, so the city of Piedmont didn't try and charge me an unwelcome-foreigner-park-use fee. (Not that I can imagine how they'd know whether someone someone walking their dog in Piedmont's parks was a resident or not.)
Anywho, the first park I visited was Dracena Park, and I was pretty struck by its attractiveness. The spine of the park runs down a canyon that's deep enough that you can't really see the city streets above you. Lots of trees, a very nice path, some benches, etc. At the bottom there's a grassy area and a playground (which was what got most of the use). After getting there, I hiked back up the canyon and sat on a park bench for a while working on Designers & Dragons.
The next park on my itineracy was Piedmont Park, which was like Dracena Park but bigger and better. This rather large canyon was centered on a stream cutting down the hillside (which was burbling happily thanks to our recent rains). It even had two small falls in it, although they were apparently artificially sculpted. Parts of the park were said to be once upon a time a tropical paradise with palm trees and stuff (all put in at the same time as the falls) but in the '80s Piedmont decided they didn't want the non-native foliage and killed it all. There was also a location that used to be a mineral springs which Mark Twain has once visited!! There was a picture of him there, right at the former Springs that I was sitting at (working once more on Designers & Dragons). Overall, entirely gorgeous, which was a surprise, as I'd thought that Dracena was going to be the high point of the trip. Apparently it got some nice renovation in the '00s too. Must be nice to have money.
UPPER PIEDMONT & MONTCLAIR. Speaking of high points, from there I went up the hill, going from Lower Piedmont, past Highland Avenue, into Upper Piedmont. The houses got fancier, the number of "private driveway" signs increased, and I even saw two "Romney / Ryan" signs out in the wild. I'd thought they were extinct, but after seeing them I wondered if there might be some "Yes on 8" signs too, still alive on the Upper Piedmont range.
I briefly passed through Crocker Park and the Piedmont Sports Field while in Upper Piedmont. Most days I would have thought them attractive, located as they were 'tween hills, million-dollar houses, and the sky, but they weren't nothing compared to those first two park. Near the top of the hill (which I've learned is a shutter ridge, and also what gives Rockridge its name) I circled around a bit trying to find a way into a lake up there called Tyson Lake, but it turns out there is no public access. What the heck is up with that!?
(Maybe the millionaires do secret rituals on the Lake. Armistead Maupin would know for sure.)
I walked the last couple of blocks to the top of the rock ridge, because I was pretty tired by then, especially after a big circle up and down one of the ridges near Tyson Lake. From there I headed down to Highway 13. I was pretty sure that down at the end of a certain Court I'd find a pedestrian bridge over to Montclair Park, and sure enough, there it was. (I'd seen the bridge before from Montclair and always wondered where the heck it went to.) So suddenly I was back in familiar lands, having helped sew up another corner of my mental map of the East Bay Hills. (I love it when I can circle around like a I did today, to really viscerally see how different places connect together.)
After that it was a pretty typical ride home through Montclair, past Lake Temescal, and down into Rockridge and Berkeley.
Total ride was 14.5 miles. I was out for 4 hours or so, but that included eating lunch, editing most of the R. Talsorian article for Designers & Dragons, and wandering up and down some of those pathways in Piedmont parks on foot.
TONIGHT. Reading and writing. I intend to finish my R. Talsorian edit and my Leading Edge Games draft.
Mid afternoon I went out to pick up drugs and supplies from the evil CVS, but it was nice out so I took my time and swung out to the Ohlone Greenway "on the way". Those idiots in Albany *still* haven't finished their Greenway work. It was originally supposed to be done in March or June, but more recently, in September, BART reported that all the current work would be done by the end of October. And how far off can you be just a month out? Apparently 1 month+, as some work still looks like they haven't done anything but destroy the old trail.
*)(#*$)(. Someday. Meanwhile, the mayor of Albany should fire his relative that's apparently doing the Greenway work.
CVS was fine. After that it was back home for more reading and writing. And some grocery shopping in the slightly later evening. Hopefully that's the last week I need to do it on my own (as Kimberly recovers from bronchitis).
BIKING SATURDAY. Today my main goal was to get in some good biking. I'd originally considered the Iron Horse Trail, as I've been out there before at Thanksgiving time, and it's really beautiful. However, I ultimately decided that I didn't want to get back on BART and be out all day again. So instead I decided for a more local (and as it happens more exploratory) ride.
The micro-city of Piedmont has been in the news lately for their ongoing refusal to offer much financial aid to the local cities that they leech off of. This made me look up its boundaries, and I was surprised that it was bigger than I'd thought. I'd always figured it was just a strip of a few blocks along Grand and was surprised to discover it was a pretty big patch of land going all the way back to Monclair. So I decided to ride up there today to explore it a bit.
THE PARKS OF PIEDMONT. When I explore a city, I more often than not explore its parks, and that's what I did today — going from one Piedmont park to another. While there, I discovered why they refuse to give more money to Oakland for the libraries they use. It's because all of their money (apparently) goes to upkeeping their absolutely gorgeous parks. Fortunately, I didn't have a dog with me, so the city of Piedmont didn't try and charge me an unwelcome-foreigner-park-use fee. (Not that I can imagine how they'd know whether someone someone walking their dog in Piedmont's parks was a resident or not.)
Anywho, the first park I visited was Dracena Park, and I was pretty struck by its attractiveness. The spine of the park runs down a canyon that's deep enough that you can't really see the city streets above you. Lots of trees, a very nice path, some benches, etc. At the bottom there's a grassy area and a playground (which was what got most of the use). After getting there, I hiked back up the canyon and sat on a park bench for a while working on Designers & Dragons.
The next park on my itineracy was Piedmont Park, which was like Dracena Park but bigger and better. This rather large canyon was centered on a stream cutting down the hillside (which was burbling happily thanks to our recent rains). It even had two small falls in it, although they were apparently artificially sculpted. Parts of the park were said to be once upon a time a tropical paradise with palm trees and stuff (all put in at the same time as the falls) but in the '80s Piedmont decided they didn't want the non-native foliage and killed it all. There was also a location that used to be a mineral springs which Mark Twain has once visited!! There was a picture of him there, right at the former Springs that I was sitting at (working once more on Designers & Dragons). Overall, entirely gorgeous, which was a surprise, as I'd thought that Dracena was going to be the high point of the trip. Apparently it got some nice renovation in the '00s too. Must be nice to have money.
UPPER PIEDMONT & MONTCLAIR. Speaking of high points, from there I went up the hill, going from Lower Piedmont, past Highland Avenue, into Upper Piedmont. The houses got fancier, the number of "private driveway" signs increased, and I even saw two "Romney / Ryan" signs out in the wild. I'd thought they were extinct, but after seeing them I wondered if there might be some "Yes on 8" signs too, still alive on the Upper Piedmont range.
I briefly passed through Crocker Park and the Piedmont Sports Field while in Upper Piedmont. Most days I would have thought them attractive, located as they were 'tween hills, million-dollar houses, and the sky, but they weren't nothing compared to those first two park. Near the top of the hill (which I've learned is a shutter ridge, and also what gives Rockridge its name) I circled around a bit trying to find a way into a lake up there called Tyson Lake, but it turns out there is no public access. What the heck is up with that!?
(Maybe the millionaires do secret rituals on the Lake. Armistead Maupin would know for sure.)
I walked the last couple of blocks to the top of the rock ridge, because I was pretty tired by then, especially after a big circle up and down one of the ridges near Tyson Lake. From there I headed down to Highway 13. I was pretty sure that down at the end of a certain Court I'd find a pedestrian bridge over to Montclair Park, and sure enough, there it was. (I'd seen the bridge before from Montclair and always wondered where the heck it went to.) So suddenly I was back in familiar lands, having helped sew up another corner of my mental map of the East Bay Hills. (I love it when I can circle around like a I did today, to really viscerally see how different places connect together.)
After that it was a pretty typical ride home through Montclair, past Lake Temescal, and down into Rockridge and Berkeley.
Total ride was 14.5 miles. I was out for 4 hours or so, but that included eating lunch, editing most of the R. Talsorian article for Designers & Dragons, and wandering up and down some of those pathways in Piedmont parks on foot.
TONIGHT. Reading and writing. I intend to finish my R. Talsorian edit and my Leading Edge Games draft.