Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Granted, we just drove about 200 miles (to Sacramento and back, via the North Bay instead of East Bay), ate all kinds of bad food and washed it all down with a late lunch/early dinner at Sonic in Napa, and there's at least thirty degrees' difference between there and here. So I will share with you just a few pictures of our trip to the State Fair:




Yes, FOG, even in the late afternoon. The top of the tower's there somewhere...





From the County Gallery: Just in case you were wondering what there is to do up in Humboldt County, way up north.




Bacon. Chocolate. Need I say more?


More pix later...

Oh, and can I say it was rather weird to finish off a sausage link made of an animal I saw about five minutes later at one of the petting zoos? O_O

It's nearing halfway through September (already!) and the Bay Area has finally received one of its signs of upcoming season change: the thunderstorm. It's a rarity in these parts, and waking up to a loud rumble of thunder at four in the morning was actually a welcome change for me. Amusingly enough my first reaction was not of surprise, but that of tradition--someone in my family getting up during an overnight storm to close all the windows. I half expected to hear my mom coming into the living room to shut the two windows and pop into the bedroom to wake us up and make sure we did the same. I sat there yesterday morning, using emmalyon's ticking watch to count the seconds between flashes and rumbles, amused and comforted by nature's meteorological unrest.

Autumn around these parts is subtle, as we don't necessarily get the foliage here. There's a gradual lowering of temperature, the fog stays inland a little longer, the days get shorter (Emm and I will eventually head out to the train stop when it's still dark), and, if it's a wet season, we start getting rain more frequently. Visually it looks the same, only grayer.

And of course, there's the influx of students. There's a middle school up the street from our apartment, and I can hear their bells ringing every now and again when I'm working from home. And when I'm heading home from work, whether taking the underground up to the foot of Market Street or taking the 47 bus, the modes of transportation are filled with young kids heading home or over to the mall to hang out. There's also the changing of the apartments--the moving out of other tenants and moving in of others, mostly students going to the art school down the block.

Tourism? Well, it's starting to die down a bit. We'll still get the occasional influx of people on the weekend brandishing maps on my street corner, trying to figure out how to get to Chinatown without climbing up the hill, but it's nowhere near as busy as it was a month ago, when we couldn't head to our Safeway down the block without bumping into them. Eventually we'll talk ourselves into walking over to Pier 39 again for food and other things, knowing our patience won't be tried as much when we try to navigate the sidewalks.

Then there's the football season. Yes, as a matter of fact I am happy it's here! After years upon years of not really getting into it, I gradually grew to enjoy it, and though I'm out here in California, I'm still a dedicated Patriots fan. I don't necessarily watch all the games--most of the time Emm and I have it on while we're doing other things like writing or knitting or reading or what have you--but it's great background and it's yet another part of why I love this season so much.

We do take roadtrips at this time of the year, of course...as said, we don't really get the foliage, so there's not much to see visually in that respect. However, there's something to be said about apple picking in the quiet valley down in Watsonville, strolling down the cool sidewalks of downtown Santa Rosa, enjoying the views and wines of Napa and Sonoma. The streets are quieter and the highways emptier, but there's still plenty to do and see. Things don't so much close up for the winter here as much as they merely change a bit to suit the season.

To me, the change of season still retains everything I remember about as a kid, as a teen, and as an adult. It's a different kind of enjoyment of life, different from the Frostian New England autumn but retaining that end-of-year winding down. A time to get a bit more serious about future endeavors, hunker down on projects one may currently be working on, become a bit more patient about things. And a time to appreciate life a little more than usual.

Taken at the aquarium section of the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. They just recently reopened it after doing some major refurbishing (read: tearing down and completely rebuilding it), and it's pretty impressive...and a lot bigger and more fun than I expected! (BTW, I joined in early and bought a membership, so A)we went in the "member door" and didn't have to wait in a long line, and B)we don't have to pay the nearly $25 per-adult price!)

So what did we do after that?

We drove down to Pescadero for sandwiches!! :p Well, we originally wanted to go to Duarte's, but there was a 30 minute wait I didn't feel like sitting through, so we went to the pizza/sammich shop up the street instead. So yeah, lots of driving today. We're tired now. :p

Meanwhile, in the "Can't Get Any More West Than This" Department...



(Taken at the intersection of Pescadero Road and Rt 1.)

A) Confidential to lynxreign: Hardy har har. And thanks for doubling my outerwear wardrobe! :p


B) Is anyone else having a problem with LJ taking its own sweet time coming up on the screen? It comes up okay, it just takes a bit for it to actually react to things like scrolling and clicking on links. Mind you, this is when the screen first comes up...once it's fully refreshed, it's okay. Then again, it might be just be my friends page (okay, which one of you out there is fiddling with code?!?? :p ). And again, it might just be me.


NOTE: OH MY GOD is it GORGEOUS outside today. The temp is supposed to be 78, which is actually a little higher than usual for this city. This is total vacation weather, so there's a good chance the neighborhood is going to be swimming with people today. Going to head out with Emm today and do some shopping down in Daly City, and perhaps scoot down to Pescadero for lunch. Might also stop at the farmer's market on the PCH if it's open. Shall take the camera with me for pix. :) Also, will dispense with all pronouns at beginnings of sentences. :)

Random weekend update:

[Writing] Still complaining that it's taking too long for me to finish off a chapter for the LLB rewrite. Don't mind me...just nod, say I'm doing a good job, and ignore the rest of my whining... :p

[Music] I got nothin'. Oh wait--yes I do. Currently moving a boatload of mp3s from one external to another because somehow the J Drive got all used up. Guess I didn't divvy it up as evenly as I thought... So this means that the links on my MusicMatch are going to be all wonky when I start it up again. Will neead to fix those once I get it up and running again.

[Roadtrip] Emm and I drove to Tracy, CA today to do a bit of shopping. Yeah, it's a good fifty some-odd miles away, but you know what? There's a Sonic up there and the food was GOOD. :)

That's all for now...

Hope everyone had a good weekend!