Futility Now

So the Sunday before this one that I’m writing on, the super-cool Portland Garment Factory held a flea market at their store around the corner. Whilst we were wandering around we noticed a massive old factory punch clock, and Hazel decided that we needed to have it.

The proprietress said that she’d bought it for the store in order to create an industrial feel, but nobody had ever managed to figure out how to make the damn thing work. We took it home and Hazel found a manual for it on the manufacturer’s web site. As she read out loud I flipped the clock face up to expose its works and set the time.

I managed to get it working at some expense to my thumbs (if you look, you can see that the bottom stamps are from before I set the clock, whereas the top stamp shows the proper date.)

And here it is as part of a charming domestic tableau.

We flew to San Francisco in incredibly cramped planes.

We went to a bunch of really cool places, including this phenomenon called The Albany Bulb, which I had never heard of back when I was living in SF.

As disaffected youth hurled parts of older artifacts into the bay, our guide, Gnarles M, said that the last time he had visited the area had been more whimsical and less apocalyptic. I suggested it was merely a sign of the times, and then stared across the bay, soaking up all the bleakness.

Then we got drinks.

On the west side of the West Side, we meandered around a bunch of places that I really miss about San Francisco. The highlight of these was probably San Francisco’s incredible Conservatory of Flowers, my ardor for which had been stoked to a feverish pitch by the fact that I hadn’t been there for fifteen years (it was closed for restoration the entire time that I actually lived near it.) It was totally worth the wait.

Truly one of my favorite places on the entire planet. After the conservatory we hit Golden Gate Park’s charming carousel (totally enhanced by it’s proximity to massive dumpsters) and the California Academy of Sciences, which was rebuilt recently with a very cool living roof.

(For you nerds: looks sort of like an ohmu, right?)

We also made it out the the Sutro Baths, the site of many disastrous mishaps in the life of my father. With us as his guardians he managed to visit without falling off of or into anything.

Eventually we came home to suffer the torments of our neglected kitten.

I was really tired of my office being bright blue, so over the break we did something about it. First we painted the middles of all the walls a sort of nondescript tan. After that there was a beautiful vision in which we would strip and stain all the wood, but basically the stripper was so toxic we gave it up. Even the curtailed version of the plan in which we only stripped the floor molding was pretty exhausting, probably more unctuous than all of the subsequent painting combined.

Then we masked things off, which actually looked pretty cool on its own.

Then there was the painting of the dark portions. I think it turned out pretty well.

And that’s good, because it ended up being pretty crazy. We actually finished on the 31st, just in time to put on more appropriate Champagne-drinking outfits, which is good because boy howdy.

And pictures are coming. It’s going to be great.