This past weekend was too short

 

Laffing Sal.  RQS and I will likely be visiting her when we next visit San Francisco.  Although she is a simple, decades old animatron, she is the best symbol of San Francisco's Musee Mechanique at Pier 45. For me, seeing her in person says I am really in "Fog City" and am ready for a great adventure.

Why do I mention his mechanical wonder?

RQS and I are counting down the days until our next two cruises (the first to Canada and the second to Alaska.) This limits the time I can help my brother with work that has to be done on the family homestead before we can rent it out.  This past weekend, I cut a weekend with RQS short, so I could help my brother with the house.

I knew I would have one problem.  Not doing any dirty work around the apartment, I don't have any clothes I can sacrifice for painting the basement.  And I'm glad my brother gave me an out, saying that I can keep him company while he finishes applying "mud" to the drywall, so that he can paint it during the week.  Hopefully, we can get the work finished before mid June, so that we may have someone renting the place by August.

After my brother was done with the work on the house, we drove to a buffet and enjoyed a good meal.  I rarely go to buffets, as I eat too much.  But here, the food was worth it - including the Asian Snails.  This visit, I skipped the sushi in favor of hot food.  Yet, I knew I'd pay for the indulgence later on.  

All too soon, the day ended, and it was time to go home.  Tomorrow, I'll go to my first meetup in a while.

California Vacation 2023 - San Francisco (Day One)

 

The first thing we wanted to do today was a shore excursion to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.  I’ve been there a couple of times before, and felt that would be a perfect place to take RQS on her first visit to the city.  So, after a rushed breakfast, we were off to find the tour bus that would take us to the garden.

One thing I have noted about tour guides is that they will often use “filler site” descriptions to avoid moments of silence on bus trips to the sites that people want to see.  For example, I can imagine a bus tour through Hartford Ct, where the tour guide says: “We are now passing the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant” when the guide has nothing else to say on a long ride,  And this ride was no exception.  

RQS was not disappointed by my choice of excursions.  This 5-Acre site is well worth the visit, as one can not help but get a beautiful, serene view from anywhere in the garden.  And after 90 minutes, it was back to the ship.  I found it hard to believe that we had already walked 2.5 miles, and still had more to go today.

After lunch, it was off the ship, and on to the Musee Mechanique at Fisherman’s Wharf.  There are many old time coin operated machines to enjoy there, as well as the more modern pinball and video arcade machines we grew up with.  One of my favorites is an old Wurlitzer which is a work of art that still plays music as if it were brand new.

Our next stop was to have clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.  Yum!  It was a little pricey, but not outside of reason.  So we sat down in the cool San Francisco air and enjoyed some soup before getting on the Market Street Historic Trolley to the end of the line.

We had to wait a while for the trolley, and when it came, RQS and I were forced to sit in separate seats. This allowed me to get into a conversation with a SF local who told us how his city has changed since the pandemic.  Most of the downtown storefronts and office towers seem unoccupied, as the technology elite are now working from home.  Downtown office space is no longer needed, and the business depending on these workers have closed up shop.  We saw evidence of this ourselves, and still wish we could afford to live in this city.  

 

Eventually, the trolley landed us in The Castro, and we decided to walk around a little.  We explored one of the local “general stores” (I don’t know how else to label it) and then walked back to the trolley stop.  On the way back, both RQS and I got a glimpse of a man, who if painted in gold, would look like a walking Oscar statuette.  The most notable thing about this man was that he was completely naked!  This fellow is a fixture around The Castro, and RQS only wished she had her camera out at the time, as her friends might not believe this otherwise.

The trolley ride back from The Castro was uneventful.  By the time we were back on the ship, we were too tired to do anything but have dinner and go to bed.  Four and a half miles of walking will do that to us.

Ashes - a short post

 

Laffing Sal at the Musee Mecanique

Later this year, RQS and I will be visiting San Francisco on a California Cruise, and I will be showing her some of the places in town that have meaning to me. One of which will be the Musee Mechanique, where Laffing Sal can be found.  But of more importance is the place where I scattered my late wife's ashes.  I haven't paid my respects in over 10 years, and it's time I go back - even for a short visit.

Sooner or later, RQS will need to scatter her late husband's ashes.  And I will be there for her when she does it, as a (now ex) girlfriend was there for me when I scattered my wife's ashes 25+ years ago.  Over time, we all need to scatter the ashes from our past, so that we can get on with living.  This doesn't mean that we forget the past.  Instead, it means we are moving forward into the future.

Both RQS and I are taking the time to clean up our places.  In my case, I'm doing my best to declutter my place, so that required work can be done in my apartment.  I figure that I still have a few months to take care of things, and hope to have the bulk of these things taken care of before my cruise.  It will be nice to again have a place in the basement where I can seasonally store unused items from both of my wardrobes.