Oh, California!

Okay. This is why I moved. Today. It's perfectly perfect -- hot sun, cool gentle breeze, clear deep blue sky, flowering dwarf citrus trees, new lettuce growing outside, plants everywhere indoors.. I could sunbathe on my living room floor. And it's November 2nd. This is completely normal.

Just to keep it real, there are downsides to San Francisco. Last night, Vanessa and I walked down the street to pick up a pizza, and the four or five blocks of our side street were jammed with traffic that instigated constant jaw-droppingly aggressive and dangerous stunts such as pulling onto the sidewalk in order to turn around to grab a parking spot, speeding down the wrong side of the street past a car waiting to park or turn if the heavens opened up and there was an oncoming-traffic-free moment, near dooring of several cyclists, and ambulance clusterf*&^$. When we tried crossing the four-lane Mission Street, the car on the far right southbound lane decided to jump through the crosswalk, into cross traffic, to pull a u-turn and speed through the crosswalk again on the northbound side of the street. If I hadn't REALLY wanted to finish my ginger ale, that can would've been splattered all over that douchebag's car (or lap, if I could've managed to aim so well). Rather than the gun violence Vanessa treated in Chicago, the vast majority of emergencies in SF are car-related: high-speed accidents on the freeway, multi-car pile-ups, car vs. pedestrian, car vs. motorcycle, car vs. bike, fatal moped accidents when it's foggy and the street is slippery.. and on. Most frightening is the frequency of fatal and grossly traumatic accidents that involve cars pinning pedestrians to poles, other cars, or buildings. Vanessa has a habit of looking like an exposed rabbit while we're out walking, because there's no safe place unless we're behind a solid row of parked cars. I think it's because the streets are so narrow here, the city allows vehicles to park all the way to the corner (reducing visibility significantly), it's so darned hilly that it's hard to stop at all those pesky stop signs, the blocks are really short, and there's just way more car traffic than there should be for a city this size (and supposedly so environmentally aware). It all just adds up to potentially dangerous situations everywhere, although I generally feel much safer and at ease riding my bike here than in Chicago. Fewer horns and slower speeds, I think.

But don't let the dangers worry you.. I swear, if I made it through Chicago I can make it here!

Ok, ok.. just let me do this once:
So, uh, how's the weather there? Awww, gross. Sorry! It's like 70 degrees and sunny here! Yeah, I'm painting some chairs on the patio and I'm gonna go get some plants later. Wish you were here!

(Remember, we're open for visits anytime)