Am I Wearing Pants? And Other Random Stories

Who remembers this meme? 

Leg Pants. 

I think the meme above was from when it was once again becoming more common to wear leggings out in public for no reason (see --> "are they yoga pants? are you doing yoga?") and it was not always appreciated! These days it is more accepted, but there is still the "leg pants" phenomena, where I wonder if a woman (or man I guess) knows that her pants are the exact same color as her legs. Sometimes I nearly have a heart attack as I pass or come up behind her, thinking she is walking around naked. People, perhaps get a shade a few shades darker or lighter than you? Or maybe you like seeing how many people you can get to do a double take. 

As a kind of related side note, the other morning I was getting off the train and a lady was getting on the opposite train and I saw that she was wearing leg pants that really hugged her butt tightly and were the perfect color for her complexion. She had a nice fur coat on top and had her hair done up really fancy. Then I realized at the last minute that she was NOT wearing pants, or underwear and that was actually her butt I had been seeing. Good morning to you too!

Mean Dad. 

Two weekends ago I went to A's soccer game. If you come to spectate, you must sit on the same side of the centerline that your kids are sitting on on the opposite side. We arrived a few seconds after the game had already started and so the only place to sit was basically just left of the centerline (by mere inches) meaning that we were sitting right next to the spectators from the other team. There was a girl on the opposite team who was playing on our side of the field and her Dad was sitting a couple of chairs down from us. He kept yelling at her, berating her, telling her all of the things that she wasn't doing etc. (these girls are around 13 by the way). The ironic thing was that he was pretty supportive of the other players, but very critical of his own daughter, who I thought was doing quite well. 

As Broski and I were sitting there, we chatted about this cool camera that was sitting right on the centerline, filming the game. We even Googled it to find out how much it cost and surmised that one of the parents must really be into sports. My friend K (A's Mom) arrived around halftime and after she arrived, the mean Dad walked away and went to sit further down the field. I was telling her how this Dad was being so mean to his daughter and she was really doing well and K told me that the last time they played this team, the parents got into a huge fight because the parents of the other team were all being rude, mean and unsportsmanlike (i.e. telling their daughters to "take them out!" and encouraging them to hurt the other girls and things like that). Anyway, the game ended, our team won in the last three minutes (boo yeah!) and as we were packing up to go, we noticed mean Dad packing up the camera. We kind of shook our heads at ourselves, imagining him sitting at home with his poor daughter, making her relive everything she had done wrong in the game. 

Later that week I was having dinner with K and the kids and she told me that she had received a video from a parent using that same camera for L's last game and as she had watched it, she had remembered how good the audio is on these cameras. They sit up off the field about 15 or 20 feet, but she could hear the parents chatting underneath the camera. I asked her what they do with these videos and she said that often the team will review them all together and they will talk about what needs to be improved. So basically, the team that A's team played is going to do the same thing. And if they do, they are going to get an earful about how I felt about mean Dad!! Oops. However, nothing I said was not true, AND they are also going to be able to hear him berating her, so perhaps he will take note. People, we are being watched and listened to no matter where we are! I guess the moral of the story is don't say anything that you wouldn't want a bunch of thirteen year old girls (and their mean Dads) hearing! 

Expiration dates. 

Last week Nicole touched on suggested expirations and I just want to say that I pretty much ignore most expiration dates. This may make me gross in some people's minds, but I am fairly sure that most of them are just a ploy to get you to buy more of their product. Now, I know that if they are old they can be less effective or not as tasty in the case of food, but I don't think I am going to die if I use a 2 year old mascara or eat an expired can of corn. I take them as a suggestion and if it is food, I definitely give it a good sniff before eating it. But I am going to use up that two year old bottle of Jergens and that Costco coconut oil even if it kills me. 

Having said that, in the past year, I have bought new tires for both my car and Bertha (the road bike) and they are fabulous! I have been using the same tires on Bertha for about 10 years and I was starting to have trouble stopping due to the lack of tread. I even splurged for the fancy brand, and man are they nice. Same thing goes with the car; I have replaced a tire here and there but finally decided to get four new ones at the same time and I feel like a new woman. I also do replace the little things that I can fix myself, like my car cabin air filter (did you know you were supposed to do that? I just learned about it a few years ago), wipers and the engine air filter regularly. 

Old girl, new tires

Fall. 

It is perpetual leaf raking season again. I think I have mentioned before that my seasons are based on the status of the maple tree in my front yard. September: clean the leaves out of the gutter season. October to December: leaf raking season. January to March: ankle breaking ball pick up season, also coincides with rainy season. April to June: spring break. July to August: removing branches from electrical wire season. I pretty much fill up the compost bin and/or the green trash bin with leaves each week and I still can't really keep up with all of the leaves on the ground. Usually at some point in December there is a huge wind and rain and it knocks many of the remaining leaves off the tree, but I would prefer that just happen early so I can rake them all and be done with it. It is supposed to rain this week so maybe this will be the week it happens? I doubt it, as the tree still has about 87% of its leaves left right now but one can hope. 

Gutter cleaning season

How was your weekend? Do parents use fancy cameras to film stuff at your kid's sports events? Do you follow the suggested expiration dates on your products and/or foods? 

10 Things To Do In San Francisco

I know many of you have probably already been to San Francisco, and have done the usual touristy things (Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Golden Gate...etc.) but thought it would be fun to provide you with a few of the lesser known things to do on your next trip that are a bit less touristy! Or, if you have never been, perhaps you can do a bit of both. This is obviously not an all encompassing list, but just a small slice of the many fun things to do! Everything on this list can be reached by public transportation or on foot, or there are many public bikes and scooters if your feet need a break (link to below map here). 

                   

1) Twin Peaks / Sutro Tower: My family has always called the tower Godzilla, and I am not sure why because I Googled it and can only find reference to it being called the Space Claw... It is kind of a monstrosity either way, and was built in 1973 (it recently had its 50th birthday) to help improve the television signal in the city. However, the real reason to go up there is the fun drive (or hike if you are feeling athletic; it is only a couple of miles depending on where you start) up and down and the great view you get from the top! 

View of downtown from Twin Peaks

(2) Golden Gate Park: This is a lot of ground to cover, but a favorite loop of mine is to go and ogle the bison in their paddock (2a), walk past the Dutch windmills and tulips (2b) (in bloom in February) and then end up at Ocean Beach (2c), where you can watch the (kind of scary) waves of the Pacific beat on the shore. If you like walking a lot, you can keep going and head over to the Cliff House (2d), an icon of the city, and the Sutro Baths (2e), where people used to bathe with a view of the ocean! For these places basically being in the middle of the city, they can all be surprisingly quiet. Tip from a local: bring a jacket, no matter what month it is. It gets chilly on that side of the city! 

Dutch windmills & tulips

(3) Land's End: If you keep walking after the Sutro Baths, you will get to Lands End, a dirt walking trail along the coast, which has some good views of the ocean and the Marin Headlands to the north. Also, this is right near the Legion of Honor (3a), which is worth a look-see (and if you don't want to walk so much, you can split the park and these two places into two groups). 

(4) Irving Street: Since we are already down near the park, we may as well go to Irving Street for something to eat! There is pretty much anything you could want between 19th St. and 24th St., but some of my favorite things to get are either pho, dim sum or Thai food (Marnee Thai  (4a) is a must and if you go, you have to try the kanom krok - even if you don't see it on the menu, ask for it). You also can't go wrong if you just wander, or stop when you are hungry (after your GG park walk you will be!) This guy has a fun map with restaurant names and notes. Oh, and if you feel like straying a bit for a good pizza or bread, check out Arizmendi Bakery (4b) on 9th and Irving. 

(5) Chinatown: Pick up some dim sum to-go from Delicious Dim Sum (5a) and sit in Portsmouth Square (5b) where you will have a view of the Transamerica tower, and watch the locals play their daily board games. They really get into it and it is fun to watch the competitions arise! Plus the area is just so vibrant; it is a great place to people watch. 

Delicious dim sum!

After that, if you feel like being a tourist, you can walk down Grant Street, or if you want to see how the locals shop, take a stroll down Stockton Street (5c). Local tip: You can get great prices on fruit and vegetables here. If you want to buy anything from the shops, there are not really proper lines. Just walk in, put your item on the scale next to the register and get your dollars out quick. It is a dog eat dog world out there and you need to be quick to win your right to pay for your goods! Also, I have never paid with a card, so I can't confirm whether they take them, but I would have cash on hand just in case. 

(6) Filbert Steps: These go from Sansome Street up to Coit Tower, so they are a little touristy, but it is also  fun to go up or down them. It is a stairway within a neighborhood and it is fun to check out everyone's gardens and at the same time you get a glimpse of the Bay Bridge and the San Francisco bay. If you feel like doing a loop, I like to go up (or down) Vallejo Street (6a) which is also steep but provides a nice view. If you like hidden staircases like I do, San Francisco has over 600 public stairways (map here) for you to explore; here is an article about 11 of them to get you started. 

(7) The Murals in the Mission: Head down to Clarion Alley (7a) and scope out the cool murals, and afterward, go and get a burrito. There are so many places to choose from, and you can't go wrong with most of them, but I often end up at either El Farolito (7b) on Mission & 24th or El Toro Taqueria (7c). And don't forget to eat the burrito properly, which I describe in this post. You can also find more mural locations in this article. 

(8) Crissy Field/Fort Point: If you feel like taking a nice walk along the water, you can go from Crissy Field down to Hopper's Hands (Fort Point) (8a), which is about 1.5 miles each way. If this is too much, there are options: you can park in the Warming hut lot (8b), which makes the walk only about half a mile, or you can drive all the way to Fort Point if the gate is open. Either way, it is a great way to get outside and get some fresh air, plus you have the added bonus of a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the water, the Marin Headlands and the city! Basically you can't go wrong. Don't forget to touch Hopper's Hands for good luck when you get to Fort Point! 

Fort Point

View from Crissy Field

(9) Fort Mason: You can go and watch the sea lions at Fisherman's wharf, or you can go to Fort Mason instead and watch them at the marina, swimming around and sunning themselves on the docks. Also, if you are looking for love, supposedly the Safeway (9a) across the street is frequently listed as one of the city's best pick-up spots and is affectionately known as the "Dateway." 

Fort Mason / Marina

(10) Biking the Embarcadero: Most people talk about San Francisco's hills and how scary they are when running or biking, but despite the rumors, there are a lot of flat options! The simplest one is to bike along the Embarcadero where you will have to climb a small hill to get to Fort Mason, but after that, you will go back down towards the Marina and Crissy Field where it is flat again. Of course, you can make this a multi-mile trip pretty easily: the Mission is also flat, Ocean Beach/Great Highway are gorgeous, you can even bike to Sausalito (and beyond)! Really the city is your oyster. 

Bay Bridge / Embarcadero

Well there you have it folks, a handful of fun things to pick from next time you are in San Francisco! Of course feel free to ask questions if you need more information! 

Have you ever been to San Francisco? Have you been to any of the places/done any of the things on this list? If not, what is your "local tip" for your neck of the woods? 

Currently

Happy almost November, Dia De Los Muertos and Halloween! 

Sal's Tacos in West Sacramento

Reading: All Together Now by Mike Carter, which is a book about a man who decides to walk from Liverpool to London in honor of the 1981 People's March For Jobs which his Dad participated in. The original march was a protest to the Thacher government and the high unemployment it brought. I am learning a lot about the little towns in England as well as some of the politics. 

Loving: Collagen (I use this one). I put some in my coffee every morning and my fingernails grow so fast! I can't say that I have noticed other changes, but maybe the lack of certain changes is enough for me! 

Thinking: About traveling. I took the Amtrak on Friday to go to my parent's house and it was so fun. I mentioned it to my coworker and he started looking into longer trips and the conversation made me want to book a train vacation! 

Frustrated: With people who play their music out loud in public places or trails etc. This happened a few times this weekend. One was on the Amtrak when the guy next to me put his music on out loud on his phone. The other times were on a bike path and the street. I just find that rude and am not sure why they don't feel the need to use headphones (the same applies for out loud phone calls). 

Feeling: Unmotivated to start working on my Christmas cards. I know once I get started and get in a groove it will be fine, but getting started is evading me. 

Anticipating: This weekend when I will be auntie to A. I will take her to her soccer game on Saturday but before that we will also do some fun things like watch an old movie (maybe Spaceballs, which she has not seen), bake some things and play games. 

Watching: Anne With An E on Netflix. It is very cute and is bringing back memories of the books, which I have not read in ages. In fact, it is making me want to go back and read them again! 

Working: NOT on my Christmas card! 

Grateful: That my family is all happy and healthy and that everyone can still do (and wants to do) our annual Thanksgiving hike before dinner. 

Listening: To the audiobook The Perfect Marriage as well as the Adventure Sports Podcast. 

Wishing: There were more summer weekends still, so I could go out for one last Sierra backpacking trip! 

What are you listening to? What are you anticipating? Have you started your holiday cards yet? 

My Last To Do List: In Case of Emergencies

As I mentioned in my 2022 recap post, one of the things I completed last year was what I call my last to do list.  Actually it is more of a file with a bunch of documents and a to do list in it, so let's just call it the In Case Of Emergencies (ICOE) file. If you have not read my first post of this series about trust and estate planning, you can read it here. 

This is basically a file that you can tell your emergency contact the location of so if something happens to you, they can go and get it and have a one stop shop of where things are and what they may need to handle for you. This is something that my grandmother had and after she passed away, it was so easy to arrange her affairs, since she had already done most of the work for us. After that, I decided to hone and combine a couple of the lists that I already keep for myself and update my file so that my loved ones would have a roadmap for me. Obviously this changes over time, so I have put it on my yearly purge and organize task list as something I revisit and update once a year. 

Important Docs: I basically have a big thick plastic ziplock bag (like this one) that I keep all of my grab and go important documents in. This includes the lists I will reference below, but it also has things like my trust documents, birth certificate, passport, deed to my house, title for the car etc. I also keep a paper copy of each of my bills so that the account number and phone number to contact are handy. Obviously this could be found online but I like to take the "belt and suspenders" approach. 

Vaccinations! (this can be uploaded online now too)

Other Important Items: This is also not on a list, but I keep any old memory cards or external hard drives with photos etc. in the same bag. I know most things are in the cloud now, but I have a lot of older photos that I have not put in the cloud so those are kept on hard drives for the time being. 

List of bills: This is a printout of an Excel spreadsheet of what bills I have, how they are paid, when they are due, and how much they normally are. Most of my bills are on autopay, so I have also noted whether it comes from my bank account (like the mortgage) or the credit card that I use for autopay. I only use one credit card for anything I have autopay on and use a different card for any online purchases and a third card for brick and mortar purchases. This way if the card that I carry around with me gets lost or stolen, I do not have to go back and update all of my online and/or autopay details. I also have this list saved in a Google drive folder that I share with my emergency contact so that it can be accessed online as well. 

List of bank accounts, retirement accounts etc.: This is also an Excel spreadsheet; I do not put account numbers on this, but it is a list of where the account is, what type it is, and who is the beneficiary. This includes my loan for my mortgage. 

List of properties: the deed or deeds should be in the file anyway, but it could also help to keep a list of the address(es) of any properties in the file too. I have also noted who my mortgage is with and approximately how much I have left on my loan (to be updated once per year). 

List of email address and passwords: this is also up to you and can be stored electronically and shared instead. You can also get a password vault app that can be shared. However, my list is not long; it only includes sites that I think people would want to have access to, such as my Google account, which is where all of my photos and such are. Also this can be retrieved in some cases after your death, although I did read that the Apple iCloud data is not transferrable. To be safe, I would share your login with someone if the information is important! 

Where is this file? Most importantly, tell someone where this file is and how to access it if it is in a safe or somewhere locked. 

Just a side note, as I have mentioned in the past, this file is also the very same one that I would grab if there were a fire heading my way, and because of this, it also has cash in it. I also have a box of photos (hard copies) and a go bag with a change of clothes and some food as part of my emergency prep kit, but if the fire were coming fast, I would just grab the ICOE file and skedaddle. So it satisfies two different purposes. 

Do you have a ICOE file or a Go Bag? Is there anything that I do not have on my list that you have on yours? 

A Scale of Loose to Clenched

A few months ago, my car got broken into. Unbeknownst to me, there was a viral TikTok video about how to hotwire my particular brand of car, which caused a rash of break-ins across the US. I do not watch TikTok, nor would I have watched a "how to hotwire a car in 5 seconds" video, nor did my car dealer send me anything warning me that this was an issue, so I was caught very unaware when it happened. I won't get into all of the details; the short story is that it was inconvenient and expensive and I was without a car for about 10 days. However, the good news is that four of those days were weekends and I had group trips planned so I did not need the car then. 

For the other days, I went back to my pre-pandemic method of biking to the train station! I used to do this every day but when the pandemic hit, first I drove to work and then when I started taking public transit again, there was no early train from my station so I had to drive to a further one to get to work, and then there were earlier trains but I was out of the habit. So the vandalism was a blessing in disguise and since then, I have ridden my bike to work about 99% of the time that I have gone into the office! This increases my weekly riding by about 12 -15 miles per week. 

Marina Green, San Francisco

This also spurred me to ride sometimes on the weekends, or do a longer loop after work on my way home. However, riding in a city is sometimes more of an adventure than you bargain for and there are some things that cause my butt cheeks to clench a little bit and I thought I would share with you my clench scale. Think of it like a normal scale of 1 - 5, with one being loose and comfortable and five being clenched and tense. Here are a few examples. 

1 - Loose and comfortable. Riding along on a nice bike path, or very smooth street, road or trail with no cars, the weather is good, the birds are singing and everyone is in the lane they are supposed to be in, going the direction they are supposed to be going, calling out etc. 

2 - Small pucker. Bike path or lane where cars are using their turn signals and giving me at least three feet of room, if not more. But there are groups of people taking up the whole path, or that have dogs with a leash that covers the entire space or with kids that are unsure of which way they are walking, so I have to take it slow and be careful. Or getting to a four way stop where everyone is stopped, but now that I am there, even though they were first, they wait and then they wave at me to go first and my armpits start to sweat from the pressure of having to get going from a stop in front of everyone, even though I am the slowest vehicle, and I grunt my way across, hoping that nobody gets impatient and just decides to gun it through the intersection. 

3. - Sweaty and tight. Google tells me to turn left at the next intersection when I am on a five lane street in the far right lane and it is rush hour. I contemplate veering left across four lanes to get to the far left lane but when I look up ahead you realize that the left lane takes me onto the freeway. I do not get into the left lane; instead I drop an F bomb at Google and go find the grocery store to buy ice cream. 

4 - You could bounce a quarter off of it. Dude comes from the left turning lane, across three lanes to turn right on a green light with no blinker or any warning, as I am attempting to go straight at said green light. I literally stop myself by putting my hand on his jeep as I nearly careen into him. He does not stop or give one of those "I'm so sorry, I did not see you" hand waves. Luckily I was just getting going on the green, so I was not going too fast yet. After this I ride through a tunnel on a street that Google told me to take, and there is not only no shoulder, but this is also the main thoroughfare for the semi trucks going to unload in the Oakland shipping yards, so I am passed by several of them while I am in the tunnel. I put all my energy into pedaling through as fast as possible and hoping that my little red blinking light is bright and these semi drivers are patient and awake. 

5 - Clenched and tense. Dude opens his car door without looking first, almost sending me ass over teakettle in the middle of a busy pothole laden street with no bike lane, causing me to swerve into traffic. Then I narrowly miss getting hit by a bus that is pulling over to pick up passengers. The bus clearly did not see me, nor did they use their blinker so I would know they were getting over. I get ahead of the bus and 30 seconds later they are passing me again, and I feel the wind from their bulk as they speed by, about six inches from my left elbow. Add pouring rain to this and I may need to make an appointment with a proctologist. 

So yes, some days are kind of fun and others can be a litany of near misses, sweaty armpits and holy-crap-what-did-I-just-dos. Yesterday I saw three cars run red lights on my two mile commute home. These were not turning from yellow to red lights; they were fully red and the people just decided to ignore the rules. Having said that, I just learned that the following states have a law called the "stop as yield" law, which means that bikes do NOT have to stop at the stop signs, but can instead yield (it seems many Oakland car drivers follow this premise too), and in some cases, can even treat red lights as stop signs, and can go when it's safe/clear. FYI, as you can see, California is not one of them. I do wonder how well these states do with educating car drivers of these rules. I also wish that I knew this before I rode across Washington! 

So...next time I tell you that today was a five, you will know exactly what I mean! 

Have you ever ridden a bike in an urban area? Do you have any pucker stories? Do you live in a stop as yield state and if so, did you know about this rule? Do people follow traffic rules where you are from?