It’s that time of year. Personally, I like tourists. Most are pleasant and I’m even guilty of deliberately looking like one on occasion. Tourism helps keep my fair city going.
Lastech is wonderful and patient. The poor guy is used to me yelling I NEED A PICTURE! The last time I yelled, we were near Lombard Street. He patiently dropped me off and waited.
Since Lastech works odd hours and sleeps during the day, I sometimes plug earbuds into the laptop and listen to either the police scanner or EMS scanner online. I was listening to the EMS scanner when the call came in about the crash of Asiana flight 214 at SFO. For the next several hours I listened to emergency teams coordinate their response. I also heard the sirens of ambulances making trip after trip to the hospital with victims. You see, the airport is ten minutes South of us via Interstate 101, which itself runs right behind my building.
There were 307 souls on board that plane. 291 Passengers and 17 crew members. Two 16 year old Chinese students (girls) lost their lives. 182 were injured, 49 of them seriously. The only reason more were not lost is due to the airline crew and the other first responders.
That wasn’t all that happened this week.
Our neighbors to the north have suffered a huge loss. Lac-mégantic in Québec still doesn’t know what the death toll is and won’t for some time. Train cars carrying crude oil broke away from the engine and rolled back into town and derailed. Five of the cars exploded. The destruction is massive and the death toll (now at 5) is expected to climb. Many buildings have burned and the number of missing is fluctuating.
That still isn’t all.
One week ago today, 19 firefighters from Prescott Arizona lost their lives fighting a fire. They were members of a Hot Shot team and made up almost 20% of the Prescott Fire Department. It’s a huge loss for everyone.
This has truly been an awful week for first responders AND for victims. Our heart goes out to all of them. It has also been a week for our first responders to shine. We are proud of all them, here and everywhere.
Pandemonium reigns supreme in the JBoD household. Tito, Jenny and Titanescu go ballistic for a while. Once done, it’s naptime. The manic moments are a wonder though.
Martial acrobatics meet Jenny’s Petomania under Tito’s benevolent gaze. If you remember, Miss Jenny runs on poot poot power. Most people can blame the dog. We blame Miss Jenny. These martial acrobatics bring out the best in her. Hmmmm, maybe that’s the worst.
As for Titanescu, he looks forward to playtime. He’s still a grumpy butt , but he’s a happy grumpy butt. Here’s a little slideshow movie I made of his acrobatics with Jenny. She does most of the acrobatics (and poots), but they have fun. Oh, and please forgive the music’s abrupt ending on the video.
This week has been amazing. Proposition 8 was wiped out by the Supreme Court and the 9th Circuit Court surprised everyone by dropping the stay on marriages early. Now Pride week in San Francisco has taken on a new meaning. Marriages have resumed and the City Hall will remain open this weekend.
San Francisco is expecting record crowds for the Pride Parade tomorrow and I’m sure it’s going to be a fabulous party.
Love? We haz it and now everyone can haz it AND marriage too!
Congratulations to ALL the newlyweds and to those will soon be married!
As for Titanescu…
JBoD is very happy for all of our LGBT brothers and sisters today. 🙂
Equality has won. The Supreme Court of the United States declared DOMA (Defense Of Marriage Act) unconstitutional. According to Scotusblog:
DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment.
In addition, SCOTUS has finally ruled on California’s Proposition 8 which restricted marriage to opposite sex couples only. Judge Vaughn Walker overturned Prop 8 in 2010 on the grounds that it violated the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the United States Constitution. Today, the Supreme Court ruled that the supporters of Prop 8 did not have the legal standing to appeal Judge Vaughn’s ruling. Vaughn’s ruling stands and marriage will resume in California soon.
There is more work to be done and more states in which we need to gain marriage equality for our LGBT brothers and sisters. However, Marriage Equality has won today. May there be many more wins in the near future.
I took this picture a couple of weeks ago and I was hoping that I would be able to use it for this.
Because it’s a usually fleeting thing, catching a glimpse of a cat about to go on its mad-hour romp can be difficult. One second they may be licking themselves, then the very next they dash off to explode out of corners at a dead run and jump on and off furniture.
This took a while to document, not just for one of the kittoons, but all three. The head rears back a bit, the eyes bug out, and there may even be a bit of a Marty Feldman look there.
The body goes from limp sack of cooked noodles to taut piano wire and boom, it’s on like Donkey Kong, claws out and losing traction as if in a ’70s car chase.
Naturally, Titanescu will do about three minutes before losing steam and plopping somewhere, while the others keep going and going.
This is the moment. On the cusp of lunacy. And it’s just goofy.
Standing where ocean meets earth, lighthouses hold a certain meaning for anyone I think. My wife loves the architecture and scientific aspects of Fresnel lenses, weather patterns, geology and wildlife. I like to let my imagination play with the same, especially when I picture these places after dark. I’ll give you two guesses at who fixes stuff around the house, like the sink or the toilet.
The lighthouse at Point Bonita holds its charms in a very dramatic and beautiful setting, accessed via a tunnel carved through rock and a narrow bridge over a steep drop.
Long before the Kardashian’s baby bump serial began, “Snuff Box” offered a preview of the future, in which Rich Fulcher dated himself with a clear reference to Salt n Pepa’s “Push It”…
“Snuff Box” was the result of Fulcher and Matt Berry working supporting roles on “the Mighty Boosh“, and some of you may remember Berry as the boss on “the IT crowd“: here is the intro of his character.
I think this clip from “Snuff Box” shows just how the baby will be… “monetized” with new merchandising on tee-vee:
Here’s a great montage of Fulcher’s best on the Boosh, and I hope you’ll check out these series. Their clips are on their way to rival Monty Python’s on Youtube.
“The IT crowd” and “Snuff Box” are available on Netflix streaming, and “the Mighty Boosh” is available on discs only.
You know that old grandpa or scary uncle kids like to sneak dangerously close to when he takes a nap, giggling at the hair growing wild out of his nose and ears? Running away when he wakes up mad?
That’s Titan.
The other day he seemed to nap, at least I thought he was, on Rudha-an’s lap. I pretended to pet him, bringing my hand to a couple inches from his back when “whap!!!” he slapped it lightning quick and hard. His expression didn’t even change and he barely moved. Giggling is tricky too: he doesn’t like when she has a fit of the giggles and makes him shake, and he lets it be known by letting out an almost asthmatic, silent hiss.
Life with the ole tyrant.
It’s not that he knows best, he just knows. And don’t you dare question him you damn kids…
Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park is home to a vast number of turtles. Most are red-eared sliders. My love for them is mixed. They are not native to the area and quite invasive.
If you have turtles or frogs or any other animal as a pet, do NOT release them into the wild! Non native species can be very destructive.
Now that I’ve said that, enjoy. 🙂
