The sound of grinding gears

Yes, the grinding gears of a start-up again! I'm helping a young neighbor, just became a teenager, start a blog for the first time. This reminded me that I did set one up, but haven't touched it in YEARS. And that I'd better resurrect it so I can keep ahead of Max's questions.

So, how many years? Four? Five?

There is no catch-up; there is only now. A rainy day at the end of June. The Giants are on TV.

Chill.

Home again...

It's been just over a week since I came home...Three and a half weeks, three motels (the last the Doubletree at the Berkeley Marina where the air smelled of edgy ocean and rosemary), countless meals out, disjointed days, disorientation, discombobulated...Yes, a month to the day since the problem started.

Coincidentally, in many cases, FEMA funding for Katrina victims to stay in hotels/motels ran out this week. People could apply for extensions, but not all were reached in time. I heard a story about a conversation between a Katrina hotel-dweller and a non-Katrina person. The non-Katrina comment was: "It must be nice to stay in a hotel!" The Katrina response was: "I just want to go home!"

After the last month, I can believe it...

Neighbors and people at work have been understanding and compassionate. This situation has triggered many conversations about capriciousness, loss, change, and how thin the line is between our "normal" days and chaos.

My New Year starts with the Chinese New Year on January 29, the Year of the Dog. I've lost a month, so that's a good time to begin.

So now I've got an 11-month year, when there are days and weeks where I want 28 hours or 8 days! And this is worth some reflection, maybe to a Marsalis brothers' tunes. How about some Diana Krall?

Patched floor, dried and clean carpet. French drains? We'll see what the plan is for my building and the two buildings in the complex that are south of it. We don't want more cracks or displacement.

Home again...

Displacement and uncertainty: where's "home"?

In the middle of Week Two of living in a motel. Now over in a Super 8 next to the freeway in El Cerrito, about 20 minutes from campus if there's no traffic.

The leaks? Confirmed not from my house.

The cracks? Getting bigger, wider, longer.

The neighbors? Very supportive and caring...

Day in, day out, I think of displacement and uncertainty, about homelessness, abrupt change, and the uncertainty of the future.

My situation in no way whatsoever mirrors the devastating losses of those who fled flood, who fled war, who were forcibly evacuated, 'disappeared', or shipped away.

What is common to this experience is the loss of home, no matter how temporary. The loss of dependence on everydayness, the loss of taken-for-granted routine. The loss of chance encounters with neighbors and friends, the easy socializing that is so much of neighborhood life. The loss of control over basic parts of life.

The desire to turn back the clock, no matter how fanciful, frequently intrudes. The sense of dislocation -- that others can continue their lives when mine is so disrupted, and WHY don't they notice?! -- permeates everything.

The uncertainty of when normalness will be recovered. If it will be accompanied by a sense of security that the best possible "fix" has been done.

The importance of communication, even when there is, especially when there is ambiguity.

Random thoughts...inescapable. I just want to go home.

Christmas at the Holiday Inn

Yes, it's still Christmas...Yesterday Mary dropped by my home-away-from-home, the Holiday Inn, just before Nicole and Laurie came over for our Christmas party!


Laurie and Nicole open presents


Nicole's new pants from Patty. They fit!


Mary and Nicole work on an activity book.

Loy, Elaine, and Penny meet Stripey!

The wonderful experience on New Years' Eve was seeing friends Loy, Elaine, and their eight-month old daughter Penny. Loy and Elaine are from Singapore. Loy's finishing up his PhD in Philosophy at Berkeley. His major advisor went to the University of Toronto, so they've been there for about the last year and a half. Elaine is on leave from her teaching job in Singapore. This was the first time I met Penny!

We had tea in the midst of soggy towels, worry, and more and more rain. Tea with lemon poppyseed bread and scones with clotted cream (thanks, Linda!).

Penny is a happy little girl! It was wonderful seeing them, talking about life in Toronto, Berkeley news, more cross-cultural stories between T, B, and Singapore, food, of course!


Loy introduces Penny to Stripey. She took a bite out of his head! A great start!


Elaine and Penny and an avocado

Loy, Elaine, and Penny are back in Toronto...Stripey, it seems was good company on the way home.

Loy and Elaine have a wonderful blog! I'm adding it to my list of blogs on the right nav bar. Actually, this is the food one with lots of recipes. But there are links to their other ones on this one!

Yummy...Singapore food!

Wish we'd had more time together!

What a difference a leak (I mean: week!) makes...

New Years Eve Day dawned with continuing torrential rains, but intermittently with blue skies. There was hope! A nice day of visits with friends Loy and Elaine and their baby Penny, then a traditional informal gathering of neighbors and friends for a New Years Eve Review of the Year and Greeting of the New Year for those who could last that long...Nice day planned!

But, as they say in the project management world: "When the plan hits reality, reality always wins!"

Reality in this case was seepage of water through cracks in my concrete slab in the dining area of my home. It seeped up through the slab, through the carpet pad, through the wall-to-wall carpet, and through the sisal on top. Aieya!

The slightly fuller story...

After more than a week of almost non-stop rains, I had a flood (or we're calling it 'water intrusion') in my house, in the dining area. To make the long story short, the water is most likely excess rainwater/groundwater that came up through cracks in the concrete slab. There's actually an intersection of cracks that was most opportunistic from the water's perspective! So the furniture in the dining area has all been jammed into the living room, the sisal rug has been rolled up (still damp), the wall-to-wall carpet pulled up all the way, and the pad underneath cut and thrown away. Since Wednesday, there have been fans and a dehumidifier blowing under and over the carpet. It's quite musty, not liveable, triggering asthma, no access to the kitchen.


The dehumidifier in the corner. The fan is under the carpet.


The jammed up furniture in the living room. The rolled up sisal is at the left.

I've been in the Holiday Inn Express on University just above San Pablo since Friday night.


The front of the Holiday Inn Express on University in Berkeley


The gigantic Cal Bear in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express

Tomorrow a leak detection firm is coming to find out more. We don't have answers or any sense of remediation yet. Very frustrating! I had an expensive plumber in who ascertained that the water wasn't from any of my water sources, so this is all on my Homeowners' Association, of which I have a 1/75th interest.

We're all worried because there is no indication of what kind of fix will be required, how long it will take, and how durable it will be! Of course, this is terribly disruptive to me, but also it's expensive for the Association.

Fingers crossed, candles lit, wood knocked on...

And I just can't stop using water metaphors for everything! I'm floating along...

Shepherd's pie at the Pub

A cold rainy night...a surfeit of sweets (and some dim sum earlier in the day)...searching for comfort food...

So off to Kensington Circus Pub in Kensington on the Colusa Circle -- "you can't miss it!" -- with Mei. Good to have a bit of a drive since she needed to try out the Toaster!

Yummy shepherd's pie! Crisp Caesar's salad!


Mei


The sign inside


The sign outside

Celebrating a birthday with dumplings and ice cream

My friend Kris' 14th birthday was yesterday, the 27th, a birthday shared by my Dad (who would've been 82) and old friend Nancy (no age, please). He was driving with his Mom Krisa down from Coos Bay on his birthday and arrived back in the Bay Area this afternoon, phoned and took me up on my suggestion for a lunch celebration.


Kris (aka Kuri, his baby name in Japanese, which means little brown chestnut) and his Mom, Krisa

Clear skies after days of rain, so we motored in the Toaster (see the November 27 post) across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco.

Shanghai Dumpling on Balboa at 34th was our destination; dumplings were on our minds.



Luck was with us: there was a parking one space away. The restaurant sported a sign that informed us it was "CLOSED", but we'd called ahead and had been assured that it was open. So in we went after checking ("we called from Berkeley") to find two other tables of people just finishing.

This place is SMALL! Two little rooms, menus only in Chinese on the plain white walls, no heat, supplies visible on the floor in the back, tables jammed in for parties of all sizes -- from a couple to a large family. Ah...steamed chive dumplings and juicy pork potstickers -- both served with a sauce of black vinegar with shredded ginger, steamed thread bread served with a savory-sweet condensed milk dipping sauce, and fried onion cakes. Cheap and delicious eats!

Where to after dumplings? Ice cream, of course!

Down to Ocean Beach where the big waves were crashing in from way out and past the Park... then threading through the Outer Sunset to a San Francisco Institution: Polly Ann Ice Cream. This was a favorite destination when I first moved to San Franciso in 1983 -- lots of exotic and ordinary flavors too; a complementary cone for the dog (if you had one with you); and a big spinnable wheel marked with not only more than 40 available flavors but also "free" spots (your ice cream was free if you hit one of those spaces). Ah, living dangerously in Ice Cream Land. I'd driven around Noriega and the 20s, then the 30s looking for it with Bianca two weeks ago. Bianca finally spotted it out at the NE corner of Noriega and 38th -- in a new building, but with the same wheel!


The wheel is in the back. Below is a close-up: "Can't decide? Are you 'wheeling' to try for anything?". The catch is that you HAVE to buy whatever flavor the spinner stops at. No forgiveness!



Kris: root beer!
Krisa: sesame seed!
Dianne: ginger!

Yummy!

Happy Birthday, Mr. K! Indeed!