Last evening, just after we’d put the kids to bed, we had an earthquake that rattled the house, had us all running outside, and trembling. Peter was surprised it scared me more than the now-legendary Loma Prieta earthquake, which was technically bigger, and I was surprised when I checked the USGS Quake info site (the [...]
Both Peter and I are enjoying the new science-fiction TV show, Journeyman, in which a journalist gets unexpectedly transported back in time to change lives in one way or another. Understandably for us, one of the things we really enjoy is that the show is set in San Francisco, and it explicitly shows the locations. [...]
It’s been nearly 10 years since Peter and I bought a car. He and I come from two different classes of people. I come from the debt-averse group that scrapes together some money and buys whatever can be had for that: which usually means a used car. Peter comes from the class that buys a [...]
One of our favorite neighborhood traditions is the annual Memorial Day parade. It begins just half a block from our house, on the street just behind the nearby elementary school and winds for about a mile past our local playground and to another elementary school. Children from both schools comprise a choir that sings patriotic [...]
I took Kelly to the native American powwow held annually on the Stanford campus. I always feel awkward going to a powwow, because it is a very native American event, and I have no grounding whatsoever in native American culture. On occassions I encounter natives in my regular setting who are constantly saying “sorry”; I [...]
We spent the weekend with other members of Neil’s cub scout troop at Mount Madonna. Mount Madonna is a popular local camping locale on the border of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties. One reason for its popularity is that its western slope faces the Monterey Bay so it’s always cool, but never cold, and [...]
In June of 1998 a 13-year-old girl, Christina Williams, disappeared while walking her dog in the Monterey area town of Seaside. The story still haunts me. Of course, we all hoped Christina would be found, preferably alive and well. Her parents made regular appearances on the local news channels, the father holding the hand of [...]
Last fall, we took a tour of the Grant family home in San Jose’s Joseph D. Grant park, and we heard a riveting story of gold-rush wealth, local nobility, homosexuality, alcoholism, and homicide: the rise and fall of a great family in just three generations. The history of the San Francisco Bay Area is rife [...]
