(Conversation is happening on Friday.)

"Hi, I need to put in a maintenance request form because my heat is not working for the second time in two days."

"Oh, well...I guess we could try to fix it Monday. Oh wait, no--Monday is a holiday."


To a certain extent, I know I'm spoiled from living in a doorman building with a live-in super who was very responsive. And California is not as cold as the East Coast so absence of heat is uncomfortable, not life-threatening. But...seriously? No concern at all?

(Edit: When pressed, he was willing to submit a special request form, but he made no promises.)

Bah, humbug.

It never ceases to amaze me what people put in their contracts. Today I got a fresh example of this.  I went to the main office of Trinity Management Services at 333 Bay St, San Francisco, CA, 94133 in order to sign a contract for one of their properties.  The package they gave me was more than twenty pages, including the various appendages (e.g. lead paint, mold, bed bugs, rules and regulations, etc).  There were a number of problems, most of which were just issues with the wording, not with the intent, and I was able to sort those out with the leasing agent.  Unfortunately, there was one dealbreaker that we could not resolve, so I wasn't able to sign.  They've kicked it upstairs to management, who will look at it tomorrow and get back to me.


( See the specifics... )


The part that frustrates me is that I know I could just sign this and then ignore the stupid wording, follow the intent (which I would do anyway), and I'd be fine.  That feels like breaking my word, though--I'm signing a legally binding contract that says I will (not) do something, and then I'm breaking that commitment.  It should not be up to me to interpret what they **meant**, it should be up to them to write their meaning into the contract in the first place.

So, we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Today, I have been doing the things that didn't get done yesterday.  I found a place that was still selling monthly muni passes and got one, went to the post office and got a bunch of money orders so that, when the time comes, I can say to any of these landlords "Here's first, last, security, and a couple extra months on top of it, all in cash.  Can I move in now?"  I also found a FedEx and printed my credit report and bank statement, so I'll also be able to hand the prospective landlord proof of my solvency and of the fact that my credit is essentially perfect.  If that doesn't do it, I don't know what will.

From there, I've been walking the ground, looking at apartments.  The very first one I looked at is in a Holy God gorgeous neighborhood, with a Safeway just up the street and multiple laundromats within three blocks.  It's also just under half the rent that I was paying in Manhattan, and is one of the more expensive places I will be looking at today; if the quality of the other neighborhoods is even close to this good, I'm going to have a wide set of options. 

I have paused briefly to write this up and will now be moving on to some of the other neighborhoods.


Observation #2:  Public transit out here is far more attractive than in New York, but is also more primitive. 

  2.A) Instead of having one integrated system there are two disconnected ones:  BART and Muni, where Muni has trains, buses, and trolleys.  The BART has farecards but uses point-to-point pricing (i.e. it costs more the farther you travel), while the Muni fixed-price but cash-only unless you have a monthly pass. (EDIT:  As sinboy points out, the more expensive version of the monthly pass will also let you ride the BART within city limits, but not outside them.)

  2.B) The monthly passes are based on calendar month, not 30-days-from-date-of-issue. 

  2.C) They print and distribute the monthly passes at the beginning of each month and when they run out (usually by the end of the first week), there just aren't any more.

  2.D) Finally, both systems essentially shut down around 11pm or midnight--there are a few late-night lines (called "OWL lines") that stay open, but it becomes very hard to get around in the evening.

Observation #3:  Almost nothing out here takes credit cards.  It's cash or debit.  Weird.

Observation #4 (I already knew this, but it bears repeating):  This city is so much prettier than New York.  Murals, architecture, terrain, everything.

Wow.  I'm in San Francisco and I'm not going home back.

Went to Boston for the weekend to say goodbye to people.  Played games, ate tasty food, saw Mosaic Commons, had dinner in Milford.  More below the cut.

( Read more... )
All in all, this was a fantastic weekend.  I'm really going to miss all my Boston friends, but I'm glad I saw you all.  To all those I was not able to hook up with this weekend--it wasn't for lack of desire, it was simply that I wanted to keep the group small so that I would actually get a chance to talk to everyone at least a little.

I am moving today, and the Moving Gods love me very much....they even gave me a present to show their love:  boiled  bunny.

See, if I ever finish the move, I will no longer exist within their domain.  And that would make them sad.  Gods do not like to be sad.  When they are afraid of being sad, they create blizzards and traffic jams and poorly timed communications in order to hold onto whatever they want to keep.

But, really and for true, the movers should be here soon. 

Merry Christmas all!

We have all survived the shopping, and the wrapping, and the traveling, and the worrying, and the day is finally upon us. A day to kick back in front of a fire, put our slippered feet up on the ottoman (or the coffee table, I won't tell) listen to a bit of DeBussy or Rachmaninoff in our smoking jackets, share a fine port with family and close friends while saying "Pip, pip old turtle!" in faux British accents, open our many tasteful, thoughtfully selected presents and enjoy the perfect, untrammeled layer of snow outside the window that someone else will shovel for us when we're ready to have it trammeled.

What? No one else ever has those weird "Norman Rockwell has Masterpiece Theatre's lovechild" dreams and feels compelled to write them down?


In all seriousness: a very Merry Christmas to all of my wonderful friends, near and far. You brighten my life.

It's currently 11pm here in San Fran, which means it's 2am in the time zone my body is currently running on, so I'm going to keep this short and summary-iffic. Expanded version when I get home in a few days:

- Made it here intact, trip was good.

- Car rental easy. Was clever enough to rent a Garmin GPS to make navigating the city easy. Problem: the Garmin doesn't work. It has no idea where I am, simulates driving the route without paying any attention to what I'm doing, and is utterly useless. The only way I actually made it here was by driving with my iPhone's Google Maps in one hand. Fortunately, there was no one else on the road.

- The house I'm staying in is really really nifty, and has a lot of history.

- Slept like a log. Woke up multiple times, but overcame it.

(Inner dialogue:

Body: "Hey it's 8:30am! Wake up!"
Me: "It's 5:30. Shut up and go back to sleep."
Body: "Huh? It's 8:30, I'm sure of it."
Me: "Look, we're in a different timezone. It's 3 hours earlier. Go back to sleep."
Body: "But...hang on. I get three more hours of sleep?"
Me: "Yes, but only if you shut up."
Body: "Shutting up now!"

We had this conversation two or three times, but I kept going back to sleep and woke up feeling rested and relaxed, and it was still very early.)

- My friend Rich picked me up around 10. We drove over to Dottie's True Blue cafe, where we waited in line for an hour for breakfast. Rich assured me it would be worth it--I was dubious but figure ok, I'll give it a shot. OH. MY. GOD. He was so right. Coconut white chocolate muffin, whiskey fennel sausage scramble with *delicious* homefries, jalapeno cornbread, a taste of his avocado, tomato, (something), and feta frittata, Stash tea, fresh squoze OJ. Oh. Yeah. We left the place around 12pm and I wasn't hungry again for about 7 hours.

- We then picked up our mutual friend Stef. The three of us spent the rest of the day driving around the city looking at different neighborhoods. This city is GORGEOUS (at least, large parts are--a warehouse district is a warehouse district no matter where you are). Funky, creative, decorative...I am *so* looking forward to moving here.

Finally, even though none of us were really quite hungry yet we went for dinner and then Rich dropped me off. I am now in bed typing this and about to conk out.

Tomorrow, I have a noon meetup with a bunch of tech folk from the area. This should be fun.

My father is starting a project to produce some video about match racing (a particular kind of sailing).  He would supply the raw video footage, but he wants someone who can put it on DVD, edit it together, do the voice overs, manage the project, etc.  Would any of you / your companies be interested in taking on such a project?  This is still in the very earliest phases of discovery--budgets and requirements aren't set, timelines are unknown, the video hasn't been shot, etc.

If you or someone you know does this kind of work and has availability, could you either leave your contact information below or drop me an email?  (dstorrs dot public at gmail dot com )   Make sure you put VIDEO PRODUCTION (all caps) in the subject line so that I see it.  Thanks!