Is life imitating art?

This truck caught my attention this afternoon. A beat up old rig with a barred window trailer that looks a little like some kind of combat vehicle from a post-apocalyptical sci-fi movie, probably used for transporting the criminally insane or carrying out top secret medical tests. So I went downstairs to investigate further. I found no corpses, aliens, prisoners or biohazards, only that the truck belongs to JSA Cone Penetrometer Testing Services, which kind of sounds like it could be any of those things listed above. But it turns out they will soon be carrying out 20 foot deep soil drilling tests in our parking lot to learn more about how to stabilize the buildings during earthquakes. It’s the Presidio Trust’s latest round of “improvements” for the Baker Beach neighborhood. What does that mean for the full time resident who works nights and weekends? Endless construction at the end of which, they raise your rent. Boy, I wish my life could have been improved sooner!

I suppose the neighborhood does need some work though. While I joke about living in “the projects” this neighborhood is very much a public housing project, technically a public/private project. It was built in the 1950s under the Wherry Act, named for Nebraska Senator Kenneth Wherry who introduced a bill providing for private companies to build, maintain and rent out housing on military bases. This tradition continues today with our landlord, the Presidio Residences, a subsidiary of the John Stewart Company, but I digress.

While I enjoy the views, scenery and wildlife it also hard to miss the peeling paint, cracked concrete and dead grass I see out this window as well. I don’t think there have been any “improvements” made in the last 50 years. In fact, the Army didn’t even want this place.  One historic account states, "The Presidio considered the Wherry housing to be below army standards and...in 1961 the Presidio drew up a long list of the buildings inadequacies: too crowded, rehabilitation too expensive, the light frame construction, bedrooms and storage areas too small, kitchens crowded, electrical wiring inadequate, utilities undersized, and they lacked sound proofing."

At roughly the same time Paramount Studios was building Jimmy Stewart’s apartment complex for the movie Rear Window. At the time of its completion it was the largest indoor set ever built by Paramount Studios. Buildings were 5-6 stories tall, containing 31 fully furnished apartments with electricity and running water. Actress Georgine Darcy, who played “Miss Torso” actually lived in her apartment during the month-long filming. That way she could relax as if really at home in between takes.

Miss Torso

So maybe the apartments featured in the movie Rear Window and the ones featured in the blog Rear Window aren’t all that different, except that if there had been cone penetrometer testing services being performed at Jimmy Stewart’s apartment building, it might have been a lot less suspenseful movie. I wonder what they will find buried in our courtyard?

Life is full of important decisions...

...like who to leash. This week I pose a simple question. Hypothetically speaking, if you had a dog and a child and you saw these two signs walking down the street, which would outrage you? Which, if either, would you obey?

                      

Some say that dogs actually outnumber children in San Francisco. I'd say they might outrank them too so it’s no surprise there has been such outrage and protest over new stronger leash laws proposed by the National Park Service here in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. But where is the outrage over the situation pictured below?

It might be a little difficult to see because it was taken through the screen window but clearly the dog has no leash but the child does have one! This was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life. Who's in charge here? Is it the dog, ordering these two shackled humans to march ahead of him? Is it the woman, who trusts the dog to follow by walking ahead of it? Is it not possible to teach a child the same trick? Or is it the child, successfully demanding and receiving the adult's full attention?

Most everyone in San Francisco is aware, opinionated and vocal about the new leash laws for dogs so I started wondering what these same people think about child leashes and what they might think about the above photo. Google “child leash” and you’ll get a wide variety of content from websites that sell child leashes to parenting blogs vehemently arguing both sides and even a disturbing video on YouTube of a mother literally dragging her child through a Verizon store. Even Bay Area company (and Bay to Breakers sponsor but we’ll save the rant on that controversy for another day) Zazzle.com, sits on the fence by selling t-shirts to those on both sides with slogans like “Free the leash kids” and “Please support child leash laws”. So, at least here in San Francisco, it seems that everyone can agree that leashes are bad...for dogs...but for children?…well no one is too sure about that. 

Why did the heron cross the road?

Once in a while you see these guys standing like statues at Crissy Field but it’s far less common to see their giant wingspans soaring right over head. Such was the case on Monday when a Great Blue Heron landed on the street below my bedroom window. I was on the phone with my thesis adviser at the time so I couldn’t immediately drop everything to grab my camera for a picture. I kept one eye on him as he continued walking around, taking those odd, stalking steps and I started thinking this was too cool to pass up. I was faced with quite a dilemma. Do I focus on the important phone call or get my camera and take a picture of a bird?

I think I did what any reasonable person and dedicated student would have done. But lest you think I’m the only one fascinated by this bird's harrowing walk across Stilwell Road, check out the photo below. Notice the heron nearly camouflaged in the foreground to the left of the tall green bushes and the neighbors at the window.

Once I got off the phone with my adviser, I checked the Wikipedia entry on Great Blue Herons (as per my wildlife spotting protocol) and it turns out they are not just big or great or blue but pretty interesting too, especially when it comes to their diet. They eat mostly fish but also other little critters they come across like crabs, turtles, frogs, even small birds and rodents. That’s good news because last week a letter came in the mail saying, “as part of ongoing pest control, the Presidio Trust will be placing trap boxes in your neighborhood in an effort to reduce rodent populations.” So why did the heron cross the road? To take care of that rodent problem, I hope.

Spring Arrives with a Song

Last week I returned to San Francisco from a weekend down in Tucson, AZ.  My friend Angie is (presumably) still down in Mexico relaxing in the shade of cacti, and my old pal Drew continues south vagabonding through South America. Well, as everyone was heading south this little guy was passing us in the other direction.

                                                             Barn swallow on fire escape

Not the best nest photo but you can see the swallow in the upper left of the photo. That was a close call!

I noticed these swallow nests when I moved into this apartment at the end of January but was disappointed there were no swallows to accompany them. Then, all of a sudden, about two weeks ago they were everywhere! The barn swallow, as I now know, winters in South America and flies all the way to my window here at Baker Beach to officially announce the arrival of spring.

If you recall last week’s mention of the Salton Sea, barn swallows and other migratory birds rely on the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge during their long journey north. The males arrive first, finding their nests still in good condition waiting for them in the stairwell right outside my front door. These sturdy mud pellet homes just need a little touching up each year so that everything looks good when the females arrive. One nest can last 10-15 years! That’s a lot more durable than the furniture I buy at Target. 

According to Wikipedia, swallow pairs mate for life but it’s kind of an open marriage as “extra-pair copulation is common”.  So while these pleasant song birds mark the coming of spring, one can’t help wonder what stories of sex, lies and betrayal they may also be singing about. What might the conversation be in the photo below? Two old friends catching up? The timeless art of seduction? Or two jealous rivals staring each other down?

I think it's two males

All I know is that their presence means that summer is right around the corner and that means yet another, “Summer of Eric”. If you’re unfamiliar with the “Summer of Eric”, it was a cross country drive named for the “Summer of George” Seinfeld episode and not unlike Chevy Chase’s quest to reach Walley World. You can catch up at http://www.summeroferic2010.blogspot.com/. While there are no cross country drives planned for this year there is a 4^th of July BBQ down the shore, August in Alaska and a September trip to Spain. And of course, like all the young and hip kids in their “mid-20s”, I’ll be taking these trips with my parents. So now that spring is officially here, what are you planning for the summer?

A Window in the Sky

In my first blog entry I explained the premise behind Rear Window, that I’d be sharing observations, musings and photos of interesting things I see out the window of my own apartment. I know it is early in the life of this blog to start making exceptions but I saw so many interesting things out the window of my United Express flight from San Francisco to Tucson this weekend I had to make the exception.

In Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang, George Washington Hayduke laments (among other things) that “the ultimate goal of transport technology is the annihilation of space, the compression of all Being into one pure point.” In other words, it’s not about the journey, it’s about the destination. When we sit back, relax and enjoy our flight we are really doing the exact opposite. We are going to great lengths to distract ourselves from the fact we are speeding along at 400 mph, 6 miles up in the air over some of the most stunning cities, beautiful nature and shocking environmental impacts. The conventional wisdom seems to be that there is no value to looking out the window to make these observations. Most everyone is reading the newspaper, trying to sleep and/or desperately waiting to be told they can power up their electronic devices.

Because I usually prefer the freedom of the aisle seat I typically fall in with everyone else. The goal of most flights is to kill time as efficiently and ruthlessly as possible until we arrive at our destination. This time though, I had the window seat. I decided to make it about the journey, enjoy the ride, look out the window and see what I could see. I was not disappointed when we took off to the north, banked over the city of San Francisco to turn south, and were greeted with the most magnificent aerial view of the bay, the bridges, Alcatraz and the unfathomable density of the city juxtaposed with the undeveloped park land all around. The captain announced we’d be flying south through the Central Valley, over Palmdale and across Blythe into Arizona. This info, along with my photographs would later help me identify places we passed along the way.

I didn’t have my camera at the ready so I didn’t get a shot of San Francisco but I did get this nice one of Monterey. If you look closely you can see the homes of Clint Eastwood, Jennifer Aniston and my roommate, Allison Bernhardt.

Before long we were cruising over the high peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains in the Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests. It was quite striking to look around the plane to see people reading, sleeping, and watching TV on their iPads when you could glance out the window to see 10,000 foot snow covered peaks. I know certain honeymooners who would pay a fortune to cruise over such peaks for just a few minutes in a helicopter.

Next I saw this lake and thought it looked familiar. Google Earth later confirmed it is indeed Lake Arrowhead, where my friend Andrew lives and patrols the surrounding national forest as a law enforcement officer. While I admired the serene beauty of the mountains from above I also reflected on the fact that in those mountains were poachers, marijuana fields planted and guarded by Mexican drug cartels and dozens of land management controversies. Not too much time to ponder though because quickly the scenery was changing again.

I was pretty sure this was the infamous Salton Sea. I first learned about it through the documentary, Plagues and Pleasure on the Salton Sea. Check out the trailer for a good look at how the Salton Sea was once a thriving resort area, became an environmental catastrophe and how Sonny Bono tried to save it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqMFYGhySpA&feature=related

Just outside of Tucson is the Asarco Mission Complex, a pit mine that produces 400 million pounds of copper annually. Apparently, copper prices are high right now and Asarco wants to expand this mine because some of its others are too close to Saguaro National Park for further development. (See njbookwoman for more on Saguaro). There might be no greater enemy to monkey wrenchers and other environmentalists than the “extractive industries” but I’d like to think that Hayduke would at least be pleased to know that someone appreciated the landscape and contemplated the issues on the way from San Francisco to Tucson.

During a one hour and thirty-six minute flight I saw one of America’s most beautiful cities from a perspective few ever see, I saw friends’ hometowns, some of the largest mountains in California, and some of the environmental impacts man has made in this area of the country. So, go ahead, ask me how my flight was and we could spend hours discussing any of these topics I learned about just by looking out the window.  Next time you board a plane or get in the car for a long drive I encourage you to try to forego the modern conveniences and distractions. Be attentive, aware and one with what is happening and you just might be surprised by how much you see.

I don’t plan to always write so much so thanks for reading! Tune in next week when I’ll introduce you to some of our new neighbors who once lived at the Salton Sea.