Sunday, 02/02/2020

Palindrome day! 02022020. The next one, I believe, will be 12122121? Historic…

Walked to the P.A. Cafe for coffee and paper. The NYT puzzle had a very complex inner riddle scheme that I couldn’t figure out (still can’t).

Back home for Sunday lunch. Sunday lunch is the main meal of the day, and it was pretty good. Sat with Kay and Don, joined by Florrie and Dirk.

Then upstairs to watch the Stanford Women on TV having an easy win over WSU. Which led to time for the Superb Owl, which went on a long time. I spent some of the time on the 11th floor where a party of 20 or so had assembled to watch on the big screen. I wandered away from that for the second quarter and halftime. When I wandered back only two people were left and most of the snacks were gone, so I went back to my room for the final.

In the evening I got to thinking about finishing the decor. I need something under my cafe table. Preferably round, something like 5 foot diameter… a little searching on Amazon turned up a good candidate. Also I’d like some kind of lamp on that table. Originally I had my LED floor lamp over there, but it works better above my armchair reading nook. Some more browsing Amazon turned up what I think will be a nice-looking LED table lamp with a sculptured wood (grain plastic) base. Put both of those in the cart, clicky clicky, done. Coming Wednesday.

A year ago, 2/2/2019, I visited Webster House and wrote at length on what I’d learned. I also was beginning to dither over what furniture I would bring from Tasso street to wherever I would move. In the end, very little.

 

Saturday, 2/1/2020

Toddled off to the Museum to lead the public tour at 12. The staff had been putting out plaintive queries all week, for somebody to please lead a private tour of “12 Korean Executives” at 3pm. I’d have taken the job except I need to be in Oakland at 5:30. Well, turns out the Korean Executive tour had cancelled at the last minute. Fortunately no docent had stepped up to be disappointed. Or maybe fortunate they cancelled because they would have had no docent.

Anyway, got a nice round of applause from about 20 people, so good. Back to CH for a couple of hours and then off to Oakland to attend an open house at the home of the artist Carol Aust.

Back in May (Day 154) I attended an artist open house at Hunter’s Point, and was impressed by a painting of Carol Aust’s. I dithered for a couple of months, then asked her via email for a price, and set a date to come look at it again. In September just before I was to go see it, she emailed that it had sold! Even so, I did go (with Darlene and Jessea) to visit her house (Day 292). By amazing coincidence, they live only 4 blocks from the Aust home, so we walked from their house to hers. Anyway, nothing she had on view then resonated with me. But I’m on her email list so got an invite to attend a reception at her house to see new work.

That’s what I went off to today. The drive to Oakland took an hour. A couple dozen people showed up to nosh and talk, mostly it seemed, personal friends of the Austs. Sitting on the piano in the living room was “Leap #2”:

which I at first liked and then didn’t. I mis-apprehended the image because in the fairly dim light of the living room, the ground at the bottom merged with the black of the frame and I perceived it as a figure leaping into completely open space, like a suicide off a cliff. It made me uncomfortable and I said so. “Oh no!” says the artist, “She’s all right, the ground is right there!” When I saw it, yes, it’s ok, now it’s just a person exuberantly leaping. No danger of falling indefinitely. So it’s just a fantastical jump, not a suicide.

So I agreed to buy the painting! She agreed to add a little more height to the grass so it would be more definite and nobody else would make the mistake I had.

I am to go and pick it up next Friday. Yay. And so I drove back home.

Friday, 1/31/2020

Right at 8, the moving team arrived at #435. We went over the items of concern, the new carpet, how to move the L-shaped desk, etc. And then Angela escorted me to guest room #191 where I could spend the day. I didn’t; I almost immediately went out to explore a couple of things, which I’ll go over below. (This is going to be a long post!)

Back to #191 and just relaxing at 1:30 when the phone rang: Angela saying, we’re almost done, I’ll come get you in 20 minutes. And up we went to unit #621. Everything had been put back just where it was five months ago. Gentle Transitions, the moving contractor, takes great pains. They had taken a picture of each drawer and each closet, and carefully put everything back in drawers and shelves just where they were. (Some of the pictures were still in the drawers.)

And the place is just great. The floor plan is almost the same as #435, but the ambience is completely different. And my new carpet, which I had never seen before except as a picture, is perfect. The colors are not garish, but just nicely complementary to my furniture. I took some videos but I don’t like them. I’ll try again.

The new HVAC works well. There is an air diffuser in the ceiling of each room; the air flow is silent and can be adjusted for angle. There’s a thermostat in each room that switches mode automatically from heating to cooling. There are recessed dimmable LED ceiling lights. The new, double-paned windows and patio doors reduce noise from the street and operate smoothly.

Here’s the bedroom/office. You can see the recessed lights and the air diffuser for HVAC.

Bathroom and two large closets to the left. Opposite the bed, a large blank wall where I think I need either some art, or another piece of furniture, or both.

Here’s the living room, now with hard floor and new area rug. I sit in all three locations, depending on time of day.

Here’s the living room this morning at 7:20, with the sun rising through the redwood trees outside my window! That second window makes all the difference between a boring apartment one that, frankly, makes me joyful to be in.

There are a few things yet to tweak. I have a lot of prints and pictures that I need to hang, and that needs deciding. (Also, tomorrow, maybe another piece of art.) What to hang on my inside walls, what to hang on my outside, hallway wall. Of course, I am at the very end of a long hall, so what I hang out there will be mostly for my own enjoyment. Hardly anyone else will walk by to be impressed.

In coming weeks I need to install under-cabinet lighting in the kitchenette, and I need to get the closets remodeled. But that will be fun to arrange in March and onward.

In the morning I went out, first to the

Intel Museum.

I had heard guests at CHM saying they were going next to the Intel Museum so I thought I’d have a look.

Not impressed. They do a very poor job of explaining what an integrated circuit is, or how it is made, or explaining how incredible is the work of designing one. Really inadequate. Very static. They have a couple of interactive video things but they really don’t inform.

From there I went to the

San Jose Museum of Art.

I think we visited this once, maybe in the 90s? Anyway, their emphasis currently is on digital art, and on the Black Power protest by Tommy Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics.

In the digital art section they had some striking things. But the centerpiece is this, which is quite stunning.

Called Bridge by Glenn Kaino, it consists of 100 reproductions of Tommy Smith’s right arm and clenched fist, suspended as shown. Oh my, did I want to touch that. Just pull the end one back and let it swing… tell me the docents don’t do that, after hours!