Take Five

Window in the Shower

My third-floor apartment on Bainbridge Island had a window in the shower. It looked over a forest so there were no privacy issues, and as it faced East, the sun poured in every morning.  In the summer I would lift the blinds and open the window--it was the next-best thing to showering outdoors.  Years later, I was looking at a condominium in Tacoma facing Commencement Bay, but the shower was in a windowless bathroom.  No thanks!

Rhododenron

The Rhododendron is showy this year thanks to a very wet winter and early Spring.

Mission San Antonio Bell Wall

West Convento Wing bell wall detail, Mission San Antonio de Padua

MIR Space Station collision

Fascinating video of the in-orbit collision on June 25, 1997 of the Russian Mir space station with the supply ship Progress during maneuvers.

Calm and clear-minded problem solving is characteristic of Astronauts and Cosmonauts.

The collision caused Mir to spin uncontrollably.

Mr. Peanut

Planters Nut & Chocolate Company headquarters at Paul Avenue and Bayshore Boulevard

News copy from 1952:

MR. PEANUT KING OF ALL HE SURVEYS

Mr. Peanut, that top-hatted Beau Brummel of the goober world, surveys the area adjacent to the future office and factory location of Planters Nut & Chocolate Company's new San Francisco headquarters. He is 31 feet tall and completely outlined by a tube of tangerine neon. When the sign is lighted at night, Mr. Peanut winks his right eye and the arrows pointing to him flash on and off. Two buildings now are on the site at Paul avenue and Bayshore boulevard and third is under construction. Planters expects to move in about the middle of 1953. Plant expansion investment on West Coast is about $2,500,000.    S.F. Public Library

 When a boy,  I'd look for the Planter's building with all the little Mr. Peanut statues on the parapets   (the Sherwin Williams "Cover the Earth" sign, too) from the backseat of the car when I was entering or leaving San Francisco via Highway 101 .  Looking back, it usually meant change and disruption of my circumstance:  As a kid, I never knew with whom I would be living or where I would be going to school.  Thankfully,  I was always cared for and  never abandoned or abused.

Vitrvm

I came across these images of a proposed apartment house in Bogata, Columbia, by the architectural firm of Richard Meier & Partners.

Requiescat in pace

      

R.I.P. Jeanne O'Hare

The Yaran

Imprisoned Persian Baha'is.

"When the victory arriveth, every man shall profess himself as believer and shall hasten to the shelter of God's Faith. Happy are they who in the days of world-encompassing trials have stood fast in the Cause and refused to swerve from its truth".    --Baha'u'llah

Sponge

One Note Samba---Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66

Old San Franciscans may remember this as Jim Dunbar's theme song for his talk show on KGO radio.

This is just a little samba
Built upon a single note
Other notes are bound to follow
But the root is still that note
Now this new one is a consequence
Of the of we've just been through
As I'm bound to be the unavoidable consequence of you

There's so many people who can
Talk and talk and talk
And just say nothing
Or nearly nothing
I have used up all the scale I know
And at the end I've come to nothing
Or nearly nothing

So I come back to my first note
As I must come back to you
I will pour into that one note
All the love I feel for you
Anyone who wants the whole show
Re mi fa sol la ti do
He will find himself with no show
Better play the note you know

There's so many people who can
Talk and talk and talk
And just say nothing
Or nearly nothing
I have used up all the scale I know
And at the end I've come to nothing
Or nearly nothing

He will find himself with no show
Better play the note you know

He will find himself with no show
Better play the note you



know

Lawyer Dog

LAWYER DOG

Early Spring

The backyard is coming back to life. It's the showiest time of year for the Photinia.

Loma Prieta

I sketched the clock tower and Loma Prieta looking out the window from my desk on Center Street (across the street from Goodwill) in 1980.  It was one of those long afternoons in a small engineering office in Santa Cruz, and I was watching the clock.

Consider a Tree

Fruit Trees --Malott

Consider a tree: Behold how We plant it in a garden, and nourish it with the waters of Our loving care; and how, when it hath grown tall and mature, and brought forth verdant leaves and goodly fruits, We send forth the tempestuous gales of Our decree, tear it up by its roots, and lay it prostrate upon the face of the earth. So hath it been Our way with all things, and so shall it be in this day. Such, in truth, are the matchless wonders of Our immutable method—a method which hath ever governed, and shall continue to govern, all things, if ye be of them that perceive. None, however, knoweth the wisdom thereof save God, the All-Powerful, the Almighty, the All-Wise.  --Baha’u’llah