Always Mesmerized --- Day 13/183

Walk: Chouquet's Brunch

Distance: 3 miles

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, oil on canvas,  Art Institute of Chicago,

For some reason* Edward Hopper's iconic and most famous painting is on Ciwt's mind today. No matter how many times she - or any viewer - looks at it, it captivates her and continues to ask her questions she can't answer for sure.  Are the diners finding a place of calm and comfort in this diner?  Are they brooding, feeling isolated?  Are the man and woman a couple?  What are they talking about - if they are having a conversation?  Always she comes up with more questions than answers.  And always she is filled with admiration and wonder for Hopper's ability to create such a masterpiece.

* Maybe because she is re-watching The Sopranos these days - also an American masterpiece.

Mann With The Golden Brush --- Day 13/182

Walk: Hood

Distance: Not far; nursing aching feet

Signs can set the tone for an entire establishment's dining experience. So in this city of numerous, often famous bars and restaurants, talented sign painters are in great demand.  And at the moment none more so than Manny Fabregas.  

In fact, his signs are so finely crafted you see people stop just to admire them and take pictures.  Many of his originals are in gold leaf, an eye catching medium historically associated with fine craft.  But  Manny's signs take beautifully scripted gold leaf to yet another level: often they are the only ones still shining when the San Francisco fog rolls into our neighborhoods. 

Nope, Not Today --- Days 13/176-181

Walks: Back and forth, back and forth between 2 homes

Distances: average 3 miles

Darn!

So Ciwt would love to be on her way to her new home so she could begin to make it her own and to be out of her current home - so she could sell it.  But, no, instead she has become a "master" electrician, painter, handyman, decorator/designer and other new talents.  She had forgotten there is usually a bunch of  property preparation jobs necessary before moving while walls, etc are easily accessible.  Luckily those jobs are small ones in her new place that passed all inspections with flying colors.  Still, she has needed to communicate in all sorts of  'to the trade' languages that are completely new to her.  

Sorry, dear readers, no way is any of this interesting to you.  The good news: moving day, July 10 is around the corner, she will be moving into one of the few properties around San Francisco with no deferred maintenance - and new CIWT topics are on the horizon.

Where Have You Been All Week?! --- Days 13/168-175

Walks: Title company, Old Home, New Home, Comcast, Errands, errands

Distances: average 4.5

Ciwt on a calm day recently

So, if you're wondering where Ciwt has been all week, probaably she has mentioned that the real estate market in San Francisco is so thin you have to pounce  when something you like comes along.  Then you have to go at top speed to get out of your old place and into the new SO you can put the old place on the market

Meanwhile contacting all the moving people, the post office, utilities, oh and family, friends and loyal CIWT readers.   

Hello, Home --- Day 13/167

Walk: Empty New Home 

Distance: 3 miles

So today was Ciwt's final walk through/sign off on her new home.  After the realtors left, it was just her, some flowers she had brought, a foyer table included in the sale, shades and light.

Huh? --- Days 13/165 & 166

Walks: Hood and Past New Home

Distances: 5 miles

So, salmonlike, Ciwt swam upstream to open houses for decades looking for the one that felt as much like home as her one for 41 years.  Her wish list was very short and exacting and her hope level was ebbing near to rock bottom. Then, a month ago, it happened!  She walked in and knew instantly This was home.

And as of two days ago, it is.  How does she feel now about this long and now successful quest?  

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Her new home is still in some 'idea' place in her mind; not real.  Not sad. More like stunned.

She knows it is light-filled, gracious, quietly elegant, in 'her' exact neighborhood.  She even knows a couple of her neighbors who are the best possible.  

Tomorrow she will actually go into it.  (Her contract gave the sellers time to move out).  Then probably her home will begin moving from idea to actual in her mind.

Some part of her senses, that many/most people have a similar Wha??? (non)feeling when a long worked for finish line is all at once behind them.  

Bouquets to Bouquets --- Days 13/162, 3 & 4

Walks: deYoung Museum (Bouquets to Art), Hood/Presidio

Distances: 5 miles average

So, the deYoung Museum's annual fund raiser is Bouquets to Art in which local floral experts echo the look and feel of designated paintings with live designs.  No simple task in general and even less simple in the details.  

The designers must conceive of their creations months in advance then find sources and order the flowers, vases and any other accessories. Then comes the nerve wracking wait to see that all these things arrive on time and in excellent condition. If all this happens on time (big if), it is on to the arrangement stage.  The most incomprehensible to Ciwt part of the artistic process comes next: Keeping the arrangement healthy, vibrant, and flawless during 1. the trip to the museum (often long and through unpredictable traffic) and 2. the entire one week event.  Anyone who has ever brought a small bunch of cut flowers home from Trader Joe's or other places knows how how they look a week later, even with daily pinching, cutting, re-watering.  Imagine doing this in the drafts created by crowds walking by and standing within inches and the fluxuating temperaturesof vast museum rooms.  Ciwt is a wreck just thinking about it.

So kudos to the talented designers and welcome to a few pictures of the 40th Annual Bouquets to Art.

 

Countdown, 10, 9, 7 oops, 8..... --- Days 12/160 & 161

Walks: Banks, Title Companies, Etc

Distances: 4 & 6 miles

Sorry to be boring, wonderful readers.  Ciwt is in the final days before closing on her New Home! so she has been living at her computer e-signing, importing, wire transfering  - all those scary things she knows nothing about but has to get Exactly right.  Ie, no typos - come on😕

How It Is Done --- Days 13/158 & 159

Walk: No, too cold; No cold and windy again, Drive to ACT for The Lehman Trilogy

Distance: .5 miles, 1.2 miles

John Heffernan (Henry Lehman), Howard W. Overshown (Emanuel Lehman), and Aaron Krohn (Mayer Lehman) in 'The Lehman Trilogy' at A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater

Now, that's how it's done!  Actors playing multiple parts, changing into different sexes, ages, people before your very eyes so seamlessly that the audience goes right along with them.  And that's how a minimal set and perfectly attuned music can enhance a play.  So spare, so succinct and synced, The Lehman Trilogy Ciwt saw yesterday at our ACT Theater was poetry in live motion.

San Francisco has waited five years since the National Theatre's staging of The Lehman Trilogy transferred to the U.S. and opened at the Park Avenue Armory on March 22, 2019.  A long time but the play is not the least bit dated and, Ciwt assumes, just as good as that first New York performance.  So Ciwt thinks, if you ever have an opportunity to see The Lehman Trilogy, take it. and she may go again before it leaves town for many more years.

Back Five Days and Almost Home --- Days 13/153-157

Walks:  Cold, Windy Hood 💨

Distances: 4.5 miles average

So Ciwt is back from glorious, just right Midwestern summer weather and many friends and family to her two cat friends and down jacket summer here in San Francisco.  But maybe good that friends and weather aren't calling her outside because she's needed to be in and near her computer, phone and calculator.  

The reason?  Announcement!:  Ciwt has bought a new home and will be moving soon.  After she crunches the tight numbers, prepares forms for bankers and title companies, calls insurance and utility companies, interviews movers and generally stays one step ahead of anxiety. Rest assured, more on her new place in many future CIWTs

She did have one outing away from counting and calling, and it turned out to be highly entertaining and a movie she recommends.  She saw it before it started on Netflix yesterday and, because she Loves the whole theater experience, she encourages you to see it there.  In any event, if you are in the mood for a new spin on rom com-thriller, go to Hit Man - which is much better than the posters indicate.

And Now Home --- Day 13/152

 

Ciwt's very smooth flight landing safely at SFO

Ciwt Hosts a Family Brunch --- Day 13/151

 

Other Side of the River for Brunch --- Day 13/150

 

Minneapolis, site of Ciwt's school and many other places of her youth