New York, Lulu, Roaring 20's - the Sanitized Version --- Day 8/17

Walk: Cinema Club (The Chaperone)
Distance: 2 miles

                           Elizabeth McGovern in The Chaperone

Here's a movie you can stream on Netflix if you watch it at all.  The Chaperone is a Hallmarky period drama that was Ciwt's Cinema Club showing today.  (Probably you can tell from the picture above?)  In defense of her CC, which is usually a rich movie going and discussion experience, San Francisco's Internaitonal Film Festival begins soon and prohibits CC from showing any of the entries that have been selected for it.  Presumably, any of the movies with real depth.  The Chaperone would be a pleasant TV get away though.

High Brow on a Teeter-Totter --- Day 8/16

Walk: AMC Kabuki (Met Live: Die Walkure)
Distance: 2 miles, small yoga stretch after 5+ hours of sitting

So Ciwt went high brow today and finally saw one of the four operas that make up Wagner's Ring Cycle.

Very moving, tragic, powerful with gorgeous music.  She didn't quite know what to make of the stage: it moved!  Tipped back and forth like a teeter-totter as well as going straight up and down.  Kudos to all the cast for navigating and staying upright while never missing notes.  

She also came to understand how it is possible for one of her friends and thousands of unknown others to follow The Ring all over the world, seeing it again and again. In total the Ring runs 17 hours. All four operas are usually staged a few days apart and each has long intermissions.  So, with the longest Ring opera running 5 1/2 hours plus intermissions, die hard fans all over the world leave their opera houses somewhere between midnight and 1:30 a.m..  That would put Ciwt seriously off her feed; maybe if some company staged them all as matinees she would flock to whereever those productions were.  As it was, she got to her seat at 9:00 a.m.out here in San Francisco and was out of the theater by 2:15 in the afternoon. Operatic in itself if you ask her.

When I Grow Up I Want to Be... --- Days 8/14 and 15

Walk:1.  Marin Driving  2.San Francisco Fire Station Museum
Distance: 1. Couple of Blocks, 30 min. Pedal, Yoga  2. 3.6 miles, 40 min Pedal, Yoga

SFFD Museum

Only in San Francisco.  Another museum! right on Ciwt's near daily walk to and from Trader Joe's. It is a part of an active fire station, and she'd noticed the fire trucks, but somehow overlooked the adjacent museum - for over 30 years😵

So today Ciwt  finally went in the "Open" door expecting maybe a few old buttons and hats, that kind of paraphernalia.  Imagine her surprise when she encountered this:

 A huge room jam packed with beautiful, restored engines from the 1800's that still operate today!

Badges and artifacts from the 1906 earthquake and Fire. 

OL' 22

Paintings, old photographs, yes buttons and hats and so much more, including a real live fireperson who gives his time to the museum on days off.  All with lovingly researched signage.  For instance she learned about OL' 22 above that it had been built in 1893 and sold when the SFFD had completed its conversion from horse-drawn to motorized apparatus in 1921.  Luckily, before the fire engine was disassembled by the farming family that bought it, they realized its historical value, restored it to the condition you see above, complete with refreshed ornate gold leafing and operational pump. In 1987 they sold/donated the engine to the SFFD Museum, thus returning it to San Francisco. 

What a great find for Ciwt!  Just imagine if she were young and dreaming of being a fireperson!!

1040 Begins On 3/27 --- Day 8/13

Walk: No
Distance: No, Computer Sitting for Tax Return


                    Well, not quite 'Snap, Tap...' - at least for Ciwt

Happy Days --- Days 8/11 & 12

Walk: 1. Pier One pillows, cat nails day 😱   2. Pier One pillows return 
Distance: 1. 0, Yoga, 40 min. Pedal   2. 4 miles, Yoga, 30 min. Pedal


Why Not? Thanks for the reminder, Trader Joe's.

Green and White with a Touch of Hot Pink --- Day 8/10

Walk: Deck Planting Errands
Distance: 4 miles, stairs, stairs, stairs, yoga stretch

Ciwt began again on her deck today.  This time just green with a few touches.  Her thought is the green will be more hardy than her various attempts at flowering shrubs. Ciwt had high hopes for them.  But in spite of their descriptions they've all gotten spindly and ragged after just a few months in the San Francisco wind and fog. Tough means tough out there.

Cats are checking it out; paws and fingers crossed.

Between Storms and Good Flix -- Day 8/9

Walk: Trader Joe's, Union Square, General errands between storm
Distance: 3.5 miles, yoga

Ooops, left over picture (ha) from when Ciwt lived in the midwest and needed to do some quick errands between storms.

Knock, Knock... Day 8/8

Walk: AMC Kabuki (Us)
Distance: 2 miles, Yoga



The last time Ciwt saw a Jordan Peele movie it took about two days for it to totally sink in.  When she walked out of Get Out she knew she seen something brilliant but didn't appreciate for those two days how brilliant it was.  Now she's home from Peele's second movie ever, Us, and has that same sense: Something important was on the screen but not enough time has gone by for her to fully grasp what it was - if she ever does.

On the preliminary level she knows the beautiful Jupito Nyong'o is an incredible actress, Winston Duke is a hunk (and a good actor), the visuals of Us are stunning, Peele is a highly original and intelligent filmmaker, and she thinks his 'Us' might be the very same as Pogo's (which she'll leave crytic for the moment).