I’m typing today to the sound of loud saws and hammers. They’re working on the four-unit apartment building next door. It doesn’t phase me as much as it might, because they’ve been working on the same building with the same saws and the same hammers for TEN FUCKING YEARS…

Think I’m kidding? No indeed. I’m quite serious. It all started about 1993 or 1994, a couple of years after I moved into my apartment, when they extended the back of the building and enclosed some balconies, turning the air shaft which provides the windows for my living room and bedroom into a very narrow tube. This wasn’t a problem; I’m not a big fan of overabundant light, although I think my downstairs neighbor was less amused. Actually, I think the city was a little miffed too, as certain permits hadn’t been filed…

For the next decade, the construction continued off and on, sometimes much more “off” and sometimes much more “on”, but always there lurking in the background. Almost any time I sit in the living room during the day on a weekday, I hear the workers chatting away, since the deck where they evidently spend most of their time is about eight feet from my window. This chatter doesn’t really phase me either, since I also hear it at night from the very loud residents of said building. Once or twice when it extended past midnight and was accompanied by (really bad) music, I even called the cops…

Today, it’s a little noisier than usual. We heard some pouding late last evening too, which suggests to me that the noisy residents themselves might be doing some of the modifications. They’ve done enough pouding and sawing over the past ten years that they must have gutted and reconstructed the whole goddamned building at least three times…

Hmmm. I wonder if they have the proper permits this time. Maybe I should check into that…

Why yes, despite what you read — and despite what people in the Bay Area seem pre-programmed to believe — there are actually places where people (and local businesses) are HAPPY to see Wal-Mart coming. Knowing this part of my hometown as I do, I don’t think this will be quite the cure-all it’s made out to be, but neither do I see it as particularly damaging…

Speaking of huge chains, we had dinner at Ikea last night. As many negative things as I’ve had to say about the place over the years, our last couple of visits haven’t been nearly as horrible as earlier ones. And you gotta love anyplace that can feed the two of us so completely for fifteen bucks…

Now really, who WOULDN’T want to do his laundry at the Pineapple Laundrette?

I drove down to the city on Saturday, taking pictures and generally poking around. San Jose is nice, and it’s a handy reminder to Bay Area residents that we do in fact live in California. San Francisco has its own charms, but it’s really Californian only by virtue of geography…

San Jose, on the other hand, is more reminiscent of that cliché Southern California “dream” which draws so many people to the west coast. With its cute little single-family houses and neighborhood shopping centers from the 1950s, and with its freeways and low-rise orientation, and its palm trees and semi-trpocal vegetation, San Jose looks more like California is “supposed” to look: informal, sunny, modern, and open.

San Francisco looks stuffy, cold, damp, claustrophobic, and old. Residents are stacked on top of each other, many of them don’t own cars, and the freeways are more likely tobe demolished than repaired or expanded. There are dingy corner stores rather than big (or small) shopping centers, and any palm trees one finds look rather lost. It’s no wonder people are so surprised to find this very east coast city on the tip of a Penisula in California…

Weren’t we talking about morons who don’t quite grasp the concept of urban living just last week? Here, straight off an unsuccessful day in court, is the alpha male of the species…

Why do I read the letters to the editor? It only causes me pain…

About the New Bloomingdale’s on Market Street:

It is true that the actual building will not be affected. But what about the people inside? During the next three years, the employees of the nonprofits and small businesses located in this building will have to deal with the constant sound, dust, vibration and stress caused by construction that will take place only 5 feet from our office windows — windows that are our only source of ventilation.

Boo fucking hoo. That’s what urban life is all about. Yes, it’s annoying. Yes, it bothers me when I have to deal with construction near my house. No, I don’t believe that it’s some giant conspiracy against “nonprofits and small businesses”, nor that it’s really worthy of a letter to the editor of the business section…

Bitch about it on a web journal instead; they’re designed for whining and complaining, dammit…

Or maybe we should just leave all vacant lots empty in perpetuity, lest the neighbors be incovenienced…

About the Patriot Act:

Personally, I do not care if someone knows what books I have checked out from the library, or what sites I have visited on the Internet. If collecting this information will save even one American life, it is well worth the so-called infringement of civil rights and liberties.

America is at war, and at times of war people must give up certain liberties to ensure the security of this great nation. As Americans, we need to stand up against those who wish to weaken our defense and let the enemy in.

Is it me, or is the collective IQ of this country declining on a daily basis? Think what you will about the Patriot Act, but this moron clearly misses the point all the way ’round and shows his ignorance both of the concept of rights and liberties (which are not “gifts” of the government to be rescinded at will) and of critical thinking…

It was Benjamin Franklin, I think, who said something to the effect that anyone who willingly gives up his freedom in exchange for a sense of security is worthy of neither…