Month: January 2004

Olive Way

For kicks, I put together a Beans for Breakfast calendar for next month. This is a normal paper calendar with all the usual holidays pre-marked, but it’s decorated with a photo from Beans for Breakfast instead of a picture of a cat with a ball of string or a Drabble comic. Print it out, pin it to your refrigerator*, and try to write in the inconveniently small squares.

The files are 134 KB PDFs, which require Adobe Acrobat Reader to open:
Printable February 2004 calendar in 8 1/2″ X 11″ Letter Size (for patriots)
Printable February 2004 calendar in A4 Size (for the metrically inclined)

*PS: Don’t pin it to your refrigerator.

Over by the window a man describes the history of every dish on the menu to the woman across the table from him. While she’s not quite enraptured, she does seem mildly impressed.

We’re seated next to the fish tank. The fish — big Koi goldfish — are nipping at every available surface in their search for sustenance. They go for the aquarium walls, the shells and coral, and even chew on each other.

The pair at the other table are ordering. The waitress asks, “How spicy?”

The guy hesitates and explains, “I usually like it really spicy, but since we’re sharing and this is your first time, we might want to keep it down at two stars.”

A small group is seated at a table just behind me now. “We put out leaflets, and a couple of weeks later we have a mass march, but then what happens? How are things different?”

Back at the window: “The thing about Chicago is that it’s a hub.”

One of the fish is vacuuming rocks up off the aquarium floor.

The guy at the window table, one last time: “You mean you’ve never had a lost weekend?” It’s a first date, no question.

I called 911. “I’m at Pike Place Market – First and Pike. Someone has collapsed in the middle of the street.”

The dispatcher pressed me for details that I didn’t have. “It looks like we’ve already got someone on the way. Thanks.” I hung up and got back to eating my sandwich.

There was already a crowd huddled over the fallen man. After a couple of traffic light cycles, they picked him up and carried him to the sidewalk where they laid him out.

There was a siren and traffic made way for a fire truck.

I asked a rhetorical question, “Why do they always send both a fire truck and an ambulance?”

Fire fighters jumped out of the truck. A woman wearing business attire reached up from the huddle and shook one of the fire fighters’ hands. The fire fighter was wearing latex gloves.

The crowd wandered away as the fire fighters got to work. The woman was gone within thirty seconds of the handshake.

One of the fire fighters carried a big yellow case over from the truck.

Samantha described the details that I wasn’t noticing. “They’re shocking him.”

“What? Is that what that is? Do they have those paddles? I don’t see it.”

“Yes. They’re shocking him. He just moved.”

“He did? Where’s the ambulance? I guess it’s a good thing that they do send a fire truck.”

The fire fighters helped the man sit up. They left him up for a minute before gently prompting him to lay back down.

Another siren. The ambulance pulled up next to the fire truck. The paramedics talked to the fire fighters briefly, then rolled out a gurney, lifted the man onto it, and hauled him on board.

The ambulance headed up Pike – no flashing lights – and the fire truck followed a moment later. That was it. Samantha and I continued eating our sandwiches. Actually, I think I had pizza.

Happy Birthday, Dad

It’s a big round birthday today for my dad. I looked around a bit and found this picture of him from a few years back.

The People’s Pub in downtown Ballard, Washington

Until hands are steadier than tables or we become less flash-shy, beers and salt shakers will dwarf fotologgers in meetup photos.

fotolog.net/dylanw/
fotolog.net/gingerly/
fotolog.net/guideon_72/ +2
fotolog.net/la_vie_en_rouge/
fotolog.net/nosuchuserexists/
miscmedia.com/

This was posted using a Handspring Treo 270 PDA and Eudora Web. I think there are a couple of input-y ticks between Eudora and this hardware, but the display is cleaner than the default browser’s.

It took at least ten minutes to type this out, but I was eating lunch at the same time.

Waiting an hour in a 3 Minute Loading Zone

There are more true facts now then there have been at any other time in our history.

Not only has the volume of true facts increased dramatically in recent years, but modern facts are truer than the facts from our grandparents’ days. The average fact of 2000 was 5.2% truer than the facts from the year 1900.

Who among us can separate Truths from those things that are merely true? The child who pointed out that the emperor wears no clothes was himself wearing mismatched socks.

Truth is, I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, and am putting it here because I have no other words to go with this photo.

Menorah at Westlake Center

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