I returned from my latest conference on May 23rd, closing down what had been over 2 years of traveling every month to some kind of conference, event or family gathering. This was the longest stretch of travel I’ve done and I’ve managed to visit a lot of amazing places and meeting some unforgettable people. However, with a book deadline creeping up and tasks at home piling up, I figured it was time to slow down for a bit. I didn’t travel in June and my next trip isn’t until the end of July when I’m going up to Portland for the Community Leadership Summit and a couple days of schmoozing with OSCON friends.
Complicated moods of late and continued struggles with migraines have made it so I’ve not been as productive as I’ve wanted, but I have made real progress on some things I’ve wanted to and my book is really finally coming together. In the spaces between work I’ve also managed a bit of much needed fun and relaxation.
A couple weekends ago MJ and I took a weekend trip up to an inn and spa in Sonoma to get some massages and soak in natural mineral water pools provided by on site springs. We had some amazing dinners at the inn, including one evening where we enjoyed s’mores at an outdoor fire pit. The time spent was amazingly relaxing and refreshing, and although it wasn’t a cure-all for the dip in my mood of late, it was some time well spent together.
Perfect weather, beautiful venue
On Sunday morning we checked out of the inn and enjoyed a fantastic brunch that included lobster eggs benedict on the grounds before venturing on. While in Sonoma, we decided to stop by a couple wineries that we were familiar with, starting with Imagery, which is the sister winery to the one we got engaged at, and our next stop, Benziger. At both we picked up several nice wines, of which I’m looking forward to cracking open for Shabbats in our near future!
We also stopped by B.R. Cohn for a couple olive oils, and I picked up some delicious blackberry jam and some Chardonnay caramel sauce which has graced some bowls of ice cream since our return. On the trip back to San Francisco we made one final stop, at Jacuzzi Winery where we picked up several more interesting bottles of olive oil, which will soon make it into some salads, scrambled eggs and other dishes that we got recipe cards for.
Due to my backlog, I’ve been spending a lot of time at home and not much at local events, with the exception of a great gathering at the East Bay Linux Users Group a few weeks ago. In contrast with my professional colleagues who work on Linux full time as systems administrators, engineers and DevOps, it’s so refreshing to go to a LUG where I’m meeting with long term tech hobbiests who still distro-hop and come up with interesting questions around the distros I’m most familiar with and the Linux ecosystem in general. This group has also had interest in Partimus lately, so it was nice to get some feedback about our on-going efforts and volunteer recruitment activities.
In an effort to get out of the house more, I picked up the book Historic Walks in San Francisco: 18 Trails Through the City’s Past and finally took it out for a spin this weekend. I went on the Financial District walk which took me around what is essentially my own neighborhood but had me look at it with whole new eyes. I learned that the Hallidie Building tricked me into believing it was a new building with it’s glass exterior, but is actually from 1917 and one of the first American buildings to feature glass curtain walls.
Hallidie Building
One of my favorite buildings on the tour turned out to be the Kohl Building, which was built in 1901 and withstood the 1906 earthquake that leveled most of downtown San Francisco and so was used as a command post during the recovery. Erected for Alvinza Hayward, the “H” shape of the building is allegedly in honor of his last name.
Kohl Building
The tour had lots more fun landmarks and stories of recovery (or not) following the 1906 earthquake. Amusingly for my European friends, the young age of San Francisco itself, and our shaky history means that there was not much at all here 160 years ago, so “historical” for us means 50+ years. Over 110 years and you’re going back before the city was essentially leveled by the earthquake and fire to some truly impressive sturdy buildings. The oldest on the tour was the oldest standing building downtown and it dates from 1877 and now houses the Pacific Heritage Museum, which I hope to visit one of these days when they’re open.
More photos from my walk here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/sets/72157655051173508
While on the topic of walking tours, doing this tour alone left something to be desired, even with Tony Bennett and company crooning in my ears. I think I might look up some of the free San Francisco Walking Tours for my next adventure.
My 4th of July weekend here has been pretty low-key. MJ has a friend in town, so they’ve been spending the days out and I’ll sometimes tag along for dinner. With an empty house, I got some reading done, plowed through several tasks on my to do list and started catching up on book related tasks. I still don’t feel like I got “enough” done, but there’s always tomorrow.