on "vocation!", which seems like it should be just that!

... i just feel like it should be a 'vocation' to go on vacation always!

- sunrise over the financial district skyline -

we rolled into the City around 5:45

after driving all night from Los Angeles,

and since check in for our room wasn't until 2 pm

- drove out to the Marine Stadium

to start the day with a walk out on the curving pier

into the harbor where i shot this image of the City awakening at 6 am,

and feel it captures the moment exactly!

this location is just across the street from Ghiradelli Square which was the next stop

- to go to Boursins' for croissants and coffee

- a tradition of sorts to start a day in San Francisco as it were.

imagine our surprise to find them gone...

they have recently moved to a much larger facility now at Pier 39

where they have a ginormous building housing the bakery, a bistro, gift shop and cafe all rolled into one big fantasy of a shopping experience,

along with a nice patio with heaters and a fireplace outside

facing the crab shoppes, but alas

- it being Thanksgiving Day afterall - were not slated to open till 10:00 am.

- the harbour at Pier 39 -

so, off to a drive over the bridge and back

- anything to waste time and avoid napping in the car

till check in anyway hehehe!;

and then a leisurely tour of Cow Hollow till we could

go get a proper cup of coffee and a snack.

Cow Hollow walkabout

... best part so far? ( besides the sunrise of course...)

"free parking" anywhere in The City on Thanksgiving Day!

more tomorrow...

dallied the day away instead of writing

'and now have to get dinner on the stove for my girls!

bathroom graffitti SP in San Francisco, Jan 2004

bathroom graffitti SP in San Francisco, Jan 2004,
originally uploaded by just doug.

sorry i have been out of touch again Judy is unhappy with me heheheh! i am leaving in ten minutes to return to the locale imaged here, where i will endeavor in daylight hours tomorrow... to see if this is still scratched into the mirror there, and then spend two days in The City, then a trip down to Patterson to stay with my nephew and his wife (the one's who DIDN'T attend the wedding LOL!) for the Holiday weekend, and will return on monday to extoll in detail..... my virtuous trip! with pictures too! doug.

Friday @ Michele's ..... a weekend MUST do!

... hello all, thanks for stopping by "Meet and Greet" fridays from http://micheleagnew.com ,

if you haven't been or don't know it ... CHECK IT OUT!

wow, traffic builder, lots of great blogs to visit and community, community; community! did i say community yet? lol!

thanks in advance and post "posted" from all who stop by today and this weekend .....

meantimes, back to being the "Domestic God" today for me...... housework, laundry, lunches, grocery lists and all that...... weekend birthday party for my younger sis tomorrow so that means a cake to be made, presents to be bought, groceries to buy still; and of course - in and around all of it: "Meet and Greet!" to follow too...

does it never end?

ps: I visited or tried to visit chatty but was blocked since i am ao-hell based server LOL! and laymans site wouldn't let me post anon or not. but i was there!

This just in ... inquiring KENJUs' need to know!

.... so, i had my doctor review monday for my case, and after three hours there - i still don't know where i stand on my one good leg, or if i am gonna have that one good leg to stand on...

but - my story of the 3 hours there more than makes up for the still lacking information (well - more like 4 and a half hours including the before’s and after’s also!)

my appointment was at ten, the office is only an 8 minute drive down the freeway that flies as a crow would between my home and the doctor office, but nary a crow in sight come monday morning... see - the freeway is undergoing widening for inclusion of new "HOV" lanes (understandable since this 'freeway' is all of 11 miles across town as a jumper between two more MAJOR arteries in an already much too clogged orange county given over to asphalt and rubber), but i am already off course here...

so i know the freeway is gonna be an issue, and i know that the exchange i need to exit is closed while they build the new flyover at its crossing, and by knowing all this in advance - i add like twenty minutes surface time to my ride. i exit my humble abode at 9:10, already having been up and out of it once that morning at 5:45 to take my sister to work in order to use her car (and her job being off one of the "two more MAJOR arteries" not subject to delays save for rush hour), pull up to turn right out of my street and see a long line of traffic already slowing.

now i'm thinking - these people are ALL late for work - it's after 9 am already, but less than 100 feet around the corner on my right i see the slowing traffic doing the same crazy dance honey bee's do when they want to tell others where the new juice is at - that kinda lazy figure eight motion - and between gaps in the cars i see why... a two car head on in the middle of the street where there really is no reason to have one, but between the seventeen people running around with their cell phones all trying to call 911 or their mothers to relay the accident - there in the middle of the street is a kid in jeans and a tee shirt just sprawled out like he was trying to horizontally/prone "climb" the street as if it were a vertical surface instead.

i observe no blood - no extended bits of bone thru ragged skin, nothing really to show serious injury anyway, and i also observe that car one closest to me has fully deployed airbags...

aha! 1+1=5!

i assume that the 'climber' is said driver of car one and has been knocked into some sort of “clint eastwood/eiger sanction” mindset by the impact of the airbags and fell to the ground upon a rapid exit from his now useless car, while driver number two is on his cell calling his mother to call his lawyer to whatever - his car still operable (well of course it was - it was twice the size of car one!) so i weave my way into and thru all of this, cursing under my breath as to why i don't really drive anymore in orange county for just this reason: airbags+cellphones+idiots in a hurry to get nowhere later and continue on my way.

down the boulevard, then up and over the "new" crossover bypass where i should have been driving on twenty minutes before if the freeway was indeed "actually" free... and proceed to make a right to head to the building where this fancy state approved review doctor has his office. up ahead: yellow flashing lights - lots and lots of them. pointing "left". and road cones. and barriers. WTF!... the "governator' isn't due in town till tomorrow for election day (orange county+citizens=REPUBLICAN last bastion stronghold), but it is just more road work - the road being the one of course i need to turn on to get to the damned building of said state doctor - now rapidly approaching t-minus ten...

down around the block, back up and across, into the back way thru the shortcut i just invented – yeah, what’s a 14 inch drop off a curb do to a 1994 cougar anyway?

ahhh, finally,

parked.

now? really weird deja vu time... i have been here before somehow, no - this doctor doesn’t hold court in my personal medical rolodex of a cell phone that holds more doctors than friends and family on my international share plan, ... F*CK! ... this building holds the office of my ex-lawyer who fumbled my case for the first year!

oh my, this does not bode well now.......

into the elevator, push floor four - one below the famed lawyers office - and exit into a maze like i have never seen in an office tower and i live in the mother of most office towers concentrated on the west coast - even spent a few years in the line of work designing them!

at last suite 400 comes into view - last door possible of course with a name plaque anyway announcing it as such - and sign in to begin. 7 pages of forms to fill out - "please sign here. and here. and here. oh, and twice here please if you will and we can start on them while you complete “Moby Dick” over there. have a seat - we will be right with you."

off to an office to give a history "you remember dates and instances well?" yep! i do.

40 minutes later, off to another office, “please take off all your clothes except undies and put on this luxurious mass marketed for its beneficial fashion statement paper robe - gap to the back if you will please...” waitaminnitt... i am here for a back review, and not that far back exam i say half jokingly, and she gives me that look

" yeah. that would be funny if it was the first time i heard it" look....

15 minutes of very cool air later on parts that don't need chilling, the doctor enters, charts in hand and begins to ask me to “walk this way, tip toes back, heels now, bend twist turn” – “ OW OW OW” – “oh, hurts to do that?” um yeah.

“can i take this off?” referring to the robe/gown/whatever, it is not really staying on my not so broad shoulders and slips continually down like a moomoo on me, but with the cooled air keeping my nipples erect to the point that the rings in them are keeping the gown from falling to the floor only, i am now less encumbered to just stand there in boxer briefs and complete my review/exam.

"gonna need xrays..." he mumbles, "sure, whatever it takes" i reply, and a flash later, a quick knock on an already opening door and this petite little PYT pops in "whooo hey whups! you are nearly nekkid!"

yep.

"...'kay - can you gown up and follow me?" sure.

down the hall again to an ice box of a room/morgue? and climb up on the morticians slab of cold stainless steel to attempt to lay flat for an xray...... now it gets fun!

the steel table is cold against my back, so i am arching upwards slightly to get away from contact... this puts my not so little "friend" at a much more prominent position than i would care to be in unless it is my girlfriend doing the next parts - i am continually patted and smoothed down on top of my gown to keep it flat and conformed to my steller physique... and she really seems to be intent on making sure a certain square foot of area is flat... but that just isn't gonna happen THERE anyway.... IT just doesn't have any where to go, understand? IT always sits out front of the porch so to speak.... and she seems too, again - really, REALLY be enjoying continuing trying to flatten me out some....... anyways..

35 mins of time elapse between 5 series of xray shots because I keep getting a "cloudy area" in one or two that just doesn't read (apparently a slight scoliosis), so; more adjusting, and more re-adjusting, which leads to more smoothing of course (go figure!) and finally i am done.

okay, i have been in "negotiations" for the last week about an impending ovulation cycle up coming and we have picked out names already, and all i am thinking is.... "i just went thru 35 minutes of highly concentrated gamma bombardments the likes that Flash Gordon would never imagined and highly concentrated at a SPECIFIC portion of an important part of said "negotiations" anatomy... do i actually have anything left now to give a name to?"

....i mean, when my dentist xrays my teeth, i get a lead blanket that immobolizes me in my chair till three interns come in and lift it back off me, and here i am in very form fitting 95 percent nylon/5 percent lycra skin tight boxer briefs and a damned PAPER shield of a gown!

"well HOnee? it's like this.... they all just kinda got vaporized last week at the doctors. you remember... that monday from hell i experienced?"

....oh yeah... that "horizontal" climber? turns out the car he escaped from was stolen, and he was a passenger/co-jacker/something bad - and the driver bailed at the moment of impact headed south for parts unknown and left him there to "climb" away on his own.... fitting i suppose.

whose insurance is gonna cover this one? I’m still waiting to find out what mine covers….

today decides what my future holds........

... today i have a doctors' appointment to decide what my "permanent disability" status and rating will be, and as such - shall dictate what my future holds as far as "working doug" becomes... and of course helps to define what my award shall be when it is given in january at last. (anyone wishing more on this story line can view it on the MySpace'>http://blog.myspace.com/bdvsteegh">MySpace

blog posts where i post my "former" work related issues...)

so i am a bit off in my posting, expressing sorrow to all i slight by not being diligent enough in my posts and am tired

( read this as a GOOD tired though!)

from a weekend spent with a loved one where i gave a much needed shoulder (as well as a much missed one!) while she grappled with a very large emotional issue that effectively affected her,

and almost as if it had been planned by the "inflictee" to do just what it did... i was there to help assuage her fears and set her smiling again...

but that is a whole different story not to be related here, just suffice to say that i did what was needed of and by me and it worked wonderfully for both of us to have this time together again.

for this alone - i (and she) are/am very happy!

i am, of course though; worried a wee bit about this impending doctor review - but having more doctor's phone numbers now in my cell phone than i have friends and family combined,

it should be just another day in a waiting room, just another hour of time to get to my final destination at last.

worried because - this IS the one that will decide that future i want and desire/deserve to have back finally, and will help to knock down those additional stresses that sap my will at times

and make me wish to stay hidden away

and just let the world revolve beyond me.

but i have many, many friends out here and beyond in that same world

- that wait with the very same baited breath as i,

and i know that thier support is more than enough also to keep me keeping on... thanks to all and you have my unending and undying gratitude if i haven't already thanked you enough as of yet!

...so, i shall return later today to regale you with more, and for those who notice such things - i have finally and succesfully installed my "blogroll me!" link , and can only hope it is working at last........

somewhere to the left there according to my template anyway!

more later, doug.

an "eye'-dea to be had.........

i am known for my green eyes - not of envy - but my actual green eyes... so

i herewith will keep one of them trained upon my readers.......... mouse around and see for your selves!

if you can't "see" me watching your movements, try this:
http://five.flash-gear.com/eye/eye.php?c=e&id=126479&k=37536355

Make your own eyes at http://www.flash-gear.com/eye/

another week... another story about Marriage, Lofts and Blood.

...so i sat down to follow up the very confusing storyline posted previously below,

with pictures to support it,

and instead had a much more interesting week than planned...

as is probably always the way i suppose!

i survived the wedding weekend, no fighting among the siblings, saw old friends and created new ones, apparently missed my brother-in-laws "tour de force" performance of "thunderball" sung to the bride and groom (and the ballroom as well!) and had what i thought were decent enough images captured via my cheepo fuji digital, and backed up with my cell phone camera, which of course now look that much less memorable once downloaded and viewed...

back to the thunderball thing above.....

i haven't been to a lot of weddings lately, so i guess i missed the new trend announcement somewhere that detailed the new formats - ie: all sorts of "musical games" to be played? the "master of ceremonies" (another new idea i am guessing?) made the rounds of each table at various times during the reception to have guests relate good wishes to the couple - kinda standard for this i know, but as i went out for a cigarette break (numerous times) i missed the round where he asked one guest at each table to "sing a song for the newlyweds"... i assume this meant some little ditty or romantic stanza in the vein of the well wishing done earlier.

i come back into the hall to a rousing round of applause and see...

said brother-in-law on his knees taking a bow in front of everyone - apparently just having performed from what i hear afterwards - a very dead on version of "thunderball' in only the best tom jones stylings...

i mean - to hear tell of it - women were swooning and men glaring for the fact that the wives/girl friends/daughters were swooning...

i half expected to see panties flung to the center of the dance floor and a brawl break out, but glad they weren't.

really.

honest to gawd glad in that way!

so, after getting home and surviving the weekend at the holiday inn in long beach (where - apparently - the restuarant at top does not rotate ala the hyatt in san fransisco... and the one and only reason the fabled Minasian Guest Suites was booked here was that restaurant spinning after many drinks had been imbibed), and getting the pics all uploaded, then downloaded back to the computer - no amount of digital help is gonna save these from obscurity...

the only images that came out are a bizzare set/series i did as a lark

- self portraits that grace the post here...

i have an infatuation for the truly mundane when it

comes to taking random pics...

i really like to document my feet and those around me when i am out places, and saw the great shadows i cast walking around outside

- so of course - jumped on a momentary desire to do the self portraits as such...

shadowy representations of myself in that particular place and time, recorded to hold forever... LOL!

so, i am left hoping that out of the one thousand and one additional cameras there - i will soon be on the recieving end of much better wedding shots to fill my email in the coming days....

(thinly veiled reminder to family who read me...)

if any show up that are worth it - they will find thier way here.

on wednesday - i get a call to invite me to san pedro for a couple days

to re-unite with my beloved, so i jumped the first public transportation headed that direction (i am a huge fan of bus travel - it allows for interaction with the public missing in todays "rush here-get there now" world), and when i reached the transfer point in long beach

to get the commuter to san pedro, i was taking in all

the redevelopment going on downtown, and looking at

a fantastic renovated building turned into lofts,

and thinking - "wow, i get my settlement in january, i can live here now like i always dreamed about..." and - as stated before

- the proclivity to photograph my feet standing there in that spot

rose in my head...

so i pan down.....

and i am standing between

two pools of very fresh, very liquid,

very wet ..... blood.

yeah.

blood.

not like "oops, pardon me - do you have a tissue?

i seem to have a bloody nose..."

kind of blood,

no,

more like " son of a bitch i am the victim of a

walk by/drive by/metro train by shooting

or stabbing, hell - i don't know"...

kind of blood letting

that took place there apparently minutes prior to my transfer stop.

see?

that is why i like to get deep into that interaction,

had i been in a car on my way there

- never would i have seen or experienced it.

sorry, i know nothing else to relate here...

the denizens of said transfer facility and environs

aren't talking - and those that do will never ever make sense

to you or i anyway - much better to listen to thier

stream of conciousnous speech patterns

as words delivered from on high via

a urine soaked mouthpiece in last decades

ready to wear world in my shopping carts life and move on...

and those lofts?

yep!

still in my real estate listings none the less!

blood or none, i like it down town...