Veteran's Day 2007

These few lines were written by a home schooled girl named Beverly Hernendez.

Today we salute our heroes,
We pray for all the ones we have lost,
We pray for all the ones who are still alive,
We rejoice for the ones that come home,
We are happily rejoicing for all our loved ones,
So on this day we do all these things for our loved ones.

And from Wikipedia:

Remembrance Day (Australia, Canada, United Kingdom), also known as Poppy Day (Malta and South Africa) and Armistice Day (France, New Zealand, and many other Commonwealth countries; and the original name of the day internationally) is a day to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and civilians in times of war, specifically since the First World War. It is observed on 11 November to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918. The observance is specifically dedicated to members of the armed forces who were killed during war, and was created by King George V on 7 November 1919 (possibly upon the suggestion of Edward George Honey to Wellesley Tudor Pole, who established two ceremonial periods of remembrance based on events in 1917).

The name was changed many years ago here in the States to Veteran's Day.

I couldn't get all the flags on there so will those of you from Scotland, New Zealand, and elsewhere please forgive me.

It's a Boy!!

I just talked to my son.

Zachary (Jim forgot to tell me his middle name) was born about an hour ago. Weighed in at 9 lbs, 1 oz. (about 4.17 kilograms). That's a big baby.

Melissa doing fine but I imagine she's exhausted. Hope to have pictures in the next couple of days.

San Francisco!! Updated

Home again after a great day and a restful night. I headed home a little after 7 this morning and came in about 10:30, just in time to chat with Ray's home health care nurse. Ray did fine without me which is good since I'm invited back for birthday party in early December.

I may try to get back with more later and maybe a few pictures. Meantime, here's what I wrote to a friend of mine(Chris at Rude Cactus) who was asking about weekend statistics. The picture at the top is the infamous porta potty. It came out a little dark but you get the idea. They have them scattered around downtown. If you're not out in 20 minutes, the door opens and you will be embarrassed. It's sanitized automatically between uses. They seem to be working well but I knew eventually someone would figure out how to beat the system.

"Trips to San Francisco - 1

# of crazy bus drivers on Bay Bridge - 1
(next time I'll get off the train early and catch BART in).
He wanted to look at my camera (to count the pixels) which was fine until he took both hands off the wheel to do it. "Excuse me sir, shall I drive while you play with the camera?"

# of toilet stories to almost compare with your's - 1
(the person who successfully got around the time limit on the free porta potty at Powell & Market (the cable car turnaround in the postcards) by opening the door long enough to throw out an article of clothing; thereby extending his time another 20 minutes. I didn't hang around for the entire striptease.

Note: My friend Chris holds the record for weird things happening to him in and around public bathrooms). It's a running joke as any of you who read him will know.

Perfect line by a train conductor - 1
"would the person who left his bike parked upside down in front of the luggage rack please contact the conductor? I'd like to tell him were he can park his bike".

Time spent with my two blogging buddies and their families eating takeout Chinese and yakking - priceless!! (Even though the other two out of towners couldn't make it).

Update:

Several people have wondered about the porta potties and the 20 minute time limit. Or, for that matter, why anyone would want to homestead them.

Here's the story from what I remember when SF was first talking about installing them. (They're French, by the way).

I should have explained that the porta potties were installed for two reasons:

Because it's very hard to find a public bathroom in downtown SF (or at
least it used to be). Tourists were becoming desperate.

Market Street (especially the part that I mentioned) has more than its
fair share of homeless. The porta potties were installed partly as a
humanitarian gesture and partly to give them somewhere other than the
bushes to relieve themselves.

So what happens (and what the time limit was trying to prevent) is
some of the homeless would spend the day in the porta potty away from
the cold and wind. I'm sure that's what was happening when I was
there. An hour off the street.