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ULTRA, the Personal Rapid Transit vehicle
Alameda, the island I live on, is cut off from easy access to the local rapid transit system. Residents need to cross one of three bridges or a tunnel to make it to a BART station. Some people (including yours truly) ride a bicycle to the train station where they have a place to park […]
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Alameda Theatre Restored to Art Deco Grandeur
When I moved to Alameda four years ago I was struck by the beauty of the local movie palace. It was clearly from a different time, built before VCRs and DVDs, when going to the movies was a social activity, an occasion which you would dress up, put on something special. Since closing its doors […]
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Small Town Messages
You know you live in a small town when the local PTA message board posts the following: We lost one of our black silkie chickens near Santa Clara and Court. If you see a small black chicken roaming around please call us. We miss her. She is a pet, not dinner.
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Our Local Pocket Cinema
Nice write-up in the San Francisco Chronicle of our local, 49-seat movie theater in Alameda. It’s a one-man operation with the same guy who takes your tickets and serving you popcorn also running the projector. With old couches and laz-y-boy chairs to sit on, it’s more reminiscent of Cinema Paradiso than your standard Lowes megaplex. […]
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Hecka nice
“He’s an extraordinary player who makes every team a lot better. This guy is hecka nice. . .” High school coach for Jimmy Rollins who has just been named Baseball’s National League’s Most Valuable Player. Jimmy Rollins is from Alameda, CA where I live. Encinal High School, where Jimmy played, is in Alameda. We’re all […]
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Fore!
I’m not much of a golfer. I never did understand the attraction of hitting a little white ball around and then, as is usually my case, looking for it in the bushes. I never gave the sport a chance when I was young and had a chance to get into it. I guess patience comes […]
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500 pieces of candy in 90 minutes
All the kids in Alameda have the day off from school on Halloween which just makes the waiting worse. Tyler woke up early, moaning that evening was hours away. It was 5:30am – I told him sleep makes time go by faster and convinced him to get back in his bed. I got back from […]
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Blackout
The power was out when I came home today, second time this week. Alameda Island has it’s own power company and several times a year they have trouble keeping the juice on. I think some poor squirrel was the cause last time. Today the power was out for about an hour so we got to […]
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July 4th weekend, Dancing ’til Dawn, BBQs, Parades, more BBQs and Fireworks
My sister finally fulfilled her dream and dragged me out for a night on the town. We piled into two taxi cabs and raced through the streets of San Francisco to an non-descript warehouse where DJs held fourth and mixed sonic waves of sound effects to titilate the crowd into a frenzy. I had a […]
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A Drinking Club with a Sailing Problem
Today Mie & Dav came over to Alameda with their bikes and we rode to several yacht clubs on the Island that opened their doors to visitors interested in becoming members. It was kind of like a pub crawl because each clubhouse has a bar and they all had food laid out for potential members. […]