What are you doing today?

Cmaier said:
Thinking of moving to the marina once my kid goes to college. My wife is big on the idea.
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By far my favorite area of the city (that and North Beach), I hit the Safeway down there a couple of times a week on my way through. Really busy part of town but in a good way.
 
Eric said:
By far my favorite area of the city (that and North Beach), I hit the Safeway down there a couple of times a week on my way through. Really busy part of town but in a good way.
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Fred Lyon had his studio a couple blocks from the Safeway. Around 15 years ago he invited me and my photo project partner a tour. Got to paw through a bunch of his photographs he kept in a dozen or so multi-drawer flat files. After that he took us to lunch at a nearby restaurant. In his PT Cruiser car - kind of a funny ride for a guy in his 80s. :)
 
Speaking of the local downtown in the Marina neighborhood... there's an Apple Store on Chestnut, between Pierce and Steiner streets - a plus.

If we weren't already settled in further down the SF peninsula, the Marina neighborhood would be where we'd be living. So much to do and explore there. Close to the Bay, the Presidio, and the Golden Gate Bridge for driving up north. And SF Muni is an easy $2 ride to SF's main downtown, CalTrain, library, Davies Symphony Hall, etc, etc.
 
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What did I do last night and early morning? Wasted good hours of sleep to shoot at the stars and clouds..No Aurora for me 😜

P.s. But the geomagnetic storm made an impression on my camera: not the one I wished though..
The date and time went back to 12 hours before. This morning I had to adjust it
 
Citysnaps said:
Speaking of the local downtown in the Marina neighborhood... there's an Apple Store on Chestnut, between Pierce and Steiner streets - a plus.

If we weren't already settled in further down the SF peninsula, the Marina neighborhood would be where we'd be living. So much to do and explore there. Close to the Bay, the Presidio, and the Golden Gate Bridge for driving up north. And SF Muni is an easy $2 ride to SF's main downtown, CalTrain. library, Davies Symphony Hall, etc, etc.
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There was a time in my life, decades before I left the Bay Area and moved overseas for good, when hiking the Presidio's western shoreline was one of my favorite things to do.
 
Katbel said:
Wasted good hours of sleep to shoot at the stars and clouds..No Aurora for me
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I was outside for a bit around 1am, not specifically looking for the aurora, but I did stare at the sky a bit. This is June, the north pole is more sunward, the dakness of the night is greatly diminished. Urbania spreads across here from 60 miles nothward to 60 miles southwestward in a massive infest of LEDs, and the neighbors are fond of illuminating their tractettes, but even so, 13 months ago night gave forth the red curtains. Right now, not so much.
 
Yoused said:
I was outside for a bit around 1am, not specifically looking for the aurora, but I did stare at the sky a bit. This is June, the north pole is more sunward, the dakness of the night is greatly diminished. Urbania spreads across here from 60 miles nothward to 60 miles southwestward in a massive infest of LEDs, and the neighbors are fond of illuminating their tractettes, but even so, 13 months ago night gave forth the red curtains. Right now, not so much.
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I know, May last year gave us a good show. Not so much this time and the forecast had a much stronger activity.
BTW my camera settings have been shaken quite a bit: not only the date but few others needed to be reset.
 
June 9th no WWDC for me. I'm going to have a surgery to my right hand.
I'm already trying to use my left hand to get used to , but it's not easy.
Hopefully I should be good to go in 2 weeks. Crossing fingers till I can 🤣
 
Katbel said:
June 9th no WWDC for me. I'm going to have a surgery to my right hand.
I'm already trying to use my left hand to get used to , but it's not easy.
Hopefully I should be good to go in 2 weeks. Crossing fingers till I can 🤣
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oh, that sucks. What’s up with your hand? My right hand is pretty useless right now but the neurologist won’t even see me until September.
 
Cmaier said:
oh, that sucks. What’s up with your hand? My right hand is pretty useless right now but the neurologist won’t even see me until September.
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It took me few months as well..Sorry for your hand!
Several years back I hurt my right hand palm. It healed fine but after some time a nodule appeared under the skin.
I over produce collagen, the same cells that the body uses for scar tissue.

Long story short since then I have 3 more nodules that go into my ring finger. Between the nodules there is a cord that is now pulling the finger. One of the solution is to weaken the cord with needles, aponeurotomy and then pull down the finger so to fully break the cord.

There are videos…🫣

There are people who have this condition -Dupuytren -passed along from relatives and it could and does affect more fingers and sometime both hands. I don’t have it because mine is not genetically transmitted but it needs to be stopped before is too late for my hand to go fully flat again.

The surgeon will only use local anesthetic because they need to be sure they are not cutting nerves or tendons and I need to tell them:
no it hurts, find another point…

I’m looking forward to June 10th
 
Katbel said:
It took me few months as well..Sorry for your hand!
Several years back I hurt my right hand palm. It healed fine but after some time a nodule appeared under the skin.
I over produce collagen, the same cells that the body uses for scar tissue.

Long story short since then I have 3 more nodules that go into my ring finger. Between the nodules there is a cord that is now pulling the finger. One of the solution is to weaken the cord with needles, aponeurotomy and then pull down the finger so to fully break the cord.

There are videos…🫣

There are people who have this condition -Dupuytren -passed along from relatives and it could and does affect more fingers and sometime both hands. I don’t have it because mine is not genetically transmitted but it needs to be stopped before is too late for my hand to go fully flat again.

The surgeon will only use local anesthetic because they need to be sure they are not cutting nerves or tendons and I need to tell them:
no it hurts, find another point…

I’m looking forward to June 10th
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Yeesh! I cringed reading that. I know what you mean about "there are videos..." I watched way too many spinal fusion videos before I had one. Good luck, and here is a tip. Don't join any <my procedure X> groups on Reddit, it will make you cringe and fearful that the surgery did more harm than good.
 
rdrr said:
Yeesh! I cringed reading that. I know what you mean about "there are videos..." I watched way too many spinal fusion videos before I had one.
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Same. Watched cataract surgery videos before mine. Won’t ever do that again. 😳
 
The Department of Homeland Security used some of my infographics when presenting to the San Francisco Police Department tonight as an example of someone who flies their drone legally in the city. They patrol events for drones and have sophisticated gear, so they know where you are standing and where your drone is flying.

Since I'm always posting stuff like this they told me I've done more to raise awareness than they've been able to do in years and most of them already follow me. I even have their numbers and ping them before flying for bigger events so they can whitelist my drone.

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As some folks may remember from my previous posts, we're theme park nuts, so we've been especially stoked over the past several months :)

After years of development, Universal opened their brand new park called Epic Universe, it officially opened May 22nd.

Epic has 4 self-contained lands you access through portals: Nintendo, How To Train Your Dragon, Dark Universe (Universal Classic monsters), and a new Potter area with focus on the Ministry of Magic, plus a 5th sort of thematic tie in for all 4 lands with a massive coaster. Each of those is beautifully themed, has several rides/attractions, restaurants, bars, shops. They keep you very isolated in each world, so when you walk into the Potter area, you're in France, like everywhere you look, total immersion.

There was team member, media, previews for a few months, we were able to get to a preview day in April after they opened them for annual passholders. We stayed at the slightly offsite Stella Nova, which was still a very fun resort, about a mile walk or a quick bus to Epic.

More recently, we went back to Epic post-official-opening- we stayed over at the Portofino for Thu/Fri at the "north parks", one of our faves - then, the Helios at Epic Fri - Sun, the onsite premier resort, like REALLY onsite as in walk out of the hotel into the park - it's fantastic! We had a 4th floor, park side view, high enough for a complete view of the park, but also kind of "in it" so to speak, we hit up Bar Helios Friday night (which is stunning), got some "to go" bevs, spun the sofa around (don't ask 😄 ).

The Nintendo area you enter through, of course, a green tube :D (and has an interactive NFC band for punching blocks, collecting points) Dark Universe is amazing, especially at night (finally got my Dark Universe vinyl too). Berk (How to Train Your Dragon) wound up having one our favorite rides, and Ministry has the most stunning ride and queue in Orlando (though still give GOTG in the 'COT for overall fun factor).

Some pics :)

Dark Universe

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Nintendo


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Potter / Ministry of Magic

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Helios Grand / Bar Helios / Room View

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A few more ...

Nintendo / Donkey Kong

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Potter / France

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Berk / Live show (it was amazing)
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Dark Universe / Monsters Unchained

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Celestial Park (the central hub)

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After two weeks of being grill-less, finally, our replacement barbecue should be arriving today. *fingers crossed*!!!

The drama?
Ordered a Weber BBQ from Home Depot - it was scheduled to arrive May 28.
I'll keep it short. Multiple lies from Home Depot customer service about where it was. Complete ineptitude by their executive escalations team. Took another week after it was cancelled for them to start the actual cancellation process (and the order status on their webpage still says "Ready to Ship - Arrives May 28").
I ordered the same grill directly from Weber ($50 shipping fee, vs free shipping from Home Depot), the grill is showing up a day later than it should as the shipping company messed up. *sigh*
They assure me it will arrive between 10-2. Leery about walking the dog at noon - seen too many couriers do the knock, paste the "we were here" notice on the door and run away before you can even answer the door. :D
 
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