May 9, 2007

  • Tuesday, May 8

    I went on a bit of a different ride today.  I headed through the Castro down to Valencia and then went through the Mission then 26th to San Jose Ave to Randall into Glen Park.  Finally I visited the poor house at 149 Mangels Street in the Sunnyside district that had fallen off it's foundations while the owner was attempting foundation repair.  Here is a good reason to leave foundation repair to the professionals:

    The house was in terrible shape when the owner bought it, but it was such a pretty house and it's a shame that they couldn't save it.  I shall be dredging out these photos every time Mr. Poe recommends that we move to some wreck in the Mission and renovate.  What a nightmare! 

    After that, I headed up Monterrey Blvd and up through St Francis Wood and then out Vicente to pretty Saint Cecilia's with it's beautiful terracotta topped tower:

    Then I took 17th Ave through to Kirkham to 9th Ave into the Park and then through the Panhandle to Golden Gate and to Market and then down to work. 

    Went home for lunch and Mimi was too hot and tired to go to for a walk.  She'd been watching an infomercial for the CarnyComp 3000.  It's the first personal computer that can also make corn dogs. 

    After work I basically did my morning ride in reverse.  Here's Saint Cecilia's in the afternoon light.  You can make out the roof of the tower a little better:

    And here's me in front of some pretty Rhodedendrums that are growing next to the church:

    Then I headed back to 149 Mangels to see the damage.  The city had brought in a backhoe to clear the wreckage because it was sliding down the hill putting more homes at risk.  I saw a u-haul in front of the lot but they don't let you go into the rubble to salvage too much because you could be killed and basically all they were able to save was a grill and a hose.  Which was a terrible shame. 

    On the way home, I thought I'd stop by another architectural shame.  We'd looked at this house on 21st street when we were looking to move out of our previous place and I really liked it.  It was already in escrow when we saw it and they were just looking for back up bids and I was a little disappointed because the house had such a great feel and such beautiful views.  I was glad we didn't get it when I found out that the new owners had to put $300,000 in foundation work in on the house.  How do I know this?? 

    As part of the foundation work, they were adding a garage where a small basement apartment had been.  But since they wanted to be able to have two car parking and the garage wasn't going to be able to be big enough for two cars tandem, they moved put the garage door half way under the living room so they could create a driveway so that once car could be in the garage and one car in the driveway:

    I think it looks terrible and described it and the accompanying tacky fence as "a big shame" when Nick and I were going past on a walk one night.  It was a warm evening and the owner had his window open and heard my comment and proceeded to chase me down three blocks away and curse me out for criticizing his $300,000 renovation.  Then he accused me of being a renter (WTF???).  I kept my mouth shut because I wasn't going to let renovation criticism devolve into fisticuffs.  How castro fag would that be??  I kind of felt sorry for the guy.  How big of a mistake do you realize you've made that you're chasing down strangers on the street and yelling at them for pointing out the obvious?   For the record I don't like the recent paint job either.  I hope he doesn't have a gun.

    Next door to that house are the most beautiful roses that are so brightly colored that they're almost fluorescent.  Around the same time as the above house was for sale there were two signs in front of the house.  One said "Please don't pick the roses.  The roses are for everyone to enjoy."  Below it, scrawled in angry letters the other sign said "You Bitch!  Don't think I don't know who you are you'll get yours some day!"  I still kind of wish we'd moved in next to them.  Pretty flowers, crazy people:

    I went home where Mr. Poe had dinner waiting for me.  Total mileage: 34