Swarming Bees

Doc and I were wandering around after working out at the gym, when suddenly I saw a huge swarm of bees dangling from a pomegranate tree at 21st and Treat.

beees

They were swarming around with at least one queen, looking for a new place to build a hive. It was pretty amazing. They were surprisingly forgiving of my curiosity and sticking my face right up to their swarm, since bees are apparently even more reticent to sting when they don’t have any hive to defend.

I was obsessed with the bees all day, so we went to go check out the area to see if they decided to settle in the pomegranate tree, but they were gone without a trace. Farewell, bees!

My Stolen Fixie

Thursday of last week, one of my neighbours left the garage door open when they drove off, and a thief came into our garage and stole my poor old fixie, Bikey Red.

My bike at the Ferry Building.
Bikey Red at the Ferry Building, which was one of her favourite places to go.

Let’s be honest here: it was a cheap piece of crap. But I loved it dearly, and had a lot of emotional attachment to it. I am a bit bitter that the thief ignored all of my neighbour’s bikes to take mine, since I am not the one that left the door open. But I realize that my bike looks very flashy and expensive with all its white and red (even though it is in fact very cheap and crappy), so that must have been why they chose it.

Then, later that night, the thief came back to our apartment complex. Luckily, Doc was taking a walk, and found the door open upon his return and quickly closed it. So the thief kicked in a window screen to try to gain access to the building / garage. Scary stuff. Doc says that our neighbour left Pandora’s Garage Door open, thus plaguing us with this eternal thief.

I went to Mission Bicycle and drooled over their beautiful bikes. This was my chance to design any sort of bike I wanted, I could customize it much farther than I had ever customized anything before. But as I clicked through the choices on their online Build Your Bike, I found that I just kept trying to make a new Bikey Red. Over and over I tried, but they were all wrong; “no no no, Bikey Red had two red spokes on the back wheel! THIS IS HORRIBLE EVERYTHING IS WRONG.” I should take this opportunity to make a whole new bike straight from my imagination, but for some reason all I want is a new bike that looks completely identical to my old one.

Part of me also wishes that the thief could have stolen some of the stuff that I’ve been needing to throw out; you know, while he was at it. But that is hoping too much.

Good-bye Bikey Red, somebody else will be taking care of you now. I hope the thief sells you really cheap to somebody who cannot afford an expensive bike, and that they can know the joy that is Bikey Red.

I just flew in from Marin, and boy are my arms tired

The view of SF from Tiburon

While boarding the Tiburon-San Francisco ferry to begin my commute home last night, a pigeon also hopped on board. As we ferried across the bay, the bird walked around the cabin investigating everything. It even hopped up onto an empty chair, and investigated the table in front of it.

Near the end of the ride, it had resigned itself to strutting back and fourth near the entrance of the cabin, and then stopped to take a poop. When it turned around after pooping (to continue with its pacing), it spotted the poop out of the corner of its eye, and plunged its head down to peck at it. Only when the bird’s face was half a centimeter away did it realize that the stuff was its own poop and not a piece of food that magically appeared during the poop break, and it recoiled. Continue reading “I just flew in from Marin, and boy are my arms tired”