Fremont, Asparagus
It’s been a very long time, but at last that idea I called a plan really is turning out to be something. I’ve got my tickets ready. At the end of November I leave California indefinitely. After my stop on the east coast, I plan to travel to Italy where Lana is, and from there, eh, who knows? I don’t have a ticket back, and I won’t be buying it until I need it.
Lana wanted me in Florence in time for my birthday, and I should make it there by then. But what’s there to do in Florence? I have a guidebook, which I received as a parting gift from my friends at work. I’m sure I’ll think of something.
On Monday of this week I went with Nicky to visit my mother in Fremont. I don’t have many positive things to say about that city, which is little more than a BART stop to me. I’m sure if you have a car and are willing to embrace that kind of culture it’s a fine place to live, but I don’t drive and don’t like shopping at strip malls. When I think of Fremont, I think of the street I walk along to get to my mother’s apartment.
Here’s a typical sight:
Perhaps these things escape the notice of drivers, who outnumber pedestrians by 50 to 1, or does it just seem that way to me?
Anyway, what really stands out is the number of abandoned shopping carts. We saw lots of them. More than I’ve ever seen in one place in one day. Toppled over, in the street, in front of lots, clustered under trees:
The air is pretty hard to breathe there, too, even worse than in San Francisco, which has always smelled of smoke and gasoline to me. Once we got inside, though, it wasn’t so bad. And that’s the trouble. I didn’t want to stay stuck indoors, but going outdoors was so unpleasant, considering the quality of the air and that I’d have to walk quite a distance through that air to get to any civilized leisure spot.
As for asparagus. I’d always heard it made pee smell bad, and I was always reluctant to believe it just because I’d heard it so often. Now I know it first hand: asparagus does make pee smell different, but I can’t say it’s any worse than the way pee ordinarily smells. Perhaps I just have very stinky urine to begin with. I have been eating lots of asparagus lately because it’s been on sale, and I’ve noticed it does make my urine smell stronger. Not worse, just stronger and a little different, almost leafy, but like fermenting leaves. You know that fresh autumn smell. It’s almost like that, but you wouldn’t want to put it in an aerosol spray can. It is pee, after all.
Lana wanted me in Florence in time for my birthday, and I should make it there by then. But what’s there to do in Florence? I have a guidebook, which I received as a parting gift from my friends at work. I’m sure I’ll think of something.
On Monday of this week I went with Nicky to visit my mother in Fremont. I don’t have many positive things to say about that city, which is little more than a BART stop to me. I’m sure if you have a car and are willing to embrace that kind of culture it’s a fine place to live, but I don’t drive and don’t like shopping at strip malls. When I think of Fremont, I think of the street I walk along to get to my mother’s apartment.
Here’s a typical sight:
Perhaps these things escape the notice of drivers, who outnumber pedestrians by 50 to 1, or does it just seem that way to me?
Anyway, what really stands out is the number of abandoned shopping carts. We saw lots of them. More than I’ve ever seen in one place in one day. Toppled over, in the street, in front of lots, clustered under trees:
The air is pretty hard to breathe there, too, even worse than in San Francisco, which has always smelled of smoke and gasoline to me. Once we got inside, though, it wasn’t so bad. And that’s the trouble. I didn’t want to stay stuck indoors, but going outdoors was so unpleasant, considering the quality of the air and that I’d have to walk quite a distance through that air to get to any civilized leisure spot.
As for asparagus. I’d always heard it made pee smell bad, and I was always reluctant to believe it just because I’d heard it so often. Now I know it first hand: asparagus does make pee smell different, but I can’t say it’s any worse than the way pee ordinarily smells. Perhaps I just have very stinky urine to begin with. I have been eating lots of asparagus lately because it’s been on sale, and I’ve noticed it does make my urine smell stronger. Not worse, just stronger and a little different, almost leafy, but like fermenting leaves. You know that fresh autumn smell. It’s almost like that, but you wouldn’t want to put it in an aerosol spray can. It is pee, after all.