Greenhands...
So the card business is being sorted out. I received my pin number request in the mail the other day, and a new card should follow shorty. In the meanwhile, I was left to contend with the limited options provided to me by my bank, and a days worth of gardening (read: pulling weeds, trimming edges, meeting spiders, stretching rarely used muscles) to get by.
The day in the yard was actually not so bad. A little warm, which I relished due to the fact that San Fran has been mostly chilly, especially over the last few days, and it felt surprisingly good to work hard in a mock-forest for a day, and know I was getting some cash monies at the end of it.
I've also managed to find an extremely decent amount of bookstores throughout the Berkely area, all with an amazing range of literature and at fair to great prices. One such store, Pegasus, had a copy of Leonard Cohens "Beautiful Losers" for US $7 which I had to by-pass due to the fact that I had no cash money on me (this was before the yard work day, and after the card-loss night) but I marked it's whereabouts and price, like many other books I was hunting for and looked forward to picking it up after picking up cash... but upon my return, I was told the TWO copies the store had in stock were sold the night before my arrival. Yeah. Don't be shy to ask to put things on hold. Though, judging by the similarity I've found amongst stock in the local bookstores, and the casual nature at which the clerk informed me of the sale (he also was sweet enough to call their other two stores and ask if they had any in stock) I assume this book will be something I won't have too much trouble finding here in the states.
The consumer side of me is taking a harsh blow here. "Things" are so readily available, objects, tools that I enjoy spending my money on at home and have such trouble finding: books, musical equipment, records, chocolate etc, and due to the fair exchange rate, and I guess the resounding amount of production of such things here, they are all considerably cheap, (considerably meaning "painfully/extremely tempting") but alas, unless I find a suitcase full of money (here's hoping) I am able to maybe purchase a couple of cheap books and records, but that's about my lot.
I've found cheaper methods of discovery though. The BART is a cost efficient way to get around, and by doing so, I managed to get into town and check out numerous spots, tourist and not... ie: Mission district, Italian district, Fishermans Wharf, Broadway's "red-light district", which includes the Beat Museum and City Lights Bookstore, a couple of tent cities under some bridges near West Oakland (haven't yet managed to brave the real-deal West Oakland, but all reports say it's not somewhere I should want to) and most of the sweet spots in Berkely.
Kris and Kristin also did the good move, and drove me out to Point Reyes, along the north coast of CA. We stopped at an Oyster Farm an stank out our breath, and drove past a town called "Bolinas", where apparently the locals craved silence so much they repeatedly tore down the street signs and highway posts pointing or giving directions to their little slice of American heaven, until the surrounding councils gave up and let them be. Nice. I kept thinking Todd would do well there.
Talia gets here in a little under two weeks, and I'm coasting until then. If anyone reading this has hook-ups in S.F, hit me up!!!
Link to San Fran photobucket:
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/deadhands/San%20Frantastic/
Also:
Bow down!