I finally finished the last of my computer science homework. I spent three days on this nonsense and much of it was either tedious or not really possible since the material had not been covered in class or even in the textbook. This means I'll have to do parts of it over, but I don't care as long as I don't have to look at it before Tuesday. Instead of starting on my math homework right away, I went for a walk and saw many things.
The repo and auto auction place around the corner had an auction today. I heard the auctioneer when I took out the trash, but the auction was over when I left for my walk. I did see a multi-generational group of men hanging around outside the building and shooting the breeze in Arabic. This is a thing one would not have seen in Richmond when I was a kid, and this is a good thing. I like having lots of different kinds of people around.
I saw that the poops of likely human origin resting in the steps by the CamCam were still there today. Yesterday's rain was not strong enough to wash them away. This is a yucky and stinky thing. Besides, there is a grassy area not ten feet away behind the building that would have better served the purpose of the pooper. How very inconsiderate of him! (Is that a sexist remark? What are the odds that the pooper was female?)
I saw "Now Leasing" signs on the apartment building at East Franklin and North 25th. Formerly the US Historical Society and once part of the Pohlig Brothers Paper Box Factory across the street, the building is now called "Church Hill Gables" even though the building is one hundred percent gable-free. This is a perplexing thing. I suppose I should be glad it's not called "Green Gables" because it isn't green either.
I saw ghost signs that I had not noticed before. One building that was, and maybe still is, a furniture restoration place (and a produce distributor before that) seems to have been originally a livery stable, at least as evidenced by the fading "Horses Horses" painted on the front. This is a cool thing. I took pictures, but some large furniture trucks were parked on the sidewalk before the building, so I'll have to try for better shots another day.
I saw that the portable toilets had been removed from in front of the old synagogue building, lastly a furniture and wood-burning stove place and now being converted to apartments. I wanted to photograph it and get some better pictures of the mysterious looking house next door (because my fictional villain lives there), but construction workers were in my way, messing around with a cherry picker. While they shouted in very foul language, they rode in the bucket up and down to no purpose. This is an annoying thing. I walked down the block and took pictures of the Soap and Liniment sign instead.
When I came back from my walk, all ready to pull the pictures off my camera and admire them, I saw work spewing out of my fax machine. It was two short patents for a food product production method. Patents about food products are enough to put one off food altogether, but I won't complain since I can buy food with the money I earn translating them. This is a fortunate thing. I have the time to do the job right now and I'll do my remaining homeworks over the weekend.
On one of the twenty dollar bills that Oz used to pay for our dinner, we saw written in red ink and loopy feminine handwriting:
I had to add that comma. Just had to.
Something about that "you" is very irritating. I dislike being told what to do or think.
And this evening we looked in the windows of the new Black Swan bookstore at Robinson and Main (I think that's before Main becomes Ellwood, but now I'm not sure). The only reason why we didn't go in was that it was already closed. We saw books, enviable shelving, and all the requisite flyers for local arts events and a Zen center. This bodes well for happy book shopping experiences in the future.
734 words | March 17, 2004 11:15 PM | Real true story