Getting Ready for the New Year

With the New Year almost here, I paid a visit to a nearby office supply store to pick up a new calendar. It's a bit of a puzzle how this particular store persists with what appears to be an antiquated approach to business. The cash registers may well be the same ones they were using 20 years ago. While the store manages to be tidy, there's also a general overhang of neglect about the place. Perhaps most unusual for a retail operation, the staff members don't seem to change every several months. I continue to recognize people who've helped me with past year's calendar purchases. The store's been in San Francisco since 1873, so my quibbles and concerns probably don't have much merit.

Exactly why I continue buying a calendar is something I've occasionally questioned. It would be more efficient to centralize everything in a single online calendar. What I like about a printed calendar is that I'll have a record I can flip through to recall who I had lunch with, the movies I saw, the trips I went on, the performances I attended, and when my last trip to the barber was. I'm not quite able to warm to the idea of scrolling through an online calendar to reminisce about past year's activities. I realized the shortcoming of digital records when I used a Palm Pilot for a year or so. At the end of that year I had no convenient record of what happened over the course of the previous 365 days. I've tried the At A Glance calendars (too big), Filofax (too bulky), Day Runner (inelegant), and Letts of London (just right). I thought I had a Letts book for each year of the decade, but I now realize that my dalliances with Filofax and Palm Pilot created some gaps in the archive.

The Letts books are pretty close to perfect. The navy blue binding is subtle and the layout of the interior pages consists of clean black typography on stark white sheets. The sections allocated to each day provide just enough room to jot down a few impressionistic details. To mark progress through the year, there's a helpful navy blue ribbon. Since the books are slim, they're easy to carry along. In reviewing the number of blank pages in my 2009 calendar, I should probably resolve to be a bit more diligent about noting what happens in 2010.

Wishing you a wonderful New Year, one which will fill your own calendar - whether it be digital or analog - with many pleasant entries.

Night Lights for The Winter Solstice

I thought these pictures from late last week made sense to share on the darkest day of the year. I'm reminded of the sentiment expressed in the lyrics from Vernon Duke's jazz standard "Autumn in New York," one of my favorites. "Here on the twenty-seventh floor, looking down on the city I hate and adore." For me the winter solstice inspires a similar ambivalence. It's the darkest day of the year yet it also marks the point at which the daylight hours will, finally, begin increasing.

Avian Lunch

I was walking along the waterfront on my way to lunch when I passed this seagull, who I suspect was waiting for his lunch to appear below the water's surface. I continued on my way to get a turkey sandwich. I'm hoping the gull will partially forgive me my avian lunch. I'm not too concerned. I didn't order a seagull sandwich.

Wet Weather Gear

The first big wet storm of the season gave me a reason to bring out these waterproof shoes for their 26th winter. They make it easy to walk around wet city streets by allowing me to step directly into deep puddles, rather than having to navigate around them. The shoes also do a good job of gripping the pavement, due in part to the rubber sole that has a distinctive chain patterned tread. I can't imagine a more perfect and reliable rain shoe.

There's no glamour here. These guys are all function and utility. I like the fact that they work as well in a duck blind as they do in an urban center. They might be a bit incongruous for the city, but I enjoy the touch of outdoorsy panache they provide.

I attribute their longevity to the fact that they only get worn five or six times a year. I recall reading when I ordered them, via printed catalog, that the shoes could be returned to Maine and the soles could be reapplied when needed. Whether LL Bean still offers this service doesn't matter too much anymore. I've gotten more wear out of these than I'd ever imagined.

Tis The Season

Each year the Delancey Street Foundation opens a Christmas tree lot on Pier 32, just south of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. The staff are always friendly and help get the holiday season off to a cheery start. This was a good day to choose a tree since the mild conditions will soon be replaced by a week's worth of stormy weather, if the forecasters are correct. Tomorrow's incoming rain should provide a pleasantly wintry backdrop for an afternoon of tree trimming.