Move In Days...by Mr. Wendell and Ed

Wendell:


My tail cannot stop wagging!



My mom and dad are finally sitting down after two and a half days of moving , unpacking and throwing stuff away. They worked pretty hard so they could get things set up enough before my dad supposedly goes back to work tomorrow. I am not sure he remembers how to work after goofing off for over a month.

My sister and I are learning the sounds, sights and smells of our new neighborhood. There sure are a lot dogs (and people) marking trees, buildings and fire hydrants here. We also are learning more about traffic lights than we ever wanted to know.

I think we are going to like it here. The first couple walks were scary...some odd people walking around (more on that later...Ed) and lots of cars. It does seem to be a lot calmer now than yesterday.

I can tell we are going to have some good times here.

Mr. Wendell




Ed

Mr. Wendell has it right. The rest of the day, Christine and I are sitting on our butts, drinking some wine and watching TV. We are tired!

The move went perfectly. We are all in and have much of the boxes at least unpacked. Things are mostly in Version 1.0 placement. One of the real learnings of moving from a 3,200 sq. foot house to an 1,150 sq foot condo is that we had way too much unnecessary stuff. Since our things have been packed for 90 days or so, we had forgotten about all of the things we thought were important to keep. Unpacking the boxes, there were dozens of times either of us asked...why the heck did we pack this again? Needless to say, Goodwill is going to get a bunch of stuff that others can put to good use. We have now implemented a new house rule: If you buy something new, you have to get rid of two other things that you are not using to make way. We will see how long that lasts when my lovely bride wants a new purse, shoes or dog item. (Update- 5 minutes after posting the original blog, Christine read this sentence and said she did not agree that this policy applied to shoes and also modifed the purse exchange to a 1:1 rate. After thinking about this, I am reserving future running, swimming or biking purchases....and so the future larger public storage bin stock pile starts....)



Saturday was pretty darn interesting. An organization called LoveEvolution.org puts on this thing called "LoveFest" every year in the Civic Center area...about 5 blocks from us. The event is a fund raiser for various local non-profits. It is an event mostly built around techno music concerts, food and dancing.


Apparently, one of the main "features" of LoveFest is ladies (and men) walking around in bikinis/underwear/skin painted like clothing.






Imagine hundreds if not thousands of scantily clad young ladies walking down the city streets. Not that I am a prude or too old to enjoy the scenery...but my midwestern sensibilities were tested for sure! It was not a regular event in Berlin Center, Ohio to see girls walking around in underwear.



At the Love Evolution WebSite...I cut and pasted the mission of the event.


San Francisco LovEvolution exists to produce a celebration of the highest forms of electronic music culture and technology, in the belief that dance promotes peace, love, unity and respect.
The purpose of this organization is to serve the electronic dance music community by organizing public events, presenting electronic art forms, generating funds to support artistic development, advancing music education & production, as well as the right to dance and educating the public regarding the rights and contributions of our community.



The San Francisco LovEvolution is dedicated to giving back to the community, with a portion of proceeds going to participating non-profit organizations. This year's event is a continuity of past events, with a parade down Market St and festival at Civic Center plaza. A celebration of music, love, diversity, tolerance, dance, and community. Dance music has always had a special ability to bring people together in the shared beauty of a universal vibe. Our community by and large remains 'underground' in U.S. pop culture due to very little support from radio and MTV, etc. We know that in a culture awash in conflict, materialism, superficial concerns, and greed, an event of this kind can lift the spirits and the hopes of those who to surrender to it's power. The power of dance. The power of music. The power of community. We do not dance in the streets to escape the reality of our times - we dance to face them as a community, pointing the direction to a better way, set to beats and the full color of our expression. We gather to inspire and motivate social action by us, the youth, the people who will inherit this mess and have to do something about it to turn the tide. We intend to make the event a platform for dance music to reach more ears in America and beyond, to carry a message of love and hope, to be a vehicle for helping organizations doing good in the world, and for dancing our asses off surrounded by friendly freaks.



Ed: All sounds pretty good....the last sentence rings true...there were enough friendly freaks to surround a city!

One real laugh. My father in law and I went out last night to hunt up some take out Chinese food after a long day of moving. He and I had to swim through this mass of folks heading to the event. About the same moment, we both started laughing and said something like..."Holy Sh*t....check this one out...."

Coming towards us was a buck naked guy who had spray painted himself gold. There he was in 100% metal flake display...I can only imagine how a clean up with nasty paint thinner can feel on certain areas of the body. I hope it was worth it for him.

Only in California!

We are happy to be here! We love our new place, the city and weather.

We will miss having Christine's mom and dad with us. They have been on the RV trip and helped us move. Thanks guys! We really appreciated it!

Ed