A Kansas City cattle baron moved out here and built a big, rambling Victorian mansion on the Diablo Canyon hills overlooking the East Bay. Eventually his son sold off the land all around teh house into small lots that medium-sized bungalos were built on - hence, the Grande Vista neighborhood. ni teh 1960s the big rambling house become home to a commune. Now, its reverted to a soft version of that. The landlord and tenants now live in a couple of independent apartments and various rooms and some tenants (including my friends Guy and Michelle and me in the second-floor guest room) share bathrooms (downstairs). The house still looks like something straight out of the board game Clue, with a billiard room, library/study, kitchen, and super-high ceilings. Last night (Friday) I left the window open and pulled a mosquito net around me.
Yesterday afternoon (Friday) I walked through the neighborhood in the very hot sun and eventually caught the #14 bus to downtown. Michelle had showed me an extremely detailed bus map, but had obviously never been on the bus. Most of the time the people on the bus were all Asian American, African American,and Latino - no Anglos. There were loud people on both buses I road and with some profanity. Downtown Oakland was actually OK - we drove/rode by Lake Merritt (pictured above). I stopped in the Alameda County Recorder's office. but it was almost closing time, and I only saw a few milies waiting around, cindluing one group with what appeared to be a same-gender couple waiting to get married. (I suppose I would have had to go into San Francisco - and earlier in the day - to see more of a scene.)
The #14 bus - which I hopped back on - took me to West Oakland, considered to be one of the rougher parts of town, and I walked to the metal workshop/art studio where Michelle currently works. There her boss, Dennis, greeted us with beer, nachos (I ate way too many), and - eventually - super-hot Mexican soft tacos from the taco stand across the street. Dennis is an artist and metal worker who makes parts of customized metal staircases for clients. Michelle is an artist who has worked with Dennis for several months (her sister Carrie worked for Dennis about ten years ago). Dennis rents this huge warehouse/auto mechanic shop-looking place - with a back yard partly for his dog Bob, with whom we played for a while. (Dennis wouldn't let me take Bob for a walk because he said it was too dangerous at dusk for a stranger to be wondering around the neighborhood - and he's worked there for 15 years.) Every Friday Denis and clients and colleagues and friends stop by for socializing, and Guy dropped by soon after I arrived (along with others Catharine and . . . )
On the way home in guy's car we inadvertently went almost all the way to Berkeley, on the street I'm to meet Reece and Kathy on this afternoon (Saturday), and then rode to the Grand Theater area, a chi chi part of Oakland where I'll meet my cousin and his family later in the day.
Yesterday afternoon (Friday) I walked through the neighborhood in the very hot sun and eventually caught the #14 bus to downtown. Michelle had showed me an extremely detailed bus map, but had obviously never been on the bus. Most of the time the people on the bus were all Asian American, African American,and Latino - no Anglos. There were loud people on both buses I road and with some profanity. Downtown Oakland was actually OK - we drove/rode by Lake Merritt (pictured above). I stopped in the Alameda County Recorder's office. but it was almost closing time, and I only saw a few milies waiting around, cindluing one group with what appeared to be a same-gender couple waiting to get married. (I suppose I would have had to go into San Francisco - and earlier in the day - to see more of a scene.)
The #14 bus - which I hopped back on - took me to West Oakland, considered to be one of the rougher parts of town, and I walked to the metal workshop/art studio where Michelle currently works. There her boss, Dennis, greeted us with beer, nachos (I ate way too many), and - eventually - super-hot Mexican soft tacos from the taco stand across the street. Dennis is an artist and metal worker who makes parts of customized metal staircases for clients. Michelle is an artist who has worked with Dennis for several months (her sister Carrie worked for Dennis about ten years ago). Dennis rents this huge warehouse/auto mechanic shop-looking place - with a back yard partly for his dog Bob, with whom we played for a while. (Dennis wouldn't let me take Bob for a walk because he said it was too dangerous at dusk for a stranger to be wondering around the neighborhood - and he's worked there for 15 years.) Every Friday Denis and clients and colleagues and friends stop by for socializing, and Guy dropped by soon after I arrived (along with others Catharine and . . . )
On the way home in guy's car we inadvertently went almost all the way to Berkeley, on the street I'm to meet Reece and Kathy on this afternoon (Saturday), and then rode to the Grand Theater area, a chi chi part of Oakland where I'll meet my cousin and his family later in the day.
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