Ellis Live

What up? I hope everyone is doing well. I’m just hanging out here, taking it all in. I’m going to keep it simple this time with no fancy pics. Cool? I’ve been in San Francisco about a week and half now and I thought I’d tell you about a few of my first impressions and experiences. This is as much for me as it is for you since I’m going to come back and look at these in a year and laugh about what a noob I am…was…whatever. I’m going to list a few things out but first things first. The weather here deserves a post all of it’s own so here you go.

First of all, no one warns you about the weather in San Francisco. Actually, if you’re me, everyone warns you but you don’t really listen. The statistics say that the average temperature here is between 45 and 65 degrees year-round. However, I can tell you from personal experience that 70 here can feel much different than 70 in the Southern US. The first day I spent here, the delivery guy dropped off my car on a bright 70 degree day. I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, another long sleeve shirt, and shoes (with socks). I spent the next 15 minutes shivering in the slight chill as the delivery man took my car off the truck. He was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and sandals.

I have always said that my dream weather is to be able to wear long sleeves and jeans every day and not be too hot or cold. I’ve since relearned to be careful what I ask for because I may get it. Since I’ve gotten here, I’ve worn jeans and long sleeves with a light jacket while walking in the park on a sunny day and still only been slightly warm at times. Plus, if you walk into the shade, the temperature drops 10 degrees instantly. Very few of my clothes are acceptable for this weather. I’m having to quickly learn the art of layering.

For those of you not from the South, I’ll tell you about the weather where I’m from. If it’s hot, it’s really freaking hot. In the shade, it’s still hot. If it’s cold, it’s really cold. It’s even colder in the shade and about halfway through the day it rains, then gets really freaking hot again because there are no seasons in the South, only the wrath of nature. All of my clothes are made for either hot or cold and any temperatures in between confuse my wardrobe.

Also, don’t forget the fog. San Francisco is on a peninsula and is very prone to fog in “The City”. It’s not uncommon for the sky to be bright and sunny at my office in the East Bay and turn dark and overcast before I get home. Before I moved here I had a mental image of horror movie fog. The kind that scoots along the ground and hides werewolves. It turns out that it’s much more insidious than that. The fog covers the whole city from up on high. Do you know how it gets right before a big storm in the South? The sky turns darker, the temperature drops suddenly and the wind picks up? Yeah, that’s how it is all the time here. If it’s a sunny day, the fog may burn off by 8 or 9 in the morning and the sun will peek through. High in the mountains, it can be even worse. 2 of 3 days I’ve passed over the Golden Gate bridge, I haven’t been able to see the tops of the bridge supports. The first time I noticed the fog outside the city around one of the mountains, I thought it was a fire. Thick, dark smoke covered everything and moved like it was late for an interview. It looked like The Nothing, however I could find no Luckdragons.

So, in closing, I’ll admit that I’m exaggerating a bit. However, I am going to quickly learn to appreciate the days when the sun is out in full force. I also can’t wait for the “Rainy Season” I keep hearing about.

My new roomate picked me up from the airport on Sunday and showed me around the new apartment. It’s a two bedroom with hardwood floors in the Inner Sunset. I think it’s going to work out well. Here’s a picture I took from the front bay window. This should give you a feel for the numbered streets of the neighborhood.

0618071009.jpg, originally uploaded by cisellis.

The neighborhoods around here are pretty cool. Most of the buildings have garages on the bottom floor and steps going up from the sidewalk to the second floor. The apartments then take up the second or third floor from the street. An interesting note is that the sidewalks are very wide and the entry to each garage just dips down a bit into the road. Cars just basically drive up on the sidewalk all over the place. It’d be a perfectly normal pattern in any Southern neighborhood, complete with lawns between the drive-ways. Here though, it just seems out of place and fascinates me. With the sharp dips into some garages, I keep expecting some car to shoot up like and take me out like in that game Hungry-Hungry Hippos. I guess since I haven’t seen any spiders around here yet, I’m developing new irrational fears. Sweet.