kevin_standlee (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kevin_standlee) wrote2013-04-13 11:30 pm
kevin_standlee) wrote2013-04-13 11:30 pm
Entry tags:
Visting the Old Haunts
Being close to needing a haircut, and knowing that I'm going to be too busy for the next few weekends to get one, I decided to go up to my regular barber in Fremont this morning. Having gotten moving early enough, after getting my ears lowered I decided to walk from there to Dino's, near my old apartment, where I had a hearty breakfast. After all that food, I needed more of a walk, so with the San Francisco Giants-Chicago Cubs game on my radio, I set out for a walk around Quarry Lakes Park. I often walked around Quarry Lakes when I lived at Meadowbrook Common, and I missed the place.
The Quarry Lakes are looking less like lakes and more like the quarry they used to be. (Much of the ballast for the Western Pacific Railroad was apparently from the quarry that became Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area (link is to map of park). I took pictures.
Willow Slough is nearly dried up entirely.
Horseshoe Lake has a bit more water, but an island has appeared in the middle of the lake.
These stairs normally end at the waterline, for the benefit of people fishing on the shore.
You can see the "bathtub ring" of the normal water line. In the middle distance, volunteers are planting trees along the east shore of the lake. In the far distance on the hillside, a white spot in the sea of springtime green is the NILES sign overlooking that district of Fremont where Charlie Chaplin filmed The Tramp.
The Quarry Lakes Map labels this unnamed lake "Restricted Area." The BART tracks barely visible beyond the trees suggest that this is the Secret BART Submarine Pen, with an underground water tunnel connecting it to the BART fortress at Lake Merritt.
The peninsula in the middle distance is normally an island, and that's probably bad news for the birds that nest on it since predators can now walk on in. Normally, this photo would be pretty much impossible, because if you tried to take it, you'd be several meters under water standing on the bed of Lago Los Osos.
The depth gauge at Lago Los Osos is high and dry as a goose eyes me suspiciously.
With a BART train heading for Fremont on the bridge above, here's Rubber Dam #3 holding back what's left of Alameda Creek.
A riot of wildflowers blooms in a branch of the Alameda Creek Trail.
All of this area with flowers and small trees typically is under the water of Lago Los Osos.
With the sun warming the rip-rap along Alameda Creek, a few lizards were out warming themselves. My phone's camera doesn't have a great zoom, but there is a lizard perched on the rock near the center of this photo.
Leaving the park, my path took me by Meadowbrook Common, where I used to live. A car came along and triggered the gate, and I walked in behind it, making a show of taking out my keys as if I was heading for my apartment, which I was, in a way.
This is a shot of the outside of my old apartment. (No, of course I don't have a key to the apartment anymore!). The new tenant has filled the patio with flowers.
Having walked more than 10 km at this point, my legs informed me that a break was in order, so I stopped at Suju's coffee for a mocha and a croissant. I also took the opportunity to pick up a pound of their whole bean coffee. I've been buying my coffee from them for years. This will be the first bag of beans to go to Fernley with me.
The renovations of Dale Hardware, which went on for a couple of years, appear to be over, with the ugly concrete block building fronting Thornton Avenue (previously Bogie's Pet Supply and then the staging area for the rebuild of Dale) removed and the area brightened up with this quirky sign.
(More photos at Flickr if you're interested; click through any of these above to see the set.)
I wasn't completely done, as it was another 1.5 km back to the shopping center where my van was parked.
I can't do this every day — I clocked over 17K steps today — but I need to put in more road-work than I have been doing. My weight is up and my blood sugar with it.
Going back to the apartment, I spent the remainder of the afternoon filling up my van with more things, including my microwave oven. I asked the apartment manager to give me back the one that came with the unit and that they stored away, and they actually brought it back this afternoon, which I didn't expect. The maintenance man also found for me a hex wrench — I seem to have left my tool kit in Fernley — to disassemble a shelf in the bathroom that belongs to me and is heading home tomorrow.
Normally I would have gone home yesterday afternoon, but there is a Westercon 66 staff meeting in Sacramento tomorrow morning, so the logistics make sense for me to have stayed here Friday and today, head up to Sacramento in the morning, and continue on to Fernley after the meeting.
The Quarry Lakes are looking less like lakes and more like the quarry they used to be. (Much of the ballast for the Western Pacific Railroad was apparently from the quarry that became Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area (link is to map of park). I took pictures.
Willow Slough is nearly dried up entirely.
Horseshoe Lake has a bit more water, but an island has appeared in the middle of the lake.
These stairs normally end at the waterline, for the benefit of people fishing on the shore.
You can see the "bathtub ring" of the normal water line. In the middle distance, volunteers are planting trees along the east shore of the lake. In the far distance on the hillside, a white spot in the sea of springtime green is the NILES sign overlooking that district of Fremont where Charlie Chaplin filmed The Tramp.
The Quarry Lakes Map labels this unnamed lake "Restricted Area." The BART tracks barely visible beyond the trees suggest that this is the Secret BART Submarine Pen, with an underground water tunnel connecting it to the BART fortress at Lake Merritt.
The peninsula in the middle distance is normally an island, and that's probably bad news for the birds that nest on it since predators can now walk on in. Normally, this photo would be pretty much impossible, because if you tried to take it, you'd be several meters under water standing on the bed of Lago Los Osos.
The depth gauge at Lago Los Osos is high and dry as a goose eyes me suspiciously.
With a BART train heading for Fremont on the bridge above, here's Rubber Dam #3 holding back what's left of Alameda Creek.
A riot of wildflowers blooms in a branch of the Alameda Creek Trail.
All of this area with flowers and small trees typically is under the water of Lago Los Osos.
With the sun warming the rip-rap along Alameda Creek, a few lizards were out warming themselves. My phone's camera doesn't have a great zoom, but there is a lizard perched on the rock near the center of this photo.
Leaving the park, my path took me by Meadowbrook Common, where I used to live. A car came along and triggered the gate, and I walked in behind it, making a show of taking out my keys as if I was heading for my apartment, which I was, in a way.
This is a shot of the outside of my old apartment. (No, of course I don't have a key to the apartment anymore!). The new tenant has filled the patio with flowers.
Having walked more than 10 km at this point, my legs informed me that a break was in order, so I stopped at Suju's coffee for a mocha and a croissant. I also took the opportunity to pick up a pound of their whole bean coffee. I've been buying my coffee from them for years. This will be the first bag of beans to go to Fernley with me.
The renovations of Dale Hardware, which went on for a couple of years, appear to be over, with the ugly concrete block building fronting Thornton Avenue (previously Bogie's Pet Supply and then the staging area for the rebuild of Dale) removed and the area brightened up with this quirky sign.
(More photos at Flickr if you're interested; click through any of these above to see the set.)
I wasn't completely done, as it was another 1.5 km back to the shopping center where my van was parked.
I can't do this every day — I clocked over 17K steps today — but I need to put in more road-work than I have been doing. My weight is up and my blood sugar with it.
Going back to the apartment, I spent the remainder of the afternoon filling up my van with more things, including my microwave oven. I asked the apartment manager to give me back the one that came with the unit and that they stored away, and they actually brought it back this afternoon, which I didn't expect. The maintenance man also found for me a hex wrench — I seem to have left my tool kit in Fernley — to disassemble a shelf in the bathroom that belongs to me and is heading home tomorrow.
Normally I would have gone home yesterday afternoon, but there is a Westercon 66 staff meeting in Sacramento tomorrow morning, so the logistics make sense for me to have stayed here Friday and today, head up to Sacramento in the morning, and continue on to Fernley after the meeting.