Elm City Dad | Elm City Mom



Catch The Trons Fever


Took three times, but I did get my brain age down below my real age. Or maybe I'm just starting to get the hang of it so it got easier. I have a question, though. If you miss them all does that mean your brain is really old or really young?

Today I learned that a group of stingrays is called a 'fever.' Pretty cool. Even cooler is that these stingrays are poisonous, 6ft 6inches across, travel in a group of 10,000 and migrate thousands of miles together.

A final piece of coolness for today is The Trons. They are (it is?) a band, but the band is all robots. Check it (or them?) out. Sounds kinda lame and cheezy I know. But trust me, they're awesome.


Forward Fast


Here's a map of the political blogosphere. And yes it is awesomely interactive.

Next up is what could be called Hell on Earth. It is photographs of people breaking down ships. Huge ships. Enormous ships. Gigantic ships even. And they are doing it by hand and with hammers and it is crazy.

Haven't delved into music in a while here and that's mostly because my computer speakers crapped out and my headphones have been in hiding. But check out Jubilee (via Topspin). For a band with such a light and happy name they are surprisingly rough and distorted. Sure it's a pop party they're having there, but shit is getting broken.

Life has reached a fever pitch in the Gallagosen household. And we're not even close to what it is going to become. In order to do all the things I need to do for work and for family I have begun to change the way I think. No longer is life simply about what I want to do, now it is about what needs to be done.

Gasoline must be pumped into the tank of my car. I must understand the process of giving birth to help Lu through it. Coffee must be sold so that I have the money to pay for that gas and to pay for the coming child. Perhaps if I can teach my child how to brew coffee, and that coffee can be used instead of gas in the car, then maybe I would have a system that works. Until then all I've got is everything I can think of to make it work and actions to back those thoughts up, every day, all day.

Drive car, roast coffee, sell coffee, and help Lu have our baby. Rinse, repeat and rock on, that is my life and I kind of love it. Seeing family and friends is a magnificent treat whenever we get to indulge and I cannot wait for more live music. Until then I roast and brew and drive and feel the thumps from the baby within.

Last thing I've got is what happens when you listen to too much of that techno-crap.


Floating through NYC


Ahh, New York. Such a fantastic city. It is endless, though, and to be in the middle of it is to feel dwarfed by the collective energy of the efforts of millions of humans going back hundreds of years.

It is amazing what they have accomplished in that time.

On Saturday afternoon we drove out of CT, south on an asphalt path that brought us down the western edge of Manhattan into a parking spot on the Upper West Side. Saturday afternoon by the park and the museum and we found a spot within ten minutes. Then it was out into the heat, into the throng of people teeming through Central Park, into a rowboat and then into a lake in the middle of Manhattan. There was traffic at the bridge, there, too. But this was rowboat and kayak traffic and it was under a bridge as we all tried to get out into the 'open' water on the other side.

We were in a rowboat on a lake in Manhattan because Lu's brother and his wife were having a boat race with some of their friends. We barely missed the boat race, but we got there just in time for the flotilla picnic where food and drink were passed around, and the glory of the race was recounted for all to enjoy. Then the clouds rolled in charged with lightning, heavy with rain, and I knew it was time to go. The boat was metal, after all.

It was nature at it finest, even though I could see the tops of elaborate buildings towering over the surrounding trees. Nature reigned supreme as the skies open and rain poured down. There was nothing we could do but walk through the downpour because having a pregnant woman run in the rain is just wrong. Wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Within seconds we were drenched and our car was still a good fifteen minutes walk away. Besides, the day was warm, it was only water and we had clothes to change into as soon as we got back to the car parked oh so close by.

On the way out the next day, we took the BQE and truly that is a stunning sight. As Lu always says, it looks like those building are bursting right from the water as we take that curve and then shoot up the Hutch towards the suburban trees and hills of CT.


Multitudes


Wow, SF was amazing. It was also very surreal. So many things have changed in my life since I was last strolling those sunny hills that it was tough to reconcile my inner thoughts with the outer world. The events that transpired over the course of the weekend occurred multiple times while I lived there but this time there was some extra depth and oomph.

Went to happy hour at Lucky 13 which absolutely drove home the point that it is by far the best and my favorite bar in that city, or any other city. Bartender remembered my drink, my name and gave me the first one on the house. Popcorn on the patio with friends I haven't seen in months and then onward into the night just like old times. Wine country the next day, then incredible sushi Friday night, a Saturday Oysterfest in the park and then a full-on house party (and Man Shower) Saturday night left me dazed and confused on Sunday morning, so I did the only sane thing I could. I strolled the Haight Street Fair, had espressos in the Sunset and then met up with my wife and friends for the best damn Thai food away from the Andaman Ocean.

I've done all of that before. It's probably even happened all on the same weekend at one point or another. But this time I really tried to soak it up. The reason all that has happened a bunch of times before is because it is all so much damn fun.

Our fun is different now, here in New Haven. It is more personal and intimate. As much as I enjoyed every second of SF, a part of me was still looking forward to getting back into the shop to roast and sell coffee, to see my brothers and family, to chill in our backyard on a hot summer eve. Clearly New Haven is a pale, slow and stately little town compared to the carnival that is every second of the day or night in SF. But our home is not just New Haven. It is all the tendrils of life and love and work that spread out from this apartment on Willow Street.

We move a little slower here day to day, but we also travel far to see friends or family, and work a lot harder all the time because our future is no longer just out there somewhere slowly rolling up on us. Our future is here, now. The rest of our lives are only a few months away. This is the perfect place for us to be at this moment. But the best part is that one of those tendrils snakes all the way across the country to our first home together and it wraps around an amazing group of friends we are so lucky to have, and it ties us to them and to the city and to a whole way of life and living that we can never leave behind.

San Francisco is inside of us. We were changed by the light of that coast, the scent of fog, the cold summer night winds, the blazing days, sublime wines and amazing friends. We both learned so much there, and it is exciting to know what is coming next. Life will still be a carnival, at least within these walls, that is for sure. Thanks SF for showing us how it's done!


Flight


The Science Times did it again for me. For a while there I was really enjoying that section of the NYTimes, but then recently either I've been too busy to get to it, or the topics didn't really grab me.

Today was all space, technology and quantum physics and it was a lot of fun to read. According to Ray Kurzweil, if we just manage to live another 15 years our life-spans will increase faster than we age. I've always said I wanted to live to be 500 so I do hope he's right. And yeah, I do want to go to the World Science Festival next year. I guess that means I'm officially a geek.

But one thing that is very cool is that we are leaving for SF tomorrow night. I can't even believe it. I've spent the last seven months trying to forget all the amazing wonderousness of living in that city in order to recalibrate my brain to a fantastic CT life. And it has worked! I do love living here and I am thoroughly enjoying the summer, the baby on the way, my work, family, friends, all of it.

But part of me is scared I won't be able to leave our former home. CT is a great place to live, but SF is pure magic.



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