A Chinese funeral
Walt and I were out in the yard today and heard the "dum, dum, dum" of drums that could signal only one thing on the streets of San Francisco -- a Chinese funeral. Chinese funerals are great sights. Generally the procession starts out with a band. There is a well-known mortuary chapel in North Beach that has its own band, the Green Street Mortuary Band, and many Chinese funerals are initiated in that mortuary. Behind the band is a car, always convertible, with members of the family holding an enormous photo of the deceased. The photo is poster-sized and mounted with two big rods on either side for holding aloft. These photos always seem to be in black and white; I don't know if it just turns out that way or if the photos are usually b&w because they're for old people who had more photos taken of themselves when b&w was de rigeur (because of course they never present a photo of the person looking like an old crone -- they always are in the prime of their lives and generally have a very serious mein a la Chairman Mao). Sometimes the family in the car also throws out pieces of paper that have words in Chinese printed on them, although this doesn't happen with every funeral. Then the hearse with the casket comes behind the photo and then all of the other relatives follow behind in their cars. As you can imagine, these are a sight to behold -- not only are they fabulous spectacles, but as they march down the street they often snarl traffic for several blocks in each direction -- so they tend to have quite a significant impact.
A few months after we purchased the building, we saw a funeral that came right down 8th Avenue in front of the apartment. This one, however, stayed on Clement, and we didn't have a chance to run down the block and catch it in its full glory. I was sorry, since I was sure that Devon would have loved the band. The band is usually heavy on the brass and drums, and what kid doesn't like brass and drums? Even our local accordion busker (whom Walt loves but I think is terrible -- I mean, who busks with an accordion for god's sake?) was silenced by the stateliness of the funeral procession.
Later in the day Devon and I went swimming while Walt went off to his studio for the afternoon. Since Devon had been so enamored of her swimsuit thoughout the week, I thought it was time to put it into action. She had a marvelous time, and we stayed in the pool for over an hour. I was totally waterlogged and all pruny after 45 minutes, but when I tried to take her out, she screamed so much that I let her stay in longer.
The JCC, where we swim, has a small kids' (and geezers, as Walt would say) pool that's next to a larger lap pool. We splashed around and played with the toys for a long time. While she was on the steps, I was floating on my stomach and kicking to keep afloat. Devon saw me doing this and started copying me (sitting down, however), and she eventually got to a decent baby kick. I would tell her, "Kick, kick," and after a while, she got it and started saying, "Ki, ki" after me.
She was also quite interested in the lap pool and kept wanting to go in. The lap pool is about 10 degrees colder than the kiddie pool, and it's also full of swimmers who want to swim (and not dodge toddlers); I let her splash her legs in it for a while, but I wouldn't let he go in it. She kept pointing at the swimmers and saying something that I couldn't understand. My closest guess is that she wanted goggles. My mom mentioned that when they went swimming, she gave Devon goggles. I've never given her goggles, but all of the swimmers in the lap pool were wearing goggles; I guess I'll have to pick up a pair for her, since mine are all prescription.
[ed. note: Walt opened the bathroom sink we had bought at Home Depot yesterday with much effort and found that it was cracked! He made an early morning trip back down south but to a different HD store, since we knew the one in Daly City -- home of Pam the "counterfeit coupon" manager and the original purchase -- had no more in stock. When he got back he told me that he had to have another huge argument with that store about the return. Apparently in HD, at least according to this sales clerk, one must return an item, even if it's damaged and you really want to exchange it for an undamaged model, and then re-purchase the same model. However, since we had purchased it with a discount at another store, they didn't want to honor the discount. Ugh! Walt had to wear him down until he finally relented and exchanged the sink for a pristine one. I am beginning to fear that we've made a Faustian bargain by buying these coupons, since every hour that I spend at Home Depot just deepens my loathing of the place.
Walt's convinced, however, that the store is trying to shut down the use of these coupons, so perhaps this is the end. We're going to go by the HD in the east bay tomorrow, since we're already going there to have brunch with my mom and Jon. We're going to try to make some big yard purchases like pavers for the patio and see if we can still eke out use of another coupon. At least at that point we'll have most of our big purchases made, so any savings won't be as impactful.]
A few months after we purchased the building, we saw a funeral that came right down 8th Avenue in front of the apartment. This one, however, stayed on Clement, and we didn't have a chance to run down the block and catch it in its full glory. I was sorry, since I was sure that Devon would have loved the band. The band is usually heavy on the brass and drums, and what kid doesn't like brass and drums? Even our local accordion busker (whom Walt loves but I think is terrible -- I mean, who busks with an accordion for god's sake?) was silenced by the stateliness of the funeral procession.
Later in the day Devon and I went swimming while Walt went off to his studio for the afternoon. Since Devon had been so enamored of her swimsuit thoughout the week, I thought it was time to put it into action. She had a marvelous time, and we stayed in the pool for over an hour. I was totally waterlogged and all pruny after 45 minutes, but when I tried to take her out, she screamed so much that I let her stay in longer.
The JCC, where we swim, has a small kids' (and geezers, as Walt would say) pool that's next to a larger lap pool. We splashed around and played with the toys for a long time. While she was on the steps, I was floating on my stomach and kicking to keep afloat. Devon saw me doing this and started copying me (sitting down, however), and she eventually got to a decent baby kick. I would tell her, "Kick, kick," and after a while, she got it and started saying, "Ki, ki" after me.
She was also quite interested in the lap pool and kept wanting to go in. The lap pool is about 10 degrees colder than the kiddie pool, and it's also full of swimmers who want to swim (and not dodge toddlers); I let her splash her legs in it for a while, but I wouldn't let he go in it. She kept pointing at the swimmers and saying something that I couldn't understand. My closest guess is that she wanted goggles. My mom mentioned that when they went swimming, she gave Devon goggles. I've never given her goggles, but all of the swimmers in the lap pool were wearing goggles; I guess I'll have to pick up a pair for her, since mine are all prescription.
[ed. note: Walt opened the bathroom sink we had bought at Home Depot yesterday with much effort and found that it was cracked! He made an early morning trip back down south but to a different HD store, since we knew the one in Daly City -- home of Pam the "counterfeit coupon" manager and the original purchase -- had no more in stock. When he got back he told me that he had to have another huge argument with that store about the return. Apparently in HD, at least according to this sales clerk, one must return an item, even if it's damaged and you really want to exchange it for an undamaged model, and then re-purchase the same model. However, since we had purchased it with a discount at another store, they didn't want to honor the discount. Ugh! Walt had to wear him down until he finally relented and exchanged the sink for a pristine one. I am beginning to fear that we've made a Faustian bargain by buying these coupons, since every hour that I spend at Home Depot just deepens my loathing of the place.
Walt's convinced, however, that the store is trying to shut down the use of these coupons, so perhaps this is the end. We're going to go by the HD in the east bay tomorrow, since we're already going there to have brunch with my mom and Jon. We're going to try to make some big yard purchases like pavers for the patio and see if we can still eke out use of another coupon. At least at that point we'll have most of our big purchases made, so any savings won't be as impactful.]
posted by Devon Szalva at
10:03 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home