I’m back from Amsterdam (see Amsterdam for Free) and am clear that there’s nothing like being away from town for a month to make me a thoroughgoing San Francisco chauvinist. Friday afternoon I went down to China Basin to get a CT scan, and it was quite an enjoyable excursion not only because of the weather – blue sky, warm sun, crisp summer breeze – but also because of all these taunt new buildings I’d never seen before. There’s some fine architecture in this city, a lot of it new and South of Market.
There is also great joy. As in handsome young med techs being genuinely kind to sick old men. In the holding pen, the old farts, dazed by such unaccustomed kindness from young folks, were inspired by nervous bravado into a frenzy of camaraderie and fine gallows humor…talking about making our friends and relatives nervous by asking ’em questions like, “you’re not using both of those kidneys, are you?”