It was a reasonably warm day to get the call that my camera was ready in Oakland. I won't know for sure until I drain this battery and try re-charging it. I tried charging my old battery which I thought was dead back in February, and it only charged to 18 minutes. Which might be good - if it charged that much and that battery really is kaput, then my camera is working.

So a reasonably warm day in San Francisco usually means an even more reasonably warm day in Oakland, so I took my road bike to pick up the camera and then rode up into the Oakland hills to enjoy the heat. I went up Shepherd Canyon Road which I'd never been on and it turned out to be pretty steep, and I would've been happy to plug up it slowly without going down to my gramp gear, but then this dude on the side of the road started egging me on, so I felt compelled to make it look like I was putting a little more effort into it. So I dropped down to the gramp gear which gave me enough spin to push it until I rounded a bend and was out of sight, and then I relaxed a bit, continuing on the gramp gear since I had worn myself out too much to go back to my middle ring. Sports, it's all about how you look.

I rode Skyline Boulevard up to Berkeley and came down the hills on Claremont, which is my favorite descent because there isn't a lot of traffic or tight turns, and is steep enough to get some harrowing speed (44 mph today).

It's interesting how things have changed in 10 years time. When I first got out here, Berkeley Amoeba was the record store to go to. But now I go there and it seems so paltry and quaint compared to San Francisco Amoeba, which didn't exist 10 years ago. It was a closed-down bowling alley or something back then. Anyway, I picked up Shannon Wright's most recent release Over the Sun, and it's totally incredible. I still like "Maps of Tacit" better, but this one is different from that, and definitely better than "Dyed in the Wool". But what a voice. What a wail.

I got another flat on the way to West Oakland BART station. Same tube as Sunday, but a different puncture. I patched it, but maybe this tube has had it and I should put a fresh one on. Since I got the flat two blocks from MacArthur BART, I just jumped on a train there back to the city.

Nothing of note watched, except for a documentary on glaciers and permafrost warming in Alaska - bad news for the rest of the world, but what do we care as long as we can get our lattes in the morning. I definitely want to see Control Room, and I put in for a free pass for Frankie and Johnny Are Married, but it didn't come today, so I don't know if I got them.

Oakland from Skyline Boulevard - Lake Merrit on the left and downtown just to the right of it.


And to the right of that pic, San Francisco Bay, with GG Bridge, Alcatraz, Treasure and Yerba Buena Islands visible.