zyzyly: (2956)
[personal profile] zyzyly
Well, it was a lovely first day of spring, if you mark the beginning of spring by the vernal equinox. I read something on Facebook today that gave an explanation for a variety of alternate "first day of spring" scenarios, but I'm sticking with this one.

When I was young and broke, I had a shithole apartment in an old building in Oakland. $200 a month. The main disadvantage was that the building had a lot of cockroaches. They and I developed an uneasy cohabitation where they stayed hidden when the lights were on, and I didn't get out of bed when he lights were out. Occasionally we surprised each other.

There were some positives to the apartment. It was just above Lake Merritt, so it had a spectacular view. I was in a corner apartment on the top floor, andhad views to the north and the west. I opened the windows in the afternoon and got a nice breeze coming in from the west. I also had a fairly unrestricted view of the sunset, at almost all times of the year.

In the couple of years that I lived there, I watched the sun travel north, and then turn back and travel to its southernmost point, and then back again. This was when I first learned about the vernal and autumnal equinox, and the summer and winter solstices. I had a board on one of the window ledges, and would make a mark at the place where the sun set each day. It was pretty cool.

The other thing the apartment had going for it was a flat roof that was accessible by some stairs. I would lie up there at night sometimes and look at the stars. One night I was up there lying on the roof, watching a lunar eclipse, listening to Pink Floyd on my Walkman, which was the 80s version of an iPod.

the old apartment

A black and white photo that I took in that apartment. It is a sort of still-life with an empty wine bottle and a pack of Camel cigarettes, with a fruit poster and a ticket to a Pink Floyd concert on the wall. The great thing about this photograph is that I remember taking it, 33 years ago. I still have the Pink Floyd ticket. It was to a concert I attended in Cologne, Germany just after the Animals album was released in 1977. Last night I fell asleep in my chair listening to a live recording from the same tour when they played in Boston. Malida woke me up and reminded me to come to bed.

Anyway, we went out for a walk today, and it was a lovely first day of spring. Everything is so green.

laguna creek on the first day of spring

Date: 2016-03-21 02:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mac-arthur-park.livejournal.com
Those pictures are gorgeous.

Date: 2016-03-21 07:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pinkroo.livejournal.com
I really like the b&w one!

Date: 2016-03-22 09:06 am (UTC)
rejectomorph: (franz_marc_foxes)
From: [personal profile] rejectomorph
You really got that much sunshine on the 20th? Sacramento is only 90 miles from here, and all we got was gray sky and rain, though I suppose there might have been some sun in the morning, which I slept through.

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