Real Not Real

I finally got around to making the agua fresca that caught my eye last week. Yummy. I used what I had on hand, which included fresh limes and excluded mint. I also didn’t need to sweeten my watermelon as it was good and ripe, and rather than tap water I used sparkling mineral water. The hint of minerals brings out the fruit taste, and the carbonation isn’t overpowering. Summer in a glass. Yum.

My version:

1/2 icebox watermelon
3/4 liter sparkling mineral water
1 lime, halved and squeezed (plus additional halves for garnish)

Scoop watermelon from the rind with a spoon and blend the fruit to a pulp (I used a food processor); pour into pitcher. Add sparkling water. Roll whole lime on work surface to soften it, then halve and squeeze into pitcher. Refrigerate for 1 hour, then serve in glass with another lime half.

Yields 6 eight-ounce servings

A couple months ago, I read this post on Craisglist.

Here’s an excerpt:

–

THOUGHTS FROM A HOMELESS GUY NOW THAT I’M BACK ON MY FEET

I was homeless for about 4 years until the manager of a car dealership took a chance on me and now I am the manager of our detailing department.

Okay, so what are the things that I really appreciate?

- Weather: I don’t pay much attention to weather anymore. On the streets, weather is your life. A homeless guy rummaging for newspapers only wants one section, the weather report. If you can read, and you know the weather, you will have every dude you know asking what is coming.

–

After reading that, I began to think about how simple it is to tell someone the weather. I love weather. I read the weather in four cities every day: San Francisco, CA, Palo Alto, CA, Richmond, VA, and New York, NY. I used to check more cities, but I’m whittling down. And if someone on the street asked me what weather was coming up, I could probably tell them. The weather is available to me at the push of a button: on my BlackBerry, on my Mac’s dashboard, on the internet at any hour, delivered to me on NPR every morning. The weather is around me just like stock reports or the time of day: basic information that I take for granted.

So I thought it would be nice to make some modular weather fliers to post around SF. A little project to make something in black and white that could be cheaply and easily produced week-to-week, but that would give all the information necessary to know the weather.

The flier is a grid of two weeks, in 7-day rows. Each day has four weather options—sunny, cloudy, rainy and windy—that can be highlighted or circled. Highlighting looks the cleanest, but it also fades in the sun. Depending on the location (and sun exposure), I’ve been using different markings. There’s also room to write-in the date range at the top, the days’ dates on the grid, and each day’s high and low temperature. I designed this specifically for San Francisco, which is why there is no sleet or snow or hail. We just don’t get that kind of weather here.

So I’ve been posting…

Some of the fliers remain for awhile after I post them, others disappear. A homeless man who sometimes sleeps on my block refers to them, and my first post sparked questions from a couple of tourists curious about SF weather. It’s been a nice little exercise.

If you’d like to post weather reports in your own neighborhood, you can download the flier here. For now, it’s SF-ish weather types only.

My latest post is up on visadiaries.com …

A few months ago, a friend told me that if he heard the phrase “In this economy” one more time, he might explode. Little did we know, then, how many more times we’d get to hear it, and, frankly, how much more we’d care about hearing it. How we’d probably come to hang on the words of stories that began that way, and how we’d pray to move beyond it.

This is a story that begins “In this economy.” It’s a story about the joy that consumables can bring us, and the ability to find that joy for under $20. It’s a story about a showerhead that has changed my life, or at the very least, my mornings … (more after the jump)

It was a lovely, lovely Valentine’s. Friends and champagne-and-fixins and a big gold heart on my big bay window.

from my roof in San Francisco

I am feeling full of energy and inspiration and I need some time to roll around in nonsensical metaphors and meaningless projects. I don’t have an in-depth thought for today but there are a few things that are on my mind: bartering, phases of the moon, and valentine’s.