Warren's Place

Master Bryant Fong, Coach of the SF Wushu Team, demonstrates the large broadsword. Note the concentration on his face. He mentioned that in the old days, the "real" broadsword can weigh as much as 10 lbs.!

--Warren

I saw a Wushu (Chinese Martial Arts) demonstration by the San Francisco Wushu Team a couple of weekends ago at the Annual Cherry Blossom festival in Japantown. In this shot, a group of women are performing a fan form based on a Chen Style Tai Chi form.

--Warren

Gail and I were close to her once upon a time. Then events happened that forced her to forsake us as friends. She started a new life, on her own, with a new set of friends. We don’t blame anyone for what happened, it just happened, and we accepted the new reality. We had many happy moments as friends, and towards the end of our friendship, we saw her through some difficult times. But we were left hanging because our disassociation was total and final. We didn’t realize that her most difficult moments were still to come.

Through other friends, we found out that she contracted non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma which is a cancer of the lymphatic and immune systems. She was a gamer, apparently fighting the disease and carrying on as normal a life as possible, given the circumstances.

Looking back on the last picture that I ever took of her, I realized that it was almost 5 years ago since we last saw and talked to her. At the time, we didn’t think that it would be the last time that we would ever see her again. I suppose that it’s always like this. Even though she chose not to see us anymore after that last visit, I always thought that we would somehow hook up again someday.

But it was not to be. Being an only child, my friends are very dear to me. My friends are my family. Because of this, I think our broken friendship affected me more than the others even though she had no idea. I wanted to be there for her, to comfort her, to talk to her, to do whatever was needed. She passed away peacefully on Tuesday, April 12th, just a handful of days away from her 48th birthday. It was her wish that her memorial service was by invitation only, and only her current friends and immediate family were invited to attend. I respected that wish, but we did not even have a chance to say our final goodbyes. I am left with a huge void in my psyche. So I am writing this in hopes that by doing so, I can resolve all those loose ends of our relationship that are still whipping around in my mind.

I think she inadvertently spared us the pain of seeing her succumb to her illness. She left us with only memories of the good times that we had together and the lasting image of a truly unique and memorable personality.


L.A.F.
4/18/1957 - 4/12/2005

I was driving to work this morning, and I got tired of listening to the radio, so I turned on my CD changer. The song that came on was: I Miss You. Hmm, it's kind of appropriate.

------------------------------------------------------------

I Miss You, by Stevie Nicks, 5/1/2001

When I think about you
I think about how much I
Miss you when you're not around
When I think about you
I think about how much I
Can't wait to hear the sound
Of your laughter
Time and distance never matter

Well I miss you now
I have so many questions
About love and about pain
About strained relationships
About fame as only he could explain it to me

Seems like yesterday
I think about how much I
Wish that you were here with me now
The invisible girl that was my name
She walks in and walks out
And I'm sorry now
I'm sorry now

Well I miss you now
I have so many questions
About love and about pain
About strained relationships
About fame as only he could explain it to me

Paris to Rome, London to Paris
Always goodbye, I nearly couldn't bear it
Her heart settles down
She's back on that staircase
On the way up to her place

Well I miss you now
I have so many questions
About love and about pain
About strained relationships
About fame as only he could explain it to me

I miss you now
I miss you now
I miss you now

----------------------------------------------------

A final word to you, dear reader, if you are involved in any broken friendships, don't be stubborn, go mend them before it's too late.

--Warren

She's going on 14, but still our baby.



--Warren

I was walking around in SF Chinatown one day on a photo shoot. I found a couple of interesting old signs on one of the buildings. I thought this one was a bit contradictory:



I think this one looks cooler now than it did when it was new:



But here's the real point of this article. Chinatown's historic Grant Avenue has always had its share of tourist trap, souvenir shops with their oriental knick-knacks and such. These shops coexisted with stores serving the residents such as produce markets and grocery stores. As rents increased, these community stores were forced off of Grant Ave. Most of them relocated one block west to Stockton street. That's where the "real" Chinatown is now. Someday, I'll post more pictures, but for now, here's my last one.

Lost in the gaudy signage of the modern tourist trap (a camera store), you'll need to look hard to find a sign of the old Chinatown (Suey Sing Chamber of Labor & Commerce).

This is a cute guy that we met at a local park yesterday. His name is Oliver.

--Warren

We were hiking on the Bird Island Trail at Pt. Lobos State Park. The park is just 5 minutes south of Carmel, California. We paused for a moment on the cliff above China Cove. This is a beautiful, sheltered cove where the water is turqoise and clean. There is a small, white sand beach at the end of the cove. The access stairs were closed to the public by yellow tape. As we surveyed the scenery, we noticed a pair of harbor seals in the water. Then we noticed that it was actually a mother seal and her pup. We watched the mother coax her pup onto the beach. We saw two other pairs of mothers and pups come onto the beach. So after the swimming lessons, it was feeding time. The pups seemed to instinctively search out their mothers' milk. It was such a marvelous experience to be able to witness this behavior in the wild. We were standing on the high cliffs overlooking the cove, so the seals were not disturbed by our presence at all.

China Cove inlet with Bird Island in the background:



An artist is sketching the cove:



Mother nursing her pup:



Here they are snuggling up to each other after the meal. The mother was affectionately patting the pup with her flipper. It was too cute. Notice the pair of seals in the background. Judging from their swollen look, we think that they are pregnant females. The pups that we saw were very young.



A hint to future visitors of Pt. Lobos: Gail and I went there in the morning. There were people there already, but not very many. It was nice and uncrowded. By the time we left at around 12:30, we saw a line of cars at the entry gate that snaked out to Highway 1. I think it would be more enjoyable in the morning.

Thanks for stopping by my site. If you like what you see, please let me know by writing a comment.

--Warren

We were hiking along the Bird Island Trail in Pt. Lobos State Park near Carmel when I found a bunch of Golden Poppies, our state flower, in bloom on both sides of the trail.

--Warren

On this trip (4/9/2005) to the Carmel area, we drove about 30 minutes south from Carmel to Big Sur. I shot this when we pulled over on the side of Highway One to check out the scenery.

-Warren

This weekend, Gail and I are going down to Carmel, about 2 hours south of San Francisco. Carmel is our favorite weekend getaway destination. This was taken last December on one of our weekend road trips, at Carmel Mission. I thought that the colors on this inside courtyard wall were oddly pleasing and comforting.

Thanks for stopping by. If you like what you see, please leave a comment.

--Warren

Pope John Paul II was laid to rest today. A co-worker's father is also being buried today. Another co-worker's father passed away recently, and she is currently in Hong Kong for the funeral. Prince Rainier of Monaco recently passed away.

This picture was taken in a church in SF in Jan. 2004. I thought it would be appropriate today.

--Warren

Gail and I carefully made our way down the Navajo Loop Trail at Bryce Canyon. We're going into a slot canyon called Wall Street. It was late fall, and we were lucky to see snow there. The recent snowfall made the trail muddy and gooey. The orange mud mixed with the melting snow. I wanted to capture this scene where you see a slender sliver of snow on the side of the narrow trail contrasted against the orange canyon walls.

A little bit further, still carefully picking through the mud:



Almost there:



And here's what we saw at the bottom... Gail standing in "Wall Street"



A pair of Douglas Firs managed to thrive in the narrow canyon. Here's one of them:



Thanks for viewing.

--Warren

I'm not sure whether this cave/tunnel was man-made or natural (it's probably man-made). It's at the old Sutro Bath ruins near Ocean Beach. At the opening, you walk out onto rocks right next to the crashing surf.

I am encouraged when I read viewer reactions. I love to hear how others interpret my pictures. If you like what you see, please leave a comments. Thanks for viewing my photographs.

--Warren

We're on the West Rim Trail at Zion National Park. The view is of Zion Canyon below. Gail and I need a vacation badly, but present circumstances prevent us from going away too far. Fortunately, I have my pictures from our previous trips that I can look back on to revive those pleasant memories. Our Utah trip was from Nov. 2003. It seems like a long time ago, but seeing the pictures really brings the experience right back to me as if it was just yesterday.

--Warren

As you've probably noticed, this blog has a fresh new look to it. A very special THANKS to Prairie Girl for writing my new template. She discovered this blog after I was graciously mentioned by my East Coast photo friend, Steve, on his blog and she liked my pictures but she had a hard time viewing them because of the way my blog was formatted. So, she decided to surprise me by helping me revamp the site. I couldn't be happier with the results. She also showed me a few things about HTML of which I was previously completely clueless about.

This is the real beauty of the Internet, where two strangers can cross paths, one in Germany and the other in the U.S., to become friends. Thanks again, Prairie-Girl!

--Warren

p.s. So, do you like the new look?