Brooklyn Bridge: 1907 & 1988

On my Google homepage I have a link to Shorpy.com. They have constantly changing vintage pictures in high definition. I can spend hours studying these wonderful images. Wednesday the 29^th there was an image of the Brooklyn Bridge from 1907. That vantage point looked so familiar. Sure enough; doing a fast check of my pictures I uncovered a photo from October 1988 of Joe, Don, and Richard from our October excursion to the city. I was lost in the past before starting this entry rereading my journal archive of that trip. Looking back, it was one of those special, magic times where everything clicked. It was an excursion that could not have been planned out to be any more perfect. Memories of that time remind me how I’ve always tried to live life to the fullest and to try and keep on doing so.

Images: 1907 and 1988. Joe and I were under strict orders from Don to not act like tourists, and to try and just blend in. HA!!! That only made us act up worse!! I remember yelling, “Turn around and let me take your picture!” for this shot. Joe-left, Don-middle, Richard-right

The cold is slowly leaving us. Temperatures are warming up a bit, but rain is now also a factor. Hopefully I will get the first coat of paint onto the body of the San Francisco fire hydrant today. Yesterday I picked up some yellow artist oil to tint my white oil based paint. The hydrant base colour should be an off white almost bordering on a creamy yellow. The top will a light green.

The paint removal and priming was finished up last month. The old paint was so built up the raised lettering was undecipherable. My next trip out to San Francisco will have to entail research into the Risdon Iron Works. Some quick online work uncovered that Risdon was absorbed by another firm in 1910. There is no mention they actually manufactured hydrants or not. This hydrant could have been for just the Risdon works site. I’m hoping I can date it to being pre 1906 so I can say it was present for the earthquake and fire!

Speaking of San Francisco, I got an E-mail from Southwest with “want-to-get away” deals. You punch in how much you want to spend and where you want to go and “BINGO” the perfect destination is chosen. I chose $700.00 and one of my destinations was San Francisco listing the flights I usually use and the Travel Lodge on Market St I normally stay at. I’m so tempted to get-away!!!!

The internets came to my rescue again: a job I need to do is to flush out my tankless water heater. Vinegar is pumped thorough the heating coils to clean out the sediment and build up. I needed to get a submersible utility pump to be able to accomplish this chore. The initial pump cost is about half what a plumber would charge to do a flushing. Checking out the stock at Blowe’s, Homo Depot, and Sears on line I ended up finding the best deal through Amazon which included free shipping. It should be delivered next week. I have gotten so lazy; I hate the thought of shopping around store to store anymore.

Another needed article is some green velvet to recover the turntable of the latest “Cow”. (The Columbia Viva Tonal phonograph model 810) Columbia could not use felt as a turntable covering like every other manufacturer. No, they had to use velvet. Trying to match up the original green at local fabric and craft stores has been impossible. Some online sources have been located. It is just so hard to accurately match up the colour. The last time I hunted down a burgundy jacquard silk for a phonograph grill cloth, the delivered shade was light purple! I got the idea the other day to stain it with burgundy wine when I spraying extra strength cleaner onto the wine stains on my old sweatshirt. That might darken it up closer to the right shade. A box of Burgandy wine is on my shopping list for today! Even if it does not tone things out, I’ll still be able to drink it!!