Marginalized Populations

I've survived the first week of the Fall semester, even with a sprained knee which immobilized me for a day or two (painful enough to send me to the doctor- which I hardly ever do!). I'm still hobbling around with a knee brace- but this too shall pass.

Being confined did give me a chance to develop a lecture on homelessness in San Francisco. I hadn't intended to take photos of the homeless, and felt weird about doing it, but then again, the sociologist in me decided that this was an opportunity to bring first hand observations of the homeless as I observed it in San Francisco during my recent trip to attend the ASA conference there. Homeless people sleeping on the street or sorting through garbage were everywhere- shockingly so just because it was almost inescapable!

Most important to me was to establish guidelines for taking photos so that I would not be revealing anyone's identifiable features or compromising their humanity by being disrespectful. All photos below were taken discretely, as I didn't even want other people on the street knowing that I was taking photos of homeless people.

 Shown above is a man picking through the garbage at Union Square- it's in the center of downtown SF surrounded by outdoor restaurants... and below is a man in the Haight-Ashbury district using a wheel chair to travel with his belongings. He used his feet to move himself along.

The city of San Francisco spends millions on getting the homeless off the streets and into some alternative lifestyles like halfway houses and rehab programs, but the city also admits that there are 3-4 thousand of what are called "hard-core" homeless who live on the streets.

People walk by as if this is not out of the ordinary. These people sleeping on the street seem to cover themselves with an assortment of dark colored coverings as though to make themselves invisible. And after one gets over the shock of seeing people thus, they do become invisible because you simply get used to seeing people sleeping on the street. 

I could have taken many more photos of people begging, panhandling, and sleeping on the street but I didn't. It just seemed too self-serving to continue taking these photos, so after a few I stopped, and like every other passerby, I tried not to look. It's just too hard. 

Goodbye Summer--- Hello Fall!

I have been so in denial about summer’s ending that I have mostly refused to check my email this weekend—not wanting to acknowledge that classes, and the whole semester, begin this week! It seems that I have been more reluctant than ever to let summer end—it began so beautifully with an emergency management conference in Emmitsburg  (always lovely to see old colleagues and meet new ones),

Elizabeth’s visit, which included beach trips to Cape May,

Rehoboth
and running up to New York City to meet Sophia’s young man, Tait,

and an Amish buggy ride through Lancaster County.
Next came some shopping, and a few college tours for Elizabeth.
In July, Ed and Fawn and I enjoyed a day exploring Herring Point

and having lunch in Lewes. That’s also where I took some great shots with my new Sony camera.

Finally, August brought a trip to SanFrancisco ...

...to attend the ASA annual meeting, which included being picked up at the airport by my son, Michael, and meeting his lovely Annie.

This was the cherry on top of an already lovely summer! ASA also included a pre-conference tour of sustainable wine growing in Sonoma...

...which also included wine tastings... (yes, note the plural!)...

And I also took a combined day trip to Angel Island (exploring the history of Pacific immigration) and to

Alcatraz (to explore the history of this island as a notorious prison from which everyone wanted to escape but very few actually did!).

In between, I finished Chapter 4 of my dissertation and have been working on purging papers stored in the garage. This weekend I’ve purged and cleaned my office, rearranged the furniture and now I am soooo looking forward to writing there in the coming months!

Yes, summer is over… sigh…The Old Farmer’s Almanac  

forecasts a terrible winter much like the brutal one we had last year. I’ve decided to treat myself to some great new boots (already ordered) and a great cashmere sweater to make it all bearable. Haven’t found the sweater yet, but this will give me something to do and look forward to. I’m also mentally preparing for revising Chapter 4 and drafting Chapter 5. It will be great to be done! It’s been a long time coming.

In between I will also be developing several new programs at work, as well as Chairing the Curriculum Committee. It’s also time to put the plans together for a family beach vacation at a pet friendly place for next June. In my spare time (haha!) I will continue to purge—and that feels oh so good!

Hello Fall! I might as well get used to you being here J.

Saturday Morning in San Francisco

My wonderful new Sony H400 camera battery died right at the end of the winery tours yesterday, and when I got back to the hotel I found out I didn't have the right charger to recharge the battery! Sigh... So it was up early this morning and headed for the City Target store who directed me to RadioShack who directed me to the Discount Camera store around the corner--

Success!!! Turns out that this camera's battery charges in the camera but I needed a cable to fit so it could be plugged into an ordinary wall plug. The bonus was a lovely and interesting conversation with the camera man- who explained why Sony cameras were such good cameras and how Sony came to build their camera business. Sony acquired Konica Minolta on the 1990s when electronics companies became so diversified that some of the, including Konica Minolta wanted out of the digital camera business. According to Allan, the salesman who helped me, Sony management visited all Konica Minolta factories, shut down several and reorganized the digital camera business-- all without laying off anyone!

Then I also found out that the camera that's a level above mine, although it has lesser zoom, does have a German Carl Zeiss lens!!! Sigh and doublesigh.... for now, I'll do with mine-- it's not shabby-- 63x zoom and 20+ megapixels-- makes for clear photos when your style of shooting is on the go!

After a few hours of charging during which I took a much-needed nap, I'm now back in business! Yay!