Then and Now San Jose

On the Buena Vista Neighborhood Association website, see a collection of photos of downtown San Jose in 1975 and 2006. Above is the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Pedro Square. If you have an interest in California historical materials (images, documents etc. from museums, libraries etc), then check out the Online Archive of California.

PeaFowl at Picchetti

Picchetti Winery in the Cupertino foothills offers hiking in its preserve in addition to wine tasting and picnics on the ranch. That's where I found myself Saturday, walking its beautiful land. Peafowls roam the area. By the way, it is wrong to refer to them as peacocks. Excuse me for making this error my entire life. The males are peacocks. The females are peahens. According to a wiki entry, "The term peafowl can refer to the two species of bird in the genus Pavo of the pheasant family, Phasianidae." And they can fly albeit rather poorly. Up close, they are absolutely exquisite though their feet are scary, especially the nails. Their claws are as big as my hands. Time for a Peafowl pedicure, eh.

Excuses for not Biking

Here's one reason why I haven't been biking outdoors. This is a photo of Mt. Hamilton and Lick Observatory in the SJ Merc front page.