Thursday, March 29, 2007

Fog Horns for a Haunted Princess


Who turns on the fog horns in the San Francisco Bay, asked Princess Haiku; it certainly isn't me. Some dearly departed friends of mine suggest that they do, although I doubt this after watching a cbs5.com newscast in which key words such as fog density and computers were mentioned.


6 comments:

Unknown said...

A similar question in NY might be who turns on the lights at the top of the Empire State Building. I used to live in a place that had a perfect view of the whole landmark.

Some evenings I'd wait for the lights to go on. The time varied with the season of course, but it was never exact to the second. Many's the time I'd miss it by looking away for less than a moment.

The whole 'main mast', the pointy part, goes on at once just like your lamp at home. None of that slow flickering build up you'd think. Zip! It's on.

It seemed, like so much here, to be up to the whim of the guy on duty as to when he'd get around to flicking the switch.

Here's a New York moment. I'd be out on the balcony of an old skyscraper, 25th floor, at night taking a wok pan bath in summer. That is pouring a wok pan of hot water over me to bathe as all of NYC blinked, and honked around me.

Then the Empire State building would ignite! I was very young, and took these wonders for granted,..imagine.

Just before I'd go to sleep I'd set off bottle rockets over 35th Street to let the City know I was turning in for the day. If I remembered I'd also shoot one off to let them know I was awake again.

Now where I was, and what "we" were doing there is a screen play. Which is to say ,..another story.

Peace.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Diane Dehler said...

Sydney, you are a natural story teller. I can just see those rockets flying off the balcony.

Becca said...

I've been to San Francisco once when I was a little girl of 8. Saw the bridge, but no fog that day.

Thankyou much for your comment on my blog. I appreciated it.

Bobby D. said...

I love foghorns. The only positive thing about the clearing of a dense forest/ building of houses way up a hill ( maybe 2 miles away from my house) is that now I can hear the trains going through, and it is a lovely sound. For years I never could hear them, because of the pine forest. Some summer nights I would strain to hear what I thought was a muffled train in the distance, but could never be sure. now I hear it all, the train's horn blowing, the whooshing sounds, even the quiet clacking echoes of wheels on track. The sounds float over the hill and and are amplified between the river and my house. You would swear the train sound were coming from the river. odd.

Diane Dehler said...

If a train appears out of the river, I would advise against getting on it. :) No telling where it might go or what kind of ticket gets you a ride.