D.O.P.-T. (Saturday)

The forecast reduction in heat didn't appear. Traffic on El Camino when I need to get to work is abominable (there are probably road projects by the VTA and others making it worse). I keep not having time to get coffee before work, which makes me cranky.

D.O.P.-T. (day before yesterday)

The former chicken house has gone up for sale: listing here. I note that it's an early 20s house with the layout, exterior look, and upper floor all dating to 1998. It has two full baths and a semi-finished basement. This year the kitchen was lavishly redone, apparently by the departing family after they left, to raise the value. It's priced under a million, whereas the jerry-built one a couple of blocks away (with the same number of bedrooms but only one bathroom) is priced at a million 2. Seems like an object lesson in the folly of the marketplace: much nicer house, with solid bones and expensive updating. The downsides appear to be: it's on a busy corner rather than a side street, and the remodeling left the family room with French doors and a large window both facing the busy streets; the lot is small, and because there's a garage that leaves the house with a nice front/side yard, albeit small and very public, a literal yard (excuse me, "patio") in the back, and an unusually wide side yard that is nonetheless just a side yard, and was trampled to dirt when it was a chicken run; and the 90s redesign was very 90s in layout, putting the master bedroom and master bath on the upper floor and leaving the kids' bedrooms on the ground floor. It's one of the few recent local houses not to have gone "pending sale" on the opening weekend.


Update: Sold on Sept. 22 for $1.1 million.

D.O.P.-T. (yesterday)

A lively Sunday night after a slow evening. Including a guy who came in wearing black tights (no shoes) and a pink zippered flocked nylon bathrobe. His girlfriend was conventionally dressed in jeans.

D.O.P.-T.

The error messages on the computer that monitors the booths and sets up previews have been driving us barmy. Sometimes, if we're quick and lucky, we've been able to get in between the red COM DOWN messages and set up a preview ... then an hour or two later the column on the screen will again be solid red and unblinking and we have to try to explain to the customer who came in to preview ... first they were going to send us back the old computer all fixed up, then I guess they took a look at its innards, so "Ginevra" took something apart and reassembled it and for a while we could again do previews and sometimes see who'd put in money and how much ... then it got bad again, lather, rinse, repeat, disappointed customers, lengthy times staring at the screen hoping to seize the moment it decided to work again while customer meanwhile jumped the gun and put in money that had to be refunded ... but it was working last night. "Ginevra" says she soldered stuff together, and indeed there were beads of solder all over the carpet in front of the comp. I don't want to know, really.