{"id":329,"date":"2013-10-17T19:28:27","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T23:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/45.79.82.122\/blogs\/natterings\/?p=329"},"modified":"2013-10-17T19:31:18","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T23:31:18","slug":"sunset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/natterings.com\/?p=329","title":{"rendered":"Sunset"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can see the Pacific Ocean from where I’m sitting. \u00a0I can’t see much<\/em> of it, just a glittering sliver along the top of an apartment building on the street between me and the sea. \u00a0I can’t see the waves from here, or the surfers, or the beach. \u00a0All of it’s there, though, and I smell salt every time I breathe.<\/p>\n

The neighborhood is called Sunset (with its Inner and Outer varieties; we’re Outer). \u00a0Nearly fifty well-gridded, numbered avenues march in a straight line toward the sea. \u00a0Most are filled with houses like pastel cubes, one apartment upstairs, a garage and mother-in-law apartment below. \u00a0Or, like our place, they’re two apartments up, and a combination of garages and baby apartment below. \u00a0However it works out, there’s never enough room for all the cars.<\/p>\n

Nothing in Sunset seems taller than four stories. \u00a0I don’t know why. \u00a0I wondered: earthquakes? \u00a0Geological instability? \u00a0Bryant says, who’d let their block be ripped down to put up the first high-rise? \u00a0I wrinkled my nose, and he said, exactly.<\/p>\n

Between our street and the one closest to the beach is a warren of long, fenced backyards that no one uses. \u00a0The dog owned by the renters two floors below us runs around in a constant circle over a grey stone path in the shape of the infinity symbol. \u00a0Once in a while I’ll hear people shouting – five minutes ago, a guy bellowed, “Motherfucking blood type!” from the yard a few doors down – but I never see anyone just hanging out on their little patch of dirt.<\/p>\n

What amazes me most in the middle of the day is how deserted the whole thing is. \u00a0Sunset is the largest neighborhood in the city. \u00a0The avenues are wide. \u00a0I could walk down to the corner right now and stand in the intersection and see no one, all the way up to 40th or so. \u00a0Buses pass now and again. \u00a0Surfers. \u00a0I can hear ship’s horns and the Muni’s bell where it turns at the end of Judah. \u00a0I can always hear the waves.<\/p>\n

The apartment building right behind ours is a pastel yellow block with scaffolding covering its whole rear facade. \u00a0I can see straight through the apartment opposite our bedroom. \u00a0The woman who lives there has fluttery white curtains and a centerpiece in the middle of her dining room table. \u00a0When she eats I can see the back of her head. \u00a0It’s always perfectly centered in the window-frame.<\/p>\n

I can tell when the afternoon heads into evening because all the cars come home. \u00a0There’s something so public about living with all the windows open. \u00a0The iron gate across our front door slams every time someone comes home. \u00a0The dog two floors down is panting. \u00a0The ‘motherfucking blood type’ guy just told a bro he’d be by later.<\/p>\n

Birds walk and hop on our sunlights. \u00a0The cats sit below and watch in unison. \u00a0They love it here. \u00a0Sunspots, birds, open windows. \u00a0It hasn’t rained yet, but the ocean keeps everything damp. \u00a0Laundry takes forever to dry. \u00a0Bread molds quickly. \u00a0When the fog comes, I can move from one end of our very long apartment to see all the grey roll over. \u00a0The rest of the time, it’s a California dream. \u00a0The sunsets are particularly fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can see the Pacific Ocean from where I’m sitting. \u00a0I can’t see much of it, just a glittering sliver along the top of an apartment building on the street between me and the sea. \u00a0I can’t see the waves from here, or the surfers, or the beach. \u00a0All of it’s there, though, and I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/natterings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/natterings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/natterings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natterings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natterings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/natterings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"https:\/\/natterings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/natterings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natterings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/natterings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}