Lions have no interest at all the the Avatar franchise, but Kate Winslet might be enough to get them down to the theater.  As one who said she would never work with Cameraman again, the Winslet Cameraman reuniting could be enough to make it watchable.

Sadly, Winslet is not a lesbian or a spinster as portrayed in her movies.  She married a top executive in Richard Branson's companies.  He has a british accent.

Dreamed about dreaming of buying a condo right on the embarcadero.  It was in the old Broadway & Embarcadero complex (Golden Gateway Commons/Embarcadero square), built in 1980.  Apparently, being squareish turned off investors just as much as it once turned off lions, so it was renamed from Embarcadero square to Golden Gateway Commons.

Went inside & after climbing a few stairs came to a wide open floor for sale.  It was at least 5000 sq ft.  It had been reduced all the way down to $1 mil, but even at such a low price, lions couldn't afford it.  Dreamed Pete Giddings lived along the embarcadero durings his years in showbiz & he walked to work

In real life, the best rooms in the complex are $3.5 million.  The property tax is still more than a lion's rent.  The worst rooms in the complex are $1.5 mil.  In lion minds, it had gone from being squarish, overpriced, crime ridden, & old to the center of it all, a neighborhood accessible without driving, a prime location, & an insurance policy against inflation.  

There are other condos right on the embarcadero or within 1 block of it.  $1.3 mil & old is where a room with no view begins.  $5 mil is where a view of the water begins.

The city is still overpriced & crime ridden.  As walkable as it is, the only uninterrupted running path is the embarcadero.  It's once again losing its status as a job center after peaking in 2014.  The lowliest food is super expensive.  Generation millennial has manely moved out & it's gone from cherished in 2014 to undesirable yet again.  

Seem to recall commuting increasing & peaking in 2016.  It was increasing to the point that if you ran up to civic center & got in line 15 minutes before the next train, chances were slim that you'd get a seat.  If people were commuting today at the same level they did in 2016, the criminials would be having a feast.  2016 might have been the start of the decline in commuting.  BARF agrees the peak was in that time.  It interestingly peaked every October & toughed every December.

Lions remember Embarcadero square being packed before 2013.  There were offices of marketing firms with "urgent" postits on white boards & employees.   When lions commuted there in 2019, most businesses in that area already transitioned to remote work.  There were many factors ending commuting.  

The 1st floor offices in Embarcadero square & all the neighboring offices were always empty.  The neighboring stores never had any customers & were always closed.  The neighborhood was very desolate except for the safeway.

Condos in the city are now about breaking even with 2015.  Maybe they'll win in the next 20 years.  As for making money from a condo, fuggedaboutit in what's left of a lion's career & there's no way to service a $3 mil mortgage without working.  

It's generally reported that most of the money made by average animals is made in real estate while most of the money made by the rich is made in the stonk market.  Most of the money that lions preserved over the last 20 years was in stonks while the cash positions became worthless.  Does that make lions rich or just too poor to afford real estate?  

Lions have always chased the lowest price above all else for housing.  There has never been a quest for a view, a size, or a location.  Despite dreams of grandeur, the retirement home will probably end up just being the cheapest possible room.  Lions dreamed of big purchases, but always fell over when facing the price tag head on.  The biggest single purchases were the $15,000 car in 2000 & the $2000 EOS 5D in 2008.  That was what remaned after dreams of a bigger $8000 camera.  Dreams of a real piano, a Tesla, or a barndominium will probably never happen.

 

What's not to like about re-enacting a day in the life of a 10 year old?  Wake up after the sound of the garage door closing. Program the C64 until 3pm. Heat lunch prepared by someone else in the microwave. Watch cartoons until 5. Listen to the top 100 of 1985, from a synthetic radio station, played on a vintage radio of the time. Wait for someone to come home & prepare dinner. No worries about cooking, cleaning, paying the bills, the inflation rate or how you would be paying for the next labor union bailout.

Once again, it wasn't as positive as you might think.  Thinking it through in detail, waiting for the garage door was a reminder.  The weekends were the unpleasant time.  A re-enactment really would just involve the good memories.

Young lion should have tried the piano.  The belief that you could only play it by doing 1 John Thompson lesson at a time & not proceeding until mastering it was not inviting.  If it was introduced by experimentation the way the computer was, it would have been less depressing.  It was more inviting to try things out & see what happened than follow a strict lesson plan.  What sold it was trying to play the same songs that were on the radio.

Lions can get some of it back, running down the highways & byways of those days.  There can be no going back to the mornings & nights, the feeling of turning in for the night in a bed which didn't have to be paid for, slipping on the ice in the morning, the sunset over the unobstructed western horizon.  Lions never had an unobstructed view of the western horizon after that.  The way the sun entered the room was unique to that time.  It doesn't get cold enough for ice to form anymore.