Two of the nicest and most generous people in the world are Patrick and Loretta Murphy.
Their hearts are as big as the country of Ireland where Patrick is from originally.

For the last several weeks, Patrick and the company that he works for, has been digging deep trenches for steam pipe south of Market where the most vigorous building boom since San Francisco rebuilt herself in 1906 is going on. The area where they’re working, and the University of California is creating a new campus, was under water at one time. It’s in the area of the old Mission Bay.

Patrick operates a rig that can scoop earth nearly fifty feet down. He’s so good at what he does that he can, with his heavy bucket,  take a Styrofoam cup out of a man’s hand. When the crew is working in a tight spot as they are at this site, Patrick’s the only man they can call on to do the job.

The trenches Patrick’s been digging are areas of landfill going back to the Gold Rush days. Pat’s been bringing up some interesting debris. Loretta, Dave and I went down to the site one day and within an hour had filled a large canvas bag with 19th century ceramic shards, broken glass, metal, bones, and shoes. This was from the mountains of dirt that had already been picked over (by some of the workers with their kids on Saturday afternoon when the site was shut down).

Several Saturdays ago the ‘Murph’s’ came to dinner at the restaurant where I work.
They brought with them a bag of bottles that Patrick had found on his lunch break a few days before. The day he found them and brought them home, Loretta told him she’d had a phone call from me.  My beautiful one-eyed hairless kitten Oculus had died that afternoon. Patrick showed her the bottles and said he hoped that maybe they would cheer me up.

The bottles are all lovely museum-quality pieces.
I call them my Oculus Collection.
Thanks to Patrick and Loretta Murphy.
They’re the best!

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