No way around it, the ludicrous feeling of boarding Caltrain for the 1.2 mile ride to Palo Alto.  Acknowledging that I could, and I have, bounced that distance directly in my wheelchair.  No train, no van.  Just me and the road surfaces, what is left of them in 2011 Depression California.  Never mind, for on my way to the train station, it all begins to dissolve, the sense of the inappropriateness of my day's transit choice.  Making room for the real question.  Why do Read more [...]

I still see them, the people from my other life.  Naturally, at Peet's.  We say hello, and I am generally verging on the apologetic when it comes to the topic of what I am doing now.  Writing.  My own writing.  I listen to the account of new products, new companies, new ventures, their account of the current working life.  And nod.  It is generally incomprehensible, what they tell me.  Something in the cloud space.  The social networking/healthcare space.  Read more [...]

Saturday's stormy ride on Monterey Bay featured one particularly exciting moment.  It came about midpoint, just off the pier at Santa Cruz.  And oddly I would not have missed it for the world.  For it was one of those special quadriplegic moments, one known to only a select few, hard to comprehend, impossible to observe.  And composed of the most utterly simple fact of human life.  I had to pee.The logistics did not amount to much.  Seated outside in the boat's aft portion, Read more [...]

By the time I get to my Sunday morning bowl of oatmeal at Café Borrone, the stuff practically makes me choke.  Strange days.  Emotions overtaking me, the body reacting oddly.  Nothing wrong with the oatmeal.  Something very wrong with eating oatmeal this Sunday morning.  Anxiety, or something like it, rising out of my double cappuccino.  Frank Rich, I learn reading a New York Times now three weeks out of date, has hung up his editorial hat.  Strange the things Read more [...]

You can tell when things are askew, for a Peet's cappuccino seems downright calming.  Not only that, but you roll aboard Caltrain for a routine trip to San Francisco, get as far as Redwood City five minutes north, and stop.  With various announcements promising to, bear with us, we need to reset something.  We are still working on that.  Still trying.  Until, after almost an hour has elapsed.  Please get off this train and board the next.  Naturally, everyone complies Read more [...]