Towhees

Funny what can happen while you're brooding weightily on your California terrace on matters of personal armament and their coincidence with our national purpose. A towhee runs beneath your pensive feet. The latter being propped up on a metal chair. You in that other metal chair, to wit, the wheelchair. It has been weighing heavily on you, this article that you can't quite start and certainly can't quite finish. Which makes everything else weigh as well. Even the metal chair opposite on the terrace. Read more [...]

Missing in Action

I'm going to miss this. The thought occurs to me on the way out of Trader Joe's, and it comes as a sort of reward, even a counter, to the morning's doubts and recriminations. Thing is, I wanted out from the day's get-go. An imperfect night's sleep, the alarm going off right in the middle of some profound dream. Then Jane going off to work, leaving me with myself in my apartment. Somehow, too much, on this particular morning. So out, out damned self. But where? Well, on errands, of course. Caffeination Read more [...]

Details

A man can be certain of a few things, including the location, however approximate, of his balls. But not this morning. No, even the crotch and its contents have drifted into uncertainty. I mounted the exercycle at an admirably early hour, commenced the 45 minutes of daily aerobics. But not for long. Things had slipped in the crotch department, and they were rubbing most unpleasantly. What to do but summon the fiancé? There she was in a thrice, sorting out one's squiggly bits, as they say in the Read more [...]

In Glen Park

When was I last in Glen Park? Was it five years ago? Ten years ago? I recall seeing the San Francisco Mime Troupe performing in the park of Glen Park. We must have had lunch, my friends and I. The book I bought there sparked a flurry of phone calls regarding my credit card number...I recall that much. But the rest is lost in the mists of time. So yesterday when I rolled out of the BART station, our regional subway system, in a sense I didn't know where I was. In more than one sense, of course. Home Read more [...]

Guns 101

The 4:19 express rumbles toward San Francisco with gratifying speed, almost enough to drown out that sense in the lower quadriplegic back that this is all a bit much. It is what Caltrain calls the reverse commute. An outdated term, it hails from the recent, more traditional past. San Francisco, provincial capital, used to attract commuters into it every morning, driving them out and homeward every evening. Now many people prefer urban life after hours, working in the sprawling suburban technology Read more [...]

Arms

While waiting for lab results on my prostate...waiting for the end...Godot, and several others...I am also waiting for an unpredictable evening at the San Francisco Bar Association. Not my usual locus, it must be admitted. So what has me training it to San Francisco at rush hour? A lawyerly debate over the Second Amendment, America's much disputed legal framework for guns in the society. My only misgivings have to do with the degree of legalese one can expect to encounter. Will I be able to make Read more [...]