Today's San Francisco Chronicle headline is all about the loss of federal funding for the city in the wake of the Trump election. Significantly, I can't find the same article on the Chronicle website. After all, the print edition is all of eight hours old and digital history by now. Things appear to be changing at an unprecedented rate even when they aren't changing at all. I'm too old for this. That's why after my weekly bodywork appointment, AKA, massage, I head up 18th St. in the heart of San Read more [...]

On this first day of Trumptopia I struggled out of a bad sleep and made my way down to San Francisco's Mission District for my long scheduled meeting at the local Social Security Administration office. Why? After all, my business could have been transacted on the SSA website. But I am a retired guy now, which is to say, wanting a schedule, and there is some pleasure to be had from experiencing the in-person world. With the ominous Trump still ringing in my ears and my stamina reduced to something Read more [...]

In the travelogue subplot of my life, the oddest moments stand out. The oddity comes with my physical condition, I suppose. So what I remember of this latest trip to the UK is standing up in a United Airlines toilet and feeling the general difficulty of maneuvering in such a tight space. The stiffness that has taken over my body may reflect age, but as far as I'm concerned, something terrible has gone wrong. Things shouldn't be this way. I mean it was only yesterday that I would swing myself into Read more [...]