At some point in my psychoanalysis…or more precisely, psychoanalyses…I learned that driving a car can represent life's unfolding or direction in dreams and the subconscious. Well, whoop de doo, I say these days. Or more soberly, what does it say about my life's unfolding that a real life Dodge Caravan-type car can consume as much energy as it does? And, no, we’re not talking gas-pump-type energy. We are talking human. On Sundays, San Francisco's traffic calms considerably. Crosstown torrents Read more [...]

You know you're an Old Guy when you wake up at four in the morning and realize the Attorney General's latest move on behalf of Trump reeks of the Weimar. Having heard some first-hand accounts of the Weimar, because you are an Old Guy. The ensuing hours are no improvement. By the time you get up a sense of gloom and permanently shattered dreams barely propels you through the shower. There is some brief respite on the exercycle, the day's major aerobic event being lightened by simultaneously watching Read more [...]

Bixby is dead. Long live Bixby. And he did live long by dog standards. More important to me, he lived long enough to be an excellent sort of transgenic role model. He was always confused. Some believed that he wasn't terribly bright. I was agnostic on this point. To me, he had been traumatized so consistently during his first four years abandoned with 25 other dogs in a derelict house in West Oakland…that it was impossible to say. The adage about "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" is Read more [...]

Our last one is Bixby, a dog of an estimated 15 years, roughly 11 of which he has spent in freedom. Yes, he is a rescue dog, sprung from a hoarder house in Oakland. That there is an acknowledged phenomenon such as 'hoarder houses' is another story. Anyway, some neighbor finally realized that the derelict house down the street domiciled 25 dogs and, well, this wasn't a good thing. The Oakland SPCA freed the dogs and offered them for adoption. Thus, our Bixby. Over the 10 years I have known him, Read more [...]