Off to work this morning, that is to say, with Jane about to hit the pulpit, we had a long overdue discussion about hearing. Mine isn't what it was. And to put a finer point on this, I'm not sure that I'm missing sounds as much as slowing down in their interpretation. I don't know. And, yes, this is worth googling, but whatever the answer, there is an inescapable fact. I am getting older. And as for hearing, mind you this is a fairly subtle matter. I suspect this is a more advanced version of the Read more [...]

El Cerrito…I just looked this up…means little hill, which proves absolutely nothing except that place names are instantly obsolete. No one there is thinking about hills, including me. I was thinking about what it is to be 73 and riding public transit to get to lunch. Is it worth it, of course…one consideration. And what sort of world does an old man experience? The more useful perspective is in my case absolutely existential. I might have missed all this, injured as I was early and near fatally. Read more [...]

She had on a form-fitting pantsuit, white and decorated here and there with something flashy, perhaps rhinestones. Her glasses were of the larger than life variety, her hair piled accordingly. In short, she wasn't very San Francisco looking. More Grand Old Opry or Las Vegas. No, there was something quite conspicuous about this woman on our street. But I understood instantly. It was a Tuesday, the second of the month, which means street cleaning here on the lower slopes of Twin Peaks. It also Read more [...]

I was enjoying pad Thai and a post-movie discussion with one of the Bay Area better-known psychoanalysts. Would he be taking some time off this December? He shook his head. I asked if this was because Christmas triggers psychological crises. No, he explained, it was Trump. The national political crisis is driving his patients nuts. It's driving everyone nuts, of course. But I generally say this casually. What my friend was saying had a much more sobering ring. The reality of life in a threatened Read more [...]

Oh, the weather outside is frightful…but inside my head it's frightful too. So let it snow. Or more accurately, let it rain. And it is, after six months of ominous drought. In this realm, Jane and I experience frequent conflict, vis-à-vis optimism versus pessimism. The absence of precipitation signals, for me, the heat death of the planet. But, of course, as with most things, the meteorological signals are mixed. The current forecast is, more or less, 40 days and 40 nights…or in a more Read more [...]

Apologies, gentle reader, for my lapses in the blogosphere. Where have I been? Not far. In fact, as close as one can get to blogging, vis-à-vis, writing. The book. I am working diligently to finish the damn book. Of course, I have been a place or two. The San Francisco office of the California Department of Motor Vehicles being the latest. I was there twice. First, to attempt to get a new driving permit and a thing called a Real ID. The latter is either a manifestation of the security state Read more [...]