I take heart…where I can. Who doesn't? Important to compare notes. Key to weaving the social fabric. And we need all we can get. Of course, there's the lettuce. Salad on the brink. Quite a bit in my greenhouse, and more on the way. A gift that keeps on giving, or at least, photosynthesizing. In fact, there are days when I repair to the greenhouse, tilt my wheelchair back and enjoy. Precisely what I am enjoying is rather difficult to tell. On many days, it is simply shelter from the maritime Read more [...]

Mostly, I feel tired. This is partly attributable to having gotten over a cold. And, maybe not quite over. But a lot of it has to do with the ongoing emotional overhead of getting robbed at my doorstep…in a wheelchair…with all the unpleasant resonance of my previous injury. And although this is real enough, I must remember that it is a first world problem. Yes, I have had trouble getting my replacement iPhone (the stolen one was fortunately insured) fully operational again. Meaning that I can't Read more [...]

Next time you consider getting mugged, don't underestimate the silver lining. Friends rally round. And in my case it's not just the rallying. People seem to understand how one mugging resonates with another. Obvious? Well not to everyone. I have good friends. That is the point. As for the event itself–getting robbed in broad daylight at my front door–there are enduring lessons. And most are more or less practical. First, disabled people are not off-limits. I may have assumed that even among Read more [...]

A work day. The work of getting the day to be a day. And considerable work, it has been. That work ended, and the day's writing began, with a final phone call. This one to the De Young Museum of San Francisco. Would they please send me another membership card? I had already called the Museum of Modern Art, Contemporary Jewish Museum…and I had run out of restorative options. Nothing more to be done. After getting robbed in broad daylight of considerable cash (intended for my home helper's Read more [...]

…almost inside my door, in fact. Yes, I was fumbling with the keypad on our door, thinking about nothing in particular. But being rather under the viral weather, vis-à-vis my cold, and even slightly jetlagged still…not to mention just plain old, I barely noticed when a hand reached in front of me. And grabbed my wallet. I reversed my wheelchair quickly enough to send my iPhone flying. But so did the kid, which is who it was. He had an accomplice down the street who suddenly appeared from a doorway. Read more [...]

I have been trying to make this day happen… all day. Hard to say what happened, or didn't. But consider the slightly antique expression 'cool your jets.’ Consider that your jets are lagging. One jet lagging another jet, and five days after returning to North American terra firma. Why? How? Who cares? And of course, it's not just jet lag. It's cold lag. I don't get colds. Well, maybe once a year. And not surprisingly at the end of a long trip…one would get a cold. One's jets would cool. The Read more [...]