It is an inner and an outer journey I am making across Britain, and, trust me, the former is much more arduous. Not that one should dismiss the latter. Only a mad person would take a single train from Edinburgh to Exeter, particularly on Sunday. This is the preferred day for working on UK train lines. Not that there were any repairs underway during our journey. Which meant that, for example, our Crosscountry line train actually blew into Birmingham half an hour early. Still, based on the presumed Read more [...]

I would have to say that the night of the reversing-uphill car crash has set in motion forces that are most unpleasant and, more or less, out of control. To illustrate this as I write, my computer keeps closing this document and opening what looks like an Apple programmer's menu of options. Meanwhile, my options seem to be running out at nights. At least sleep is no longer among them. I keep staying awake worrying that…and do not look for logic here…I cannot get out of bed. Note that this once Read more [...]

Odd that I had to distance myself 6000 miles from the scene of the crime…but this appears to be the case. Fact is, I had just driven myself home from a monthly meeting of the local library's book group, and I was backing into a parking place. Let me put a finer point on things. I was backing uphill, in the dark…into a supposed parking place. Already this sounds like so much excuse-making. But, of course, what I must excuse is my own disability…. In that moment of fear when my car naturally Read more [...]

How very odd it is to see a friend of several decades in an urn beside an altar. Jeanette's photo stood behind. And about 20 of us sat and watched. I was struck by the beauty of the church. Perhaps I shouldn't be. What else would a church be? Jeanette was beautiful herself, by the way. We can see that in the photo taken in midlife. Behind the altar is a wall of glass. It frames the field behind the church. Nothing special but California oak and grassland. One of the state's major ecological zones. Read more [...]

I suppose it was a bit of island-lag or Polynesian nostalgia that made me look up the price of kona-coffee-coated macadamia nuts online. Surely they couldn't cost as much as the ones on offer at Honolulu airport just yesterday. Wrong. There they were at Amazon, sporting the same $18 price tag. That's the thing about Hawaii. Rolling waves and languid air aren't free. Actually, they are, but that's another story. As for this story, it is continuing in San Francisco where tomorrow's high is forecast Read more [...]

On Sunday mornings I have a way of leaping in my Dodge and making for the open road. All roads are open on Sunday. All things are possible. All hills are surmountable. And yet when push comes to vehicular shove, damned if I don't head down the simplest and nearest hill to Noe Valley. This is not very adventurous. But once I am inside my favorite 24th St. café I understand. There's something about this place that feels comfortable. There's something about the much more sophisticated café on the Read more [...]