I find myself staring, for long hours, at the website of the San Francisco Municipal Railway, the city's anachronistically named public transport. What I expect to find is unclear. The diagrammatic maps are singularly maddening. Yes, I know the streets. But in San Francisco there are too many known unknowns, to quote Donald Rumsfeld. Google Maps has at least an inkling of this truth, offering a view that is not available in most cities: terrain. Since our move 10 days ago, Jane and I have been Read more [...]

It was more than disconcerting to return from lunch at Draeger's, our upscale suburban food emporium, to find some of my finest kitchen pieces scattered about a drought-stricken patch of apartment lawn. Not that it was surprising. This is what's happening at the 11th hour, pre-move. We are jettisoning possessions, Jane and I. At times this is an orderly process. But as the departure hour nears, there is less order and no process. On the apartment grass were two glass canisters with cork stoppers, Read more [...]

Of late I have been barely dipping my toes in the Peet's experience, waving hello to the middle-aged guys who hang out most mornings...then speeding back to my so-called work. That is to say, the revision of my forthcoming book. How long it's been forthcoming I don't like to think, but that's another matter. The matter at hand is the locals in the coffee hangout that has been at the center of my neighborhood life for so long. So long, Peet's...that's the next stage. The next stage out of town, that Read more [...]

There are some unsold books sitting in a museum in Scottsdale...and table settings for myriad diners that should be in Iowa...and a Japanese film I need to return to my neighbor...and a plaid shirt that belongs to someone in Salisbury. And all these pieces need to be rearranged, placed in their correct slots before the next stage. Or do they? What's behind it all are the factors of time and necessity, present or not present in varying degrees. And none of it matters, or all of it matters, as a Read more [...]

Funny thing about anxiety, I was thinking as the evening bounced along, sometimes it's real and sometimes it isn't. And what is 'real?' Ah, so terribly profound, particularly leading up to dinner, already possessed by some vague and nameless fear. When did it start? And what did I make of it? The usual. Fear drifts in and out of my daily experience. Actually, it provides a natural set of guidelines. Just the other evening, the night routine being a bit out of sequence, I had taken off my shoes Read more [...]

'Have a nice day,' my countrymen regularly urge each other. The skeptics among us cast a jaundiced eye on such goings-on, of course. Perhaps we cast too quickly. What is this ‘un-nice day' that the body politic so fears? Fears, indeed. What else could throw this particular day off the rails so thoroughly, so early? Lorna, who captains Team Filipina, my support crew, was walking me this fine morning. Yes, 'walking me’ like a dog. Why not? In fact, there is even a sort of collar and leash available Read more [...]