Dhal

Jane and I have a comedy routine going.  For example. Off to Canyon Market, I was, and what was I going to get? Well, after having suggested that we go out…out being anything that is not inside this writer’s mind…Jane reminded me of the once-frozen chicken curry we were having tonight. And is there even the slightest intimation of something wrong with said chicken curry? No. And, for once, we were even having it with brown rice. My wife avoids brown rice. Why? Not weight. Jane, weighing Read more [...]

Kvelling

“Let your partner influence you,” advised some marriage manual I read in conjunction with some marriage. And, one must confess, it is excellent advice. Not always applicable. But handy to have around. And actually, I am beyond the influence state. I have accomplished the supreme Black Belt level marital state…of successfully divining the psychic condition of my partner. At times. Jane was full of generous offers this day after Thanksgiving. Most of them spurred by my requests. And it all Read more [...]

El Buen Comer

I have this problem. Tell me about the latest social ill, particularly one affecting me, and I will set out down a long road toward righting the wrong…. (Voice recognition uncannily misinterpreted “righting” as “writing.”) I tend to embark on writing projects, as though I am not disabled and will live forever. Trust me, there is substantial, verifiable information suggesting that mortality is a real thing and, yes, a bullet high in the spinal cord will, if it doesn't kill you, limit your Read more [...]

Bulrusher

Jane and I had just emerged from Bulrusher, the enormously satisfying play currently on offer at the Berkeley Rep, and autumn was in the air, an amiable citizenry was upon the streets and, unbeknownst to us, a BART train was all but waiting at the station to take us home to Glen Park. The play deals with issues of race in a town where there were few issues, racial or otherwise, and at a time when the level of violence was lower in much of the land, including the land depicted on stage. Mendocino Read more [...]

Getting Out

It was wonderful to see Bello Coffee booming post-pandemic, and to see it where it is, Glen Park, San Francisco. And to see Jane sitting opposite me for once. She isn’t too much for going out these days, our Jane. When she isn’t boosting her biome, she is blasting away at things carbohydrate in an effort to stave off pre-diabetes. The latter being so utterly absurd as to force me into eye-rolling mode, even now, hours later.  Jane is as skinny as a rail, and a narrow gauge railway rail Read more [...]

To the Tree

Having just completed a class in “To the Lighthouse,” Virginia Wolf’s classic, I do understand why the lighthouse is always there, never goes away and eternally beckons. That’s what lighthouses do. And there’s a Jeffrey pine in my life that does exactly the same thing. Gentle Reader, you’ve heard it all before. How I never made it to the lighthouse, sorry, the pine. Not during my ambulatory life, that is. But the pine is looming still, even getting closer. Because after a modest Read more [...]