Everyone seems to have had a go at Leanora, first Beethoven, then Giuseppe Verdi. I was making this little joke on the brink of Il Trovatore, having brunch with my opera composer friend Stephen. And the other little joke, not that it was intended as funny, more a light observation, involved seating. Normally I roll my wheelchair into a space in row S. But not this time. Suggest we get to the Opera House early, I told Stephen. I explained about the transfer from wheelchair to the conventional seat. Read more [...]

Let me first report, with something bordering on joy, that this has been a good bladder day. Close on the heels of which I must admit that it is, as always, a bad Apple Dictate day. The word in the above line, bladder, being first recognized by the supposed voice recognition engine as “latter.” As in the latter day Saints. Which go marching in, or probably not, because those marchers are distinctly not white, and the latter day variety distantly are. And incredibly, there was yet another voice Read more [...]

One thing about living with so pervasive and persistent a thing as lifelong paralysis…you tell yourself, nothing more. This thing that you have and is already bad enough, will do. You don’t want another malady. In fact, you won’t put up with another malady. In reality, you know you may have to endure something else, but still the magical thinking bends in the direction of this is it. I have had my measure of bad karma. No more will come my way. Wrong. Because what you forget is time’s Read more [...]

Fake news? This is clearly fake weather. There is no other possible explanation for rolling out the door in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood in a short sleeve shirt in August. It should be cold. It should be windy. It is neither.  This very morning did I not make it all the way down the hill without encountering a single cloud? I rolled straight into the redoubtable Cup, had my cappuccino, staked my presence in Café Society, then rolled home in utter meteorological bliss. It doesn't Read more [...]

I think that is what it’s all about, or at least 50% of “it.” No one likes loss of agency. No one likes loss. This very early afternoon, did I not venture down the hill to Canyon Market? And there did I not hurl almost 1 pound of sea trout out of sight and out of mind?  Out of mind would account for a lot of this anecdote. But not all of it. First, there is the sense that life is slip sliding away. The more you near your destination…. No, let’s not blame Paul Simon. Anyway, I had Read more [...]

If I read the date correctly, this is the middle of the summer. A Midsummers Night’s Dream if there ever was one. And if I feel a paradoxical bit of gloom, there is every reason to ask some serious questions. Like what is wrong? If one can’t sing in the sunshine now, one can later, right? And yes, it is sad that Northern California has been under a cloud at a time when the rest of the world is frying. Or is it? Consider the alternative. Or don’t even consider. Just wait. There are all sorts Read more [...]