Some work now to finish the artandlife section for the Lao New Year Festival - yes, I managed to conjure up the required twenty one - and then a walk, probably back again to the morning café for lunch. I had a large breakfast, not sure why I'm now thinking of lunch, but I'm thinking of lunch, probably heading out the door in the next minute.

Later. A decent day after a slight deviation from the straight and narrow last night, walking along the lake and on to the morning café for mocha-chocolate chip ice cream, a waffle with banana and strawberries and a glass of lemonade. I was hungry and, for whatever reason, that was what appealed. So why not? It's a Sunday, the sun is out, the day is, well, a California day of a kind I've grown accustomed to rhapsodise about. Hup.

Walking back toward the Grand Lake theater a youngster hopped over one of the sidewalk bike racks. His parents were getting into their car and he needed to hustle along to keep up, but he walked back to take one last jump. It occurred to me I was carrying a camera (in hand) and this would make a picture, so I brought the camera up and shot. A little late, I should have cranked the zoom closer and the composition is far from the best, but I did react in time and that's to the good.

Remember the camera when unexpected things happen. I don't carry it to catch one in a lifetime excitement in the streets, but I carry it because you have to have it in your hand if you're out to take pictures and feel it useful to sharpen my reactions, practice reacting, get the brain programmed to be aware there's a camera there and this I see as training and a forward step.

You sound awfully confident in your pronouncements.

I have no real idea based on, well, fact, but it sounds good and we'll stroke the ego and say it's good. Sometimes telling yourself you're doing well helps you to do well. And no, I have no idea if there's an empirical evidence to support that either, but it sounds good. It does. Hup.

So, as said, a decent day. The eyes were a little flaky heading out, some of the same double vision stuff as if the vision system was in the middle of a cold restart. Doesn't seem to affect me when I'm inside, probably for the light and not having to focus on anything too far the distance, but it went its own way finally by the time I was walking home. So, say it again, a decent day, the attitude good, looking forward to finishing out on the guitar. Hup. We'll sell ourself on this no matter what.

Later still. For some reason I found myself going through the old negative binders, checking their subjects and writing them out on labels that slip into the binder backs. I have a number of negatives on festivals and parades I've essentially forgotten over time and have never made an attempt to go back and add them, some of which are worth resurrecting over these coming months. Feels good doing this crap, not sure why, but it does and we'll do it I suspect.

As the evening approached, after a large breakfast and what for me was a large lunch, I felt the need for sushi (and sake) for dinner. Nothing logical about it particularly after the Guinness last night. So, at six, a walk down the hill for the usual subjects. Not a lot of food, not a lot of sake (although the owner came by and topped up my sake flask), so I feel pretty good now that I'm back. Now for the guitar I'd think. Move Tumblin Dice over from an lp to the laptop. Practice the new blues riff. For all the things I've found to do on this weekend, more still seem to be piling up.

Just be quiet.

We'll tackle the guitar with a sake buzz and see how far off all this blabbering is from reality. There's an Italian police procedural I find indigestible running at the moment, one of the reasons I felt comfortable setting out for sushi just before six, but now we're entering the early evening and I have to see what's real and what's not.

Whether or not you get your guitar practice together or just crash and say the hell with it for a night?

Bingo! I'm suspicious of myself.