Thursday. To bed last night before ten, up with the alarm, another decent night's sleep. Not as many hours as yesterday, but still, close to if not eight,so we'll say that's good. To breakfast and back at the usual time noticing that gas prices at the station across the street had changed again. It's been fidgety this last week changing, going up and then going down a few cents at a time. Be fun to know how those decisions are made.

They say it's the market and I'm sure the market is a major play, but we're dealing with oil oligopolies here and oligopolies don't play fair. Fairness doesn't add to the bottom line, it's not why oligopolies came about.

Anyway I was driving home thinking the world is good, looking forward to writing this of all things - good, bad, banal, boring, fun - it doesn't seem to matter. I question my attitude and habits as often as anyone I'd guess, but most of the time the day feels pretty good and I look forward to what's ahead.

And all the complaining?

I think more in terms of description without too much judgement. My feeling is I wouldn't be aware of it let alone embarrassed by it if complaining was my only game. Rationalization? Obfuscation? Who knows? Pick up a camera, take a picture, go out for a walk and let the sillier questions sit. Too much of interest out there to get in a snit.

Later. An interesting bus ride downtown to (finally) have a cup of coffee and a scone out in front of Peet's. It actually wasn't coffee, but a Café Mocha, a medium for something like four dollars not including the scone. I'm obviously not connected to the real world anymore, what people seem to routinely pay, but I must admit it was good.

The flowers they've planted in front of the Peet's building have finally come into their own. I used to photograph the old Monkey Paws (Kangaroo Paws) they had out front and lamented their loss, but these are nice. They are.

A walk then to Jack London Square taking the odd picture along the way. I liked the football someone had placed in Jack's hand, took a picture of the football up close to get the number and looked it up on the web. The Oakland Parks and Recreation Center. Someone with one of their footballs left it there when? Last night? Late? Three sheets to the wind? I took it as an art project and left it in place.

A walk then through the area. It's been long enough since I've been in the Square that it may have made the eye a little sharper. Nothing great in the way of pictures, but I was enjoying the walk, enjoying the watching, happy with the camera. Some of the photographs work out, some of them don't, but all of it was fun.

The free Broadway bus then back to Grand to wait on the number 12 to arrive beginning to feel strange. An ocular migraine, just the very beginnings of one, the small bright spot to the left when you close your eyes, feeling, well, weird. Still, not so bad, on the bus for the ride home, no weasels on the seats, feeling much better here now at the computer.

A brief episode, more the start of an episode than an episode. If that's as bad as it gets I'll not complain. They're getting milder and farther apart, something you can usually count on at my age the neurologist said: they come, they eventually go, an advantage of age.

So fine. Some guitar now, I think, applying the one or two lessons I was given to go over yesterday to better my picking technique. I can do that, but maybe after lunch.

Later still. Good. The afternoon has gone well. We'll leave it at that, but it's nice to be more clear headed rather than less clear headed here in the land of the midnight moon across the bay from the end of the rainbow. Ho, ho. There's energy about, not that I'm going to do much of anything with it.

Evening. A certain little tussle with Self, who wanted to go down the hill for sushi and sake. I suspect there's something going on there that's obvious to those who study this stuff and the little voice that questions my seeming needs of whatever kind is giving me warning. Sake? Two glasses? Didn't I say something about testing the water yesterday by going without sake for a week? How long since the last visit? Saturday, I believe, so it's not near a week.

What the hell, we'll pass on sushi. The clarity has held, the energy has held, maybe take another walk, but not by the sushi place. We are confident, but we are careful to not push our luck.