That seems a bit, um, repetitive, doesn't it? Up, eat, shoot pictures, sleep?

I do occasionally think about that, but only in passing. If you're going to be, um, “focused” on something (we won't say “obsessed” with all its wonderfully negative connotations), it had better make sense for you and your surroundings, make you feel good when you get up in the mornings.

Hup?

Hup!

Later. A bus and then another bus to Jack London Square around nine, the usual “it's time to get out of the house” in the morning outing, a walk along the edge of the marina and then a meandering walk all the way back to Grand Avenue with a dogleg through the Asian Cultural Center, ducking my head briefly into the Goodwill store to ask what the procedure was for dropping off clothes (“that bin over there” the lady gestured). A strawberry, whipped cream, ice cream dessert crêpe for lunch (at ten-thirty in the morning) in the City Center and then a bus the rest of the way home when I got to Grand and Webster. Which is probably incomprehensible unless you know the area, but about a two mile walk, taking but a dozen (not very good) pictures.

I've been putting off checking with Goodwill for at least three years, but it's time to get rid of the too big to fit clothes of my former selves, at least start to clear out some of the accumulated junk and begin think more seriously about what I'm going to be doing in, say, another year. Next month I've got covered, but is this current routine of mine going to last? No. I guess. Doesn't mean it's going to change all that much, but best to start on some of the peripheral tasks to get me going toward the center, no need to delay until one day I just, I don't know, up and move to Texas. (No, probably not Texas.)

So we'll see. Still not particularly tired now that it's noon, so no naps for at least the next couple of hours, we'll heat up the guitar before my neighbors get home from work so I can play along with the recordings of the songs I've been assigned. I use the neighbors as an excuse to not play along with the music in the evenings, even thought that's how it's done during the lesson. Puts you at a disadvantage when you haven't been practicing playing along with the music.

How long have you been avoiding it?

Since about the time I started taking lessons some two years ago. Not sure why. Could it be I'm overly stubborn.?

Later still. Boy did I have a lot of stuff, a five foot pile of shirts, sweaters, coats and jackets dating back to the Pleistocene, most of them still in reasonably good condition. The permanent press dress shirts are still nice, they'll be of use to someone. Some of the jackets, yes, some less so, but that's for Goodwill to sort out if I can get them to a nearby store. There's no parking in front of their downtown store on Broadway, but we'll see. We'll find a way.

Evening. A run to a Goodwill in Emeryville that's not all that far from the apartment. The giant pile of too big to fit shirts, pants, sweaters and coats is now gone. Really gone. After something like a berzillion years. There's now space in the closets. All the wire hangers are in the trash, nothing left but the plastic ones that manage the clothes so much better. Better to my mind, anyway.

I hate to say this, as I've said this in the past and then done nothing, but I have a feeling I'm now going to junk the rest of the junk, replace the two living room chairs with some nicer and more comfortable - nothing too over the top, you understand - but still, something people might look at without wincing and junk everything else. Yes. Junk the junk. And it's only a Monday. This may be a week to remember.

Do you wince when you look at your chairs?

No, no. Besides I haven't entertained in years. I only wince when I sit down in the one that's still functional.