I've just now returned from a 7 - 11 at the base of the hill, more to get out of the house than anything else. Young woman in front of me at the counter with two Swanson's TV dinners, a can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup and something to drink is charged $12.75 for the lot. What? How much for the Swanson's TV dinner? $4.67. She is surprised. She pays the $12.75. Not a lot of supermarkets around here, although they're rebuilding a Safeway about a mile up the street. You hear about downtown prices. I buy a Coke and a bag of chips for $2.06. There's a whole lot more price competition down at the bottom of the food chain where I'm buying, so the prices are in line. $4.67 for a Swanson's TV dinner. I didn't see what kind.

But this isn't a complaint. Lake Merritt is across the street with lights strung along the path circling the lake. They look like 20 or 40 watt bulbs strung up high so they look nice with the city lights reflected in the lake behind them. A kind of carnival feel without the carnival, people still walking around the lake at dusk. I wouldn't necessarily want to walk around the lake at midnight, but who knows? First I've got to learn the territory. I'm feeling tired and grumpy and unwilling to think after the move, but I'll chill out pretty soon and start exploring. New places are exciting for those first months before you think to yourself, well, I've seen that, and stop looking. Bad to live that way, worse yet for a photographer. I do it all the time, but when I remember and take a second look it makes it worth while.

Good walk back from work. The last three blocks are up a relatively steep hill. Not so hard, not so easy, but it would be a very good thing if I continue. One of those things you think about some years hence when you're staring at the white ceiling and the florescent lights, listening to the voices in the hall.