Thursday. Driving home last night after spending a couple of hours at Roy's and consuming three Guinness with Mr. E and Mr. S, feeling good, stopping by the Broadway ATM remembering I needed money for breakfast in the morning, I pulled into the 7-11 look alike to buy an ice cream cone. Which I did, getting back into the car and finding it difficult to snap my seat belt in place. Where in the hell was the connector at the base of the seat? Where was the seat? How many times have I gotten into this car and snapped the seat belt in place? More than once, I can tell you, although at the time that wasn't my thought.

So, driving the remaining short distance home, getting out of the car, fumbling for a very long time to find the key among the keys that opened the garage door that lead to the elevator and stairs; finding it finally and getting up into the apartment and discovering I was totally unable to figure out where to put my camera, the glasses, the cell phone; how to get the television set going (the Korean soap had just started at seven-twenty) before finally sitting down to take stock. Ah, right - wham, bam, thank you ma'am! - ocular migraine land!!

So. How long's it been? Was it the three Guinness? The cheddar cheese I'd had with crackers for lunch? The combination of them together the cause? Who knows, they're all on the to be avoided list. Sometimes they bite and sometimes they don't. Last night they bit.

To bed early then at eight going right to sleep, no other sensible thing to be done, up at six-thirty before the alarm having awoken once during the night with a foot cramp - a first class foot cramp - but no need to dwell on foot cramps with everything else that was going on. Focus on getting back to sleep and finishing out the night.

OK, to breakfast and back at the usual place in the usual routine, the sun shining for a change, back to the apartment to go back to bed and crash; the mouth dry, feeling, well, rocky with my annual dermatologist's appointment coming up later this morning at eleven. A bad finish to a night before followed by what was seeming to be a somewhat rocky morning start.

It's now approaching one in the afternoon, the dermatologist's appointment (and the Protime blood test afterward at the lab) have gone well, the head is now much clearer and the attitude is pretty good. Still, another ocular migraine last night, this time while I was driving. We'll just say OK, it's happened again, it no longer happens very often, one hopes “no longer happens very often” becomes “even less often” and just go with that.

And head downtown now that it's afternoon to take some pictures. On this Thursday, a first day of December. Oh my.

Later. OK, a bus downtown, arriving five minutes late at the stop but meeting a bus that was also running five minutes late, so I took it as a good sign. A walk around the City Center plaza area taking photographs. A new fellow up in the tree feeling no need, evidently, to be wearing a mask or avoiding photographs, the interfaith display intact, but without its canopy tent, a sign in front suggesting the city was anti-religious at the very best. A small group ladling out a late lunch and an RV lab of some kind at the entrance looking for people to test. A quiet day, in other words, in the Occupy life. Time to go back home and vegetate.

Another bus arrived as I reached the stop - we indeed seem to be making our connections this afternoon - getting off at my own stop and thinking, given the crisp air and the bright afternoon light, I'd like to walk along the lake for a bit, but realized the wind was gusting more strongly now and I was wearing a broad brimmed Panama hat. Probably not the best choice for head gear having been out in yesterday's gusts, but that's the problem with short term memory loss. And stupidity, come to think of it.

OK, back to the apartment to lose the hat, sit here and type this for a few minutes and then head out the door sans hat, check the lake, maybe get something to eat. I'd had a chicken sandwich earlier, wasn't my best idea of the afternoon, so maybe go out and get something over by the theater. Maybe even, well, at the morning café. Many decisions to be made at this late hour in a day.

Later still. “And then head out the door” rapidly turned into another nap. A good choice, feel better now, had a sandwich (cheese, this time, not cheddar) and I'm feeling up enough to look at the pictures I took yesterday and today. Not much had been going on in front of City Hall earlier, so there weren't all that many pictures, but then again I don't want to get too far behind in processing and then posting them to artandlife. My guess is this is my last week for Occupy photographs, other than covering other marches and demonstrations as they may come up. The Oakland Holiday Parade is running this Sunday, good timing for a needed change of pace.

Mr. P continues to make progress with the redesign project, by the way, I have pages to add and rearrange now on artandlife, but the overall new design is essentially done and he's now gone on to HereInOakland to get it straightened out. I'm looking forward to working with the changes as I'm hoping they may recharge the batteries and get me going in a somewhat different direction. Hup. Hup.