More progress I think today on cleaning up the place. Continue to get the bedroom in order, get the rest of those framed photographs up off the floor and on the wall. Little stuff, the time it's going to take to get the whole place together is minimal given all the carping I've done about it. Just like that? A small change in attitude and suddenly I'm sitting here bubbling and babbling like an idiot? Why not, I guess? Sitting here waiting for my morning café to open, waiting on the newspapers to arrive.

Back from breakfast, one other diner during the hour I was there having coffee, I think, others picking up coffee and such on the other side of the place, but one diner during their first hour can't be good. We live in interesting times with our noses pressed up against the glass.

More energy coming out the ears I'm afraid, thoughts of doing this or of doing that bouncing around my head. Old thoughts re-energized more than anything else; get along with the current apartment renovation, yes, but maybe start a new photography project. The various backups and cataloging to get things in order continue to make progress, but how about something more ambitious?

Photographers typically make “studies”, take on “projects” such as photographing old buildings, photographing in detail some aspect of “places”, groups of people and events and I'm probably ready for one of my own to start. If I can think of one that's feasible. Once I've started I won't let up unless the energy flags or the health acts up, but I'll make progress, slowly maybe, but one way or another until it gets done. (Hup! Hup!)

I do have these web sites - hereinoakland.com, thereinoakland.com among them, oldmanwithacamera.com another one - that were licensed with something in mind. Old Man With A Camera? What would a small truck cab camper cost these days, something I could outfit with the photo equipment and computers and such and head out wherever it might want to lead? Shouldn't be hard to find out what with the web.

Why does this sound more like ways to spend money than (much talked about old) projects?

I was wondering if getting the house together might not be a way of preparing to get up and move, I've talked about it enough. And I'd rent a small camper for a while to try it out and see before I ever bought anything. We're just talking about taking more pictures here, putting some of this new found energy to work. I wouldn't want to actually live in an RV, but having a small one to take a jaunt for a couple of weeks, being able to stay anywhere no matter how crowded (or not crowded), has always sounded good. Except when I've done it. Driving up the coast (ha! ha!) comes to mind.

Later. No rain, some sun, hopped a bus downtown to buy next month's bus ticket (a good excuse to get out of the apartment), a bit too early, though, as going by Sears to buy a belt I discovered it didn't open before ten. Hi, ho. The buy a belt thing was just another excuse to get out the door, a two-fer, as it was, I'll undoubtedly use it again tomorrow. Those two pair of brown chinos showed up yesterday and I put them on, thirty-two inch waist and all, and they seemed a tad loose without a smaller belt. Turns out I don't have a small enough brown belt. So a trip to Sears tomorrow. Got today's walking in though.

This is not working, you're just sitting here spinning your wheels.

Indeed. Still. A couple of pictures this morning. One project I've thought of would be photographing store fronts and such here in Oakland. You zone out on them after a while, they become part of the background noise, but many are interesting and colorful. And that comes through to me now and again as I'm walking on a street, maybe a street I've walked a hundred times, but from a slightly different direction and it occurs to me there's a picture there, even if I'm the only one. Diddle-dee-dun. So we are spinning our wheels, but we are amused. No harm in being easily amused, here in Oakland.

Later still. The car is due for a service and the monthly Protime (check the blood thinner) is due at the hospital and the hospital lab is just one street up from the car dealer and so a drive over to the Honda dealer for a two-fer. Today is our day for two-fer's. The repair bay where you line up the car is empty at eleven in the morning, good! Get this done quicko-presto!

But (ah, but) everybody's upstairs working like crazy on cars that came in earlier, it will be three hours before I can pick it up. OK. What the hell.

A walk up the hill for the blood test, a walk then over and down the hill to Telegraph, passing a condo building I've had my eye on, a sign with something about an auction that had taken place last week. The neighborhood is, well, marginal, going through gentrification at the edge of a good area, but marginal none the less. What was I thinking?

A walk down Telegraph, camera in hand, some photographs of buildings and a mural. OK. I'm good with that. We talked about buildings. Light headed though, what's that about? I reach Sears, look at their men's belts, decide none of them fit (my image). Actually, 32 inches was the shortest length they had on hand, most longer, way longer and, well, not to my taste. There's always the web.

A bus back to the apartment, the blood pressure 90 over 70, too low. I have a follow up doctor's appointment Monday. I'm going to have him recommend another pill, this low pressure business, intermittent yes, but again, when it kicks in out in the middle of town....

Another bus, another walk, the car ready, home now in bed thinking a nap, remembering how little sleep I got last night.

Ah, yes. An addendum. A phone call on the blood test. Too thin. Stop taking the little blood thinning pills for two days, cut back for another five, go get another test. OK. Up. Can't sleep. Turn on the Epson, decide to make a print, bring the image up when a session like the sessions I've described in the past - all of them in the late afternoon, the hallucinatory (sorta) like thing starting with, well, a set of symptoms, all of them the same lasting for about half an hour always in the late afternoons - kicks in. In the late afternoon making a print. Cookie cutter episodes, one like the other, just that I haven't had one now in some time. Weird to sit there knowing what's happening, but then again, not really there at the time. Lack of sleep? Too much walking?

A three hour nap. Up now at nine in good shape. That doctor's visit Monday will make it three two-fer's, I think.