Later. The doctor says either gall bladder or a particularly problematic hiatal hernia that's become twisted around (which has another name and isn't much fun), so it's an endoscopy on Thursday followed by an ultrasound. I've had both, they're not particularly unpleasant, but if the results are what I think they may be I'm due for another visit to a surgeon's table. Could be worse, we'll take it as it comes.

Eight of us for lunch at Mexicali Rose, good to see the old crew. Now, Mexicali Rose isn't exactly the place to be lunching with this stomach of mine, although the doctor told me is wasn't the alcohol or the coffee that was causing the problem, nor was the Prilosec relieving the pain. Prilosec isn't an antacid, but works by turning off the acid producing glands in the stomach and it takes a minimum of twenty four hours for it to kick in, so taking one thinking it's something like Malox doesn't work. I kept it to a chicken Taco, no re fried beans or rice, one or two chips but no hot sauce. Complicated this, but I think I'll lay off talking about it until I've run through the tests and try not to think about it at all.

That I'd like to see.

The day has been warm, t-shirt weather, and I've managed lunch with friends, a blood test at the hospital and a session with a gastroenterologist, home now after picking up the mail. The two framing books arrived (am I really going to frame my own prints?) along with Larry Gonick's The Cartoon History of the Universe III. I haven't seen Larry since we were publishing his The Cartoon History of the Universe books at the Rip Off Press, a summa cum laude mathematics graduate of Harvard (A summa cum laude Harvard Graduate creating comix?), who's wife, I seem to recall, had a rather attractive sister. Strange what sticks in your mind after all these years.

The high temperature for the day in Oakland was seventy-six degrees, eleven degrees warmer than the old record set in 1980. My, my. Summer.