Sunday. I went out and had sushi and sake last night. Nothing wrong with that, I was hungry, wanted something to eat, had a large flask of sake, spicy muscles, calamari, various Maki and felt pretty good after, nothing in the way of food or drink to be concerned about, particularly. Probably pretty good for you if it weren't for the mercury. Still, thirty bucks or so for dinner isn't something I should be doing that often. Not two or three times a week as I've done in these last couple of weeks. Wonder if I'm getting into the dreaded (and expensive) sushi security blanket syndrome? Guitar chord avoidance, evening restlessness, hormones gone a-larking. Something to think about? Here in Oakland?

If there wasn't something wiggy about it you wouldn't be mentioning it.

Hints at a certain lack of control, a certain lack of insight. Get out of the house and do whatever every now and again, good for the soul, but the operative words are “every now and again”. Just wondering. Just mentioning. You know.

Up without the alarm at six-thirty having gotten to bed after eleven, to breakfast and the papers and back after eight, the sun coming up just like the weather people predicted: sunny today, tomorrow and the rest of the week coming. That's good. Hard to say how it affects the attitude, not having sun in the mornings (afternoons and evenings). Rain sucks, ultimately. You need it for life, but otherwise, once it's done its stuff, hey: it can go away. (Hup! Hup!)

The day is clear for anything happening in the area. The San Francisco Chinese New Year Flower Fair coming up next Sunday, but that's about it. We need to add something I can photograph to the mix this week I think. Someone with an ounce of ambition would. I'd think.

Later. A drive down to Jack London Square bringing the 70 - 200mm f 2.8 VR lens this time, the new one mounted on the D3s. If we're going to compare lens sharpness, let's compare it to one of the legendary optics. And, I'm afraid, although I took very few photographs, from the two or three pictures I took the comparison is obvious. Super fast focusing and sharp as a tack. Larger, yes; bulkier, yes; but overall not that hard to handle. Just, you know, wrap the strap around the wrist and the weight is balanced very nicely, the bulk not really an issue.

There was a yacht anchored just off the Jack London statue very close to the shore opposite Scott's. A large yacht out of Portland with a couple of older men being served breakfast sitting at a table out on the stern by a reserved looking waiter in a white coat. “Good Life” the name on the boat: Vita Bella. Seemed a bit much somehow, with maybe a dozen people sitting on the shore but fifty feet away watching, but what the hell. A picture to document its presence.

I'd parked near Bed, Bath & Beyond, going inside on my way back and picking up a dozen plastic hangers to move everything I still have left on wire hangers in my closets onto something more solid. For whatever I did this morning - taking a picture or two, taking a walk - that was the most productive.

Silly little stuff you sometimes think about as you open a closet: “I should get more of those plastic hangers for the shirts and get rid of this crappy wire”. I've been catching up on these little tasks lately, marking them off my list, wondering if my living arrangements might not actually get more comfortable and sensible one of these days if I keep it up. All things eventually come to pass when you have the time? Maybe. Maybe so. I still need furniture though. Don't want to think about that. Do I want to put it here? Move? Maybe I shouldn't have picked up those hangers after all.

Later still. It's actually warm. I have the sliding balcony door and the bedroom windows wide open, otherwise it's too stuffy. Up, down; up, down. The ups are nice, the downs not so bad. In moderation. I read about fifty below zero temperatures in Maine at the moment. No complaints here in Oakland.

Naps mostly, this afternoon. Probably wanted more sleep last night, although I awoke wide awake, no way I was getting back to sleep. The walk around Jack London, a short walk, was all to the good: clear headed, no double vision. We'll now see what we can do with the guitar. It went well this morning, maybe even sounded good, although I wouldn't bet on it. Scales, you know. And chords. They're easy enough, except they're hard.