Monday. Back from breakfast at eight, the sun coming up, looks like it's going to be a nice day. Could have used it yesterday for the various Lunar New Year oriented street festivals, but such is life. No complaints. We're older now, a little slower, but we're still functional in many ways others aren't - hup! hup! - it's just we're evidently not quite as waterproof as the younger me might have been. (hup, hup)

I'm not sure all this - hup! hup! - stuff is cutting it.

I learn as much from these as anyone who may be reading them. Both for what seems to be said and for what isn't. I'm not sure it leads to anything, but then maybe that's not the idea. It seems the “leading” or “striving” is what's important, not what one is striving toward. The good journey is the idea, not necessarily the goals involved. To each to his own, all good goals lead to a better journey, a better journey and the better life.

Back to the hup, hups! We don't need to devolve any further into this third rate ask the man on the mountain stuff.

Picky, picky. At least you have to admit the mood seems good.

Anyway, to bed last night at eleven, to sleep about midnight, up this morning well before the alarm at five, the fourteen or so hours of sleep I got yesterday more than enough to charge the batteries and get up early today at five. Well, five-thirty. To awake is not to get up. Not around here.

I have no idea if this is my norm anymore, not sure it's worthwhile to think about it, just go with what is and watch for any, um, strange glitches that may come down the pike. The ocular migraines were unexpected, showing up a year ago now (goes quickly, doesn't it?), but we'll see soon enough where they will lead. I'd like them to go. No reason to say goodbye, just, you know, head out the door; no need to send a Christmas card or remember my birthday. Thanks much for the memories, though. I have to admit you got my attention, etched yourselves into my memory, no doubt about it.

Later. I've shot photographs for friends in the past who've used them for what were then called a “Zed card”, a promotional card used by models and actors to send out to potential employers. This is what my cousin's son is using at the moment. He's an actor, a stand up comedian, and this evidently is what the form has become. Quite nice. The beginning piece, interestingly, taken from an episode of Scrubs in which he had a small part, seems the weakest. The follow on pieces to me seem stronger. Which is good, as I assume he wrote the follow on pieces himself. So good luck down there in L.A., the world is an interesting place at your age I seem to recall.

And the world today?

Different. Better in some ways, less so perhaps in others, given the realities. Looking forward to living it out as long it likes, however, not everything we went through in our salad days was perfect, given the ups and downs, the fascination with various forms of alcohol and drugs, successes and failures, women who came and women who toddled along. We seem to be coming back to this rather often, do we not?

No reason to obsess, other than the current amazement over being in my late sixties, an age I couldn't imagine reaching in my thirties if only for the male line's family history. Then again, given any history, what do you think about being sixty when you're thirty that's any different say, than the attention you pay to other happenings in some far away land? Not much that I can recall.

Later still. A good walk around the downtown area buying a monthly bus pass, a sliver of cheesecake bought at a bakery and then eaten while sitting comfortably in the Asian Cultural Center, a walk then to the City Center to again sit for a while, then to the Rotunda building for a cup of coffee, then a bus back home caught on Broadway at 20th near Sears. A decent walk, not overly long, getting back now feeling pretty good as opposed to pretty tired. I say “feeling pretty tired” when I return from a walk is good for me (hup! hup!), but maybe not. Maybe not.

All the while the head clear, the attitude good and, well, the world in a bit of an overlap - the double vision thing - but that cleared itself up by the time I got back. Odd that. It comes on in the later mornings, hangs around until the mid afternoons. Probably something there, some hint, indication or other, but we'll go over that with the doctor later in another month.