Yesterday was another long, tired, got nothing done, didn't want to go outside day. Today has been better, could be better still, but I did go into the office to file an expense report and scribble a list of things to do on Monday. Some office stuff, some personal stuff: Adjust the 401k, lock in the sleep test, hammer the company over the thousand bucks my health care provider charged me for the ambulance ride from the office to the emergency room last January, go over the training I'd like to take between now and the end of the year, things I've been putting off, things that seem overly complicated (like buying a car). It got me out of the apartment.

I was approached by a young woman at the coffee shop down the street asking about the camera, "tourist? professional photographer?". Overly cranked amateur, was my reply. Well, could I shoot some pictures of her performing group inside? They'd be happy to pay. Of course. Pass her the artandlife card, shoot the pictures. Send me an email and I'll forward you the prints, no need for money for something like this. Half a dozen of them, young men and women, some kind of performing group, "Animator - Writer - Producer" said her card. Of course.

The battery going flat, my mind going flat (for at least the last year), these and other images formed in a row in front of my nose this morning, standing at attention for my inspection, making me realize I will actually get out of the house and onto the road to, if nothing more, than shoot some pictures. I'll drive through Napa again (you can't go back, but it's a place to start) and look beyond for other potential places to land. Rien has his island in Greece. Perhaps there's an island in California or an island inside my head that will feel right if I but go looking. Or have I said this before, here, in the Land of Nod, in the town of Oakland?