Many Do, Many Don't
Saturday. Up this morning at seven to drive to the dentist's office to have my teeth cleaned, the hygienist telling me it looked to her that I'd been taking better care of my teeth, but come back anyway in three months; back then to have breakfast at the usual place, parking just as a meter maid was placing a ticket on the car next to mine (Why no sympathy for the poor slob? Maybe because the car was still there when I returned an hour later?); home now before eleven with the sun shining, the birds singing (somewhere) and two new cases of cat food, picked up on my way from the dentist to breakfast at Animal Farm, safely stowed in the cat larder. How can I pack so much excitement into one morning? I have no idea. I think you have to be born to it, have it encoded into your genes.
I take it you're all used up?
I recognize my situation from yesterday and in many days past when I had not a clue as to what I might do. Take another walk downtown?
Mick Jagger turned sixty-five today, according to the radio. Hmm. My age, less five months, and still jumping up and down on stage. I'm not sure I could jump up and down anymore for two to three hours, although I suspect I could remember most of the lyrics. A result of a decadent youth? Decadent in the realm of myth rather than truth? After hearing first hand stories of Stones concerts held here in the sixties? Well, they were more about Keith than Mick, those stories, but if half that stuff is true they shouldn't be alive. (I bet you've never heard anyone say that before.) Hell, a week with Anita Pallenberg would have killed me. Well, lets be serious: killed me with a smile on my face even embalming fluid couldn't erase.
What would you know about Anita Pallenberg?
I saw Barbarella and then Performance when they were released. I realized, at the time, whatever those folks my age were up to in London in the sixties was pretty much alright with me. I'm sure they would have taken great comfort in knowing they had my blessing.
So, back to taking a walk downtown?
Not downtown. Not today. I've been thinking that buying a condo downtown in the thick of things would be a good idea now that the market has fallen apart. Not. I've lived here too long. I realize I run out of gas when I'm in the same place for too long and too long here in Oakland rolled around years ago, certainly by the time I'd finished with the old company and retired. Added to this problem, of course, is that I've done my time in San Francisco, Marin, Napa and now Oakland: the four points on the Bay Area compass. Where else? Back to Seattle? Not. Up to Portland in the rain? Not. Northern California near the coast? Well, maybe, but who do I know in Northern California and what might Northern California have in the way of decent places to have breakfast?
You get your shit together and you find out.
Really? Moi?
Many will, many won't; many do, many don't.
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