I've had better mornings, but still, I suspect the day will come together sooner than later. Breakfast at the usual place, back now, the sky overcast. I'm thinking of taking a nap, somewhat unusual for just returning from breakfast, but maybe I didn't get enough sleep last night. These things happen, why even think about them? Just take the nap, get up and reenter the world later. Fresher. Still complaining.

Later. It's noon, the sun is now out, it's warm with just a touch of cool to the breeze, but it will get warmer as the day goes on. I must admit a crappy morning, a hot bath instead of a nap, some time spent here on the computer realizing I've still got problems with this system setup, something has gone round the bend and I'm going to have to wipe it clean and start again. Such is life. Computer life. Not something I was expecting to deal with as a youngster.

The crappy aspect seems to be coming from the sinus-upper palate ache. I took a second dose of the pain meds to see if that would make a difference and maybe it has, maybe it hasn't, we'll give it more time to see. I took a short walk earlier thinking I'd walk down by the lake, decided to take the bus downtown and ended up waiting for ten minutes past the time the bus was due to arrive. Not good, I can invent all kinds of reasons to skip the trip, which I did. Came back to the apartment thinking I'd do something else, ended up going back down to the bus stop arriving one minute before it was due only to watch it unload a passenger from a distance and take off.

Well, something was obviously telling me to avoid the bus, avoiding a cup of coffee out on the patio at Peet's. It's Sunday, the meters aren't running, I could drive downtown in a minute and find a place to park. Probably. Except I'm avoiding driving. I do that a lot. Not so much driving at a distance, just driving in the area, using all kinds of bogus reasons why not. But I said the morning has not been great. Take two steps back and punt.

Later still. I don't know if it was the meds or the coming of the sun and the afternoon, but the head feels better. Probably the meds. What did they do without meds? I believe they stayed inside their caves and didn't go out to take pictures.

Anyway a short walk to sit by the lake and take in the sun, passing a low wall where people like to sit unobserved and contemplate their fate (one day I'll get a decent picture out of it), and then a walk farther on down to take a picture or two of the racing crews in their boats. They were starting as they always have on the opposite side, I photographed them years ago there with no great result, but I hadn't realized they were finishing their races on my side in a place easily accessible. No crowd, really, they were all undoubtedly over at the starting line where all of their support crews and such were gathered, but it got me out of the apartment for a breather and a little sun. Good. Better than I'd have imagined this morning.

In what was by then a reasonable mood I headed down to the Coffee With A Beat café for a cup and a cookie, sitting out on the sidewalk at one of their tables to stretch out the afternoon while I ate. And drank. Again, a reasonable day, lots of sun, not too hot with a soft, but cooling breeze. I feel like I'm writing an Oakland PR spiel here, what with the “cool” breezes and such, but what the hell, Oakland at the moment can use it.

I have a long list of things to get done tomorrow to prepare for Oregon. This morning I was thinking of crapping out, going up a week later and visiting with my sister, even checked Amtrak to see if they had a sleeper available (they didn't and round trip to Portland now costs 800 bucks). So we'll make it one way or another, come back a little later, maybe, so I can go out and spend some time shooting photographs with my sister. She's getting better, goes out everyday as do I. Perhaps this vein of madness runs in the family. I suspect.