Still, a good attitude on a cool and overcast morning. More sun later of course, this is classic Bay Area. I'd been turning over my guitar practicing in my mind, realizing I'd had a fairly good session yesterday, the first in some time. You wish you'd had these thoughts when you were younger, how practice at anything, even though it has periods when you'd rather be doing almost anything else, periods when fretting over it seems to take up your time, you go through and come out of it and, well, you're interested again and playing better. Doing whatever you've been practicing better, doesn't have to be an instrument.

Anyway, this led to my thinking about a set of photographs that are sitting on a hard drive with a damaged file structure lost and unavailable. Not many, but some I like a lot from the Fruitvale Dia de los Muertos Festival. I could, if I chose, learn to get them off the thing myself. Just a matter of application. Take too long? Well, yes, it might take a while, might lead to nothing, but it's just a matter to time and application. Time I have for the while.

I'm not willing to spend what I suspect would be close to a thousand dollars to retrieve pictures I'll have no real use for in the future. I made some prints and smaller versions are sitting up on artandlife, what would I do with them otherwise? But it might be interesting to just do it. Hmm. Radical thinking before eight in the morning, an unexpected break in the clouds letting through rays from an unknown sun.

So, that's how it's going this Thursday morning, a haircut tomorrow, but no guitar lesson. Interesting. Freedom, yes. But freedom from what? Me thinking? Me fretting? Me, me, me..., deedle-dee-dee?

Later. A walk for the first time all the way around the lake thinking I'd like to see what they've done with the new pedestrian bridge they've constructed on the far side that will be the focus of the celebration coming this weekend. A nice walk, all three miles.

I passed something like half a dozen Snowy egrets along the way, each fishing alone, with most of the geese in groups/gaggles over on the lawns on my side of the lake, so there were pictures. I liked this one a lot as I didn't see the dog to the left when I shot it, focusing on the woman's expression at the 300mm mark on the 400mm lens.

Back home to take a nap. Nice walk, nice nap on a now nice afternoon. One more “nice” and I'm going to gag swoon.

Later still. A plain ordinary nap, no fireworks, no exits to another world, just a nap, up to futz around on the computer with the news droning in the background, a thought to go out and buy one of the small three shot bottles of Jack Daniels, just a thought, leading nowhere. Well, a follow on thought to go down the hill to have sushi and sake, but just a momentary lapse. Used the “didn't want to spend the money” last minute excuse.

What's all this about alcohol?

I don't know. A way to get the writing to start. No real chance of following through. Maybe one day. Some time on the guitar, watching Democracy Now at the moment as I play. We'll see if we can't get to bed early again as there's no Elementary on later, the season having ended. For the best, I suspect.

Evening. The start of a new French series at six. Interesting enough, I skipped the Korean thing I've been watching on Wednesdays and Thursdays to watch it, the first half of it, anyway, catching the last half hour of the Korean thing at seven-thirty. Didn't miss much. Still the same slap stick humor in the Korean piece (mixed with all the people getting themselves killed), missing that first half didn't seem a loss.

Pretty exciting stuff for an old man in the early evening, don't you think?

Well, yes. I deserved that. A good long session on the guitar, though, we're going to kill the lesson when it comes up this next Tuesday. Two days of enthusiasm in a row, not sure where it came from, but I'm going to hang on and go with it as far as it may go. I suspect that's the way such things travel: there are periods when you're up, periods when you're down. How bout that?

Could it happen with, say, this journal?

Could. What would you do then?

I'd find a speaking part.

To bed early now that it's nine. A good day, some good pictures, it's turned out well.