Thursday. Listened to the six minute NPR News broadcast at ten before turning the lights out, awakening briefly around midnight and awakening for good at five forty-five. OK, a little early, take it slowly, finally ready to set out at six forty-five on an overcast, cool, but not cold, morning, the restaurant open when I arrived just before seven. A regular sort of morning on this longest day of the year.

The chicken-apple sausage, eggs over medium, country potatoes, toast, fruit cup and coffee for breakfast, the papers digesting the keep the kids and parents together decision made yesterday by the president, I more concentrating on digesting breakfast than parsing exactly what keeping the families together really means in this environment. It will become clear soon enough.

Still overcast on the walk home taking the usual pictures plus one. Not sure what the day holds. Little to watch on television, could go by an ATM, although I could hold out until tomorrow, but we'll see. First a nap, I think. That's what guys my age do in the comics sections anyway: take naps. Goes with the territory.

Later. The sun came out after ten and I went out to catch a bus to the ATM on Broadway after one. Cold inside the house without a sweater. OK, I'd been thinking of walking on to the City Center for lunch, thinking I could use the walk (I can always use the walk), but just watched the body turn around by itself and head back to the bus stop on Grand. Not enough time to take any pictures at the nearby construction sites, not that there'd be any noticeable change since yesterday's photographs.

Home by two to listen to the news. Sort of. The news running on television, anyway, listening while I was over at the computer futzing about doing, well, nothing. Still, not a bad day, the head relatively clear, the sinus-upper palate not acting up. Too much.

Evening. When I started this I always wrote these entries after work in the early evenings. Now I write the first sections in the mornings after breakfast, but I'm burned out and almost invariably write or rewrite the evening sections the next morning. Tired, not particularly clear headed, no desire to write in the evenings. OK. Just noting. How much does this tell me about how much has been taken off the top with this growing older business?