There should be something different I can do today, revisit an old haunt, retrace an old path. I often have such thoughts this early in the morning when the sun is bright that peter out more quickly than not as the morning goes along, whatever energy and enthusiasm generated over breakfast dissipating before lunch. But we'll see. Perhaps this is the way of things, nothing to particularly obsess about unless you've got time on your hands and a journal to write. We're doing stream of consciousness here less the erotic and more personal parts. Don't want no erotic or personal parts. Not here in Oakland.

Later. A nap while listening to the radio in bed, nodding out, but not a lot of sleep. Which is good, charges the batteries if only a little bit. A pair of shoes and a book are due through UPS later today from what their web site says. The shoes I've been thinking of buying now for at least three years since the last pair (black) pooped out. Why so long? Well, I have a matching pair (brown) that's still in good shape. A bit weird? I'm not sure, but now I'll probably get that first pair resoled and I'll be shod then for the next ten years. Five years. Blame it on being male. I have half a dozen pairs of jeans, all the same color and size. Same with t-shirts: three dozen, same color, same size. Wear them all the time. Feel comfortable in them. So there.

Sounds a bit defensive to me.

I'm aware of other realities when it comes to clothes, understand there's an art to them I find interesting. I sometimes play with it myself in the form of hats, I have a dozen or so hats, only one or two of them baseball caps. Borsalino's and such, wide brimmed, white and black. They seem a bit conspicuous, they don't really fall into an established and familiar category to which I can totally relate, so perhaps I haven't found a design that fits my personality yet. I wrestle with putting one on when I prepare to go out, but I don't think about it again once I'm out on the street. The wide brims can get in the way of the camera, though, when you bring it up to your eye. Blue jeans and a grey t-shirt seem to suffice.

Later still. A walk through the Old Oakland area after buying a pair of sun glasses from Site For Sore Eyes (where I get my reading glasses). The difference between a decent pair of sun glasses with polarized lenses and my old pair is flat outrageous. Why didn't I understand this? I'd had a pair of polarized glasses that I'd worn for years before picking up another unpolarized pair. Well, enough of that: the eyes are back on track, the world in focus.

A walk then to have Liverwurst and Swiss cheese on a baguette out at a table at Ratto's on Washington Street for lunch. In the past I'd have a Liverwurst sandwich now and then, but mostly then as otherwise they seemed overly rich. Lots of calories, probably has cholesterol out its ass, but occasionally, very occasionally, it was what I wanted and it was what I got. Lately the thought of having one has come more often. Is it because the body is saying hey, we're short of calories down here, get thee to a calorie place? I wonder. Still, that's what I had for lunch.

A walk back then most of the way home, taking a picture here that I've shot before, but not recently with this particular 135mm lens, and then another picture there for the hell of it, stretching just a little thinking I was seeing something, but then maybe I wasn't. You have to try. Walking on through the City Center (crowded during lunch hour, no urge to sit and watch) and then passing in front of Oakland City Hall where a small group of people were crowded around a speaker on the steps holding signs that said “Wall Street: Make the Banks Pay for the Bay” or something very similar to it. (I must remember to take a picture whenever I run into something like this just to get the wording right.)

A couple of speakers, two or three newspaper photographers and TV video crew or two, maybe thirty or forty people in attendance, one of the speakers emotionally and effectively relating how he'd lost his house. I'm not a big fan of the banks at the moment, haven't been since the crash, haven't liked them very much since they arranged to have the usury laws repealed and set out to rob and pillage in the name of free enterprise. (Does that give you an indication of what I mean when I say I'm not a big fan of the banks?) So I took some pictures and walked along my way.

So the afternoon has started well, better than yesterday afternoon, I can tell you, and I suspect I'll do the rest of the day in good style. Probably crack a couple of those small bottles of Merlot later, something I thought about but decided against last night.

A dentist's appointment was arranged for the morning, best to get that done as I'm not sure how long this mildly aching molar has before it goes ballistic. The lungs seem better, although they've not cleared yet, I may have to arrange that lung x-ray before long and, well, with all that I still have most of the week left. A trip up to the Russian River? Actually do it? OK, not the first time I've said this.

A CD launching party Saturday, they've evidently used one of my photographs for the back cover, not because it's particularly good, but because it's the only with all the members in a single frame. I don't mind in the least, nice to have people use my pictures, I sent a set to a newly married young lady in Mississippi this morning before I got on the bus.