And this is going where?

I delayed posting yesterday's entry (until this morning) because I wasn't sure it was up to my oh so minimal snuff. The later evening last night went well, I even made a run to the supermarket - crackers, cheese and such - before watching a movie until midnight, but earlier, late afternoon, well, things had deteriorated and I needed a two hour nap to get my head back. The, um, “hallucinatory” episode arrived right on time again at five and was gone by just after seven when I awoke to watch my (interminable) Korean soap.

The sun is back, the Chronicle suggesting a full week of sun ahead, the rainy season coming to an end. The number of rainy days we've had this season still hasn't hit the average, but evidently many if not most of the reservoirs are at capacity and even the salmon may make a decent Sacramento river run. Of course we'll believe that when we see it: clear skies and more salmon. At least the Pelican population is holding.

The San Francisco St. Patrick's Day parade kicks off later this morning. It's no big deal, but it's a parade and I have in the past gotten one or two decent pictures. So the camera batteries are charging, I'll attend the parade and then recuperate for the Pladdohg CD release party in Lafayette later in the evening. Pretty exciting stuff for an old crock who's trying to keep his narrative on track in Oakland.

Later. I walked down to the bus stop heading for BART and the St. Patrick's Day parade and stood waiting, thinking: do I really want to take both of these (suddenly heavy) cameras to San Francisco to take photographs, one of which is slung over my shoulder, one of which is resting in my back pack? Why don't I (and the little voice is getting softer now, more urgent, gaining traction) return to the apartment, get rid of this back pack and snap the smaller 50mm lens on one of the cameras? Take a walk, say, through the farmer's market instead? Why these thoughts? Was I feeling poorly, was the head doing some kind of rotation thing? What?

Then the thought: well, if I feel out of it for any reason, here, on BART, in the city, I can always find a table at a café, sit down, order a cup of coffee (if such is my wont) and just zone out and not worry about it. I can crap out any time I want! (You're perhaps beginning to understand the why's and wherefore's of this coherence thing.) Looking down then at the seat in the bus shelter I noticed a five dollar bill folded up to about a third its size stuck under it, the way they look when someone keeps them in a front pocket instead of a wallet, not crumpled as such, but folded in various places like a failed origami experiment. Hmm. A sign from on high? Bread crumbs in the form of legal tender, leading me forward? I picked up the five, folded it flat and put it in my wallet as the bus arrived.

The train was pulling into the station as I descended the escalator and I arrived at Market and 2nd before eleven, shooting for perhaps an hour until the entire parade had crossed the starting line. One or two decent shots. The photograph above is part of a sequence, maybe I'll frame the three of them whenever I get my framing act together. (Ha!) Same with this one, it will go well with others I've done this size in the past. I'd forgotten how many kids there are in this parade and I'm not much of a cute kid photographer, but I took one or two to show the flag.

Back again to the Oakland City Center to have a bagel pizza out at a table in the sun. Why a bagel pizza? When's the last time I've had any kind of pizza since the operation? Don't know, it wasn't all that tasty - a bagel pizza, after all - but I did get it down. And took a picture, of course, feeling pretty good I thought after running around in San Francisco. I can never tell anymore how one of these things will turn out.

So it's Lafayette later for the Pladdohg gig and pick up the new CD. Mr. S, a core member of the usual crew, has been playing with them now for a number of years and I'm looking forward to hearing how they've recorded Dirty Old Town and Eric's cover of Whiskey Devils. Oh and, believe it or not, to take some pictures.