Last night I surprised myself by looking for a setup manual for some sound software I've had for the last two or three years, getting an email saying I'd save a bundle if I upgraded, but that I'd need the serial number. (Where in the hell is that manual?) This led to a massive re-arranging of CD's and books and things, ordering CD binders from Amazon and just generally making my work area here next to the kitchen look better than it has for, well, years. This might not sound like much, but it's another sign I've turned a corner. My, my. At my age.

Oh, and one last “things are going swell” milestone to weigh this down. Those two Halston jackets now really do fit. I'm about one ounce away from making them tug across the front, but they don't. Tug across the front. Marking some sixty pounds lost in the last twenty-one months. This is very strange, but I realize I've got another five pounds in me that I'll lose without particular trouble, there's still a (smaller) tire there around the middle, but the waist is now a comfortable thirty-three inches going on thirty-two. And it seems to have come about without my paying all that much attention or effort. Well, compared to other times in my life. I figure I'll get to where I want to go in time for me to be a reasonable looking corpse, but every little step forward helps. As long as the corpse thing doesn't come about through anemia, of course. I'd say through starvation, but there are too many people actually starving in the world that would put my little pissant blather here in perspective. Not that I'll stop.

Windy and overcast this morning, leaves in the streets, rain coming, from the look of it. I believe that's the forecast: rain at the end of the rainbow. We need it, of course, but I wonder if I'll get in a walk later. Maybe spend more time cleaning up this area around my desk. I keep coming back to that, but it's pretty exciting. No, really. I can see this extending into other areas, getting rid of my storage locker, for example. After buying that camera I made a vow to cut down the monthlies that don't buy me anything: services I don't use (XM radio), storage lockers I don't need, subscriptions I don't read. I think I may follow through. I told you this was exciting.

Later. Definitely rain. And wind. A run to Beverages & More for a magnum of Veuve Clicquot for this coming Thanksgiving at my cousin's in San Rafael. Good to get that out of the way. A bottle of (cheap) sake, something called Gokai, this time, as they didn't have my usual (cheap) sake in stock. I say “cheap”, but cheap doesn't really convey the fact Gokai is almost half the price of Ozeki, my usual choice.

I, unfortunately in some ways, learned a great deal about wine during my days working at a winery and I don't plan on making the same mistake with sake. Yes, I can tell the difference between one sake and another, but as long as they're relatively dry I can drink them without complaint. Wine is a different matter. Sometimes I long for the old days when we'd split a bottle of Red Mountain (seventy-nine cents a bottle back then, maybe with inflation four of five dollars today) and pretend we were living happily ever after. Say what you will, but it was a nice conceit.

Yes, I agree, a cold, blustery, rainy day lends itself to sake abuse, particularly in my case where I've been keeping my consumption in line by buying in smaller quantities and I now have an entire bottle sitting in the kitchen. There would have been no thought about drinking a bottle or two at a sitting even ten years ago, but I'm, you know, flying straight. Flying right. Well fuck, I'm working at taking off, flying doesn't come anymore without appreciable effort. So I'm just saying. Life becomes more dangerous as you grow older in some respects.

You're just totally bullshitting this.

It's fun. No complaints. We'll know how my silly little sake drama turns out pretty quick.

Addendum. The skies cleared in the early to mid afternoon and so I got in a walk - not a long walk, but a decent walk - and took some pictures. A day without pictures is a day without....