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Here In Oakland

Art & Life


   



November 11, 2016

About It

Friday. Awake at five forty-five. Not a bad time. Up and out the door by quarter past six, maybe twenty past six. To sleep last night by ten. I think. Not really sure. Memory again.

Nice day, dark walking to breakfast, of course, but the sun was up and the sun glasses were on walking home. The waffle with sliced bananas and strawberries, a fruit cup and coffee for breakfast. One-fifty even on the scale this morning, but I was not in the mood to eat anything with more calories. The weight may be weird to me, but it seems to stay pretty much within the same range all by its lonesome.

I didn't go downtown yesterday to look around, see in what condition the demonstrations had left the store fronts: who'd been hit and the like. Maybe do it today as we had another thousand plus person demonstration last night. No way in hell I'm going to go out after dark to run around alone in a crowd carrying cameras. Not anymore. No regrets. But a picture or two the morning after, just to say I'd looked? On a Friday? Here in Oakland? Sure.

Later. The NextBus smart phone app was down and so arrived at the bus stop with fifteen minutes to go before the bus arrived. OK, these things happen. A bus to the ATM and then a walk along Broadway to Peet's for coffee and a pastry. Two very small pastries. Pictures of plywood covering broken windows along the way, of course, although, as pictures, they didn't get me all that interested. Minimal graffiti to be found, so I assume they've been cleaning it off as fast as it's been showing up these last few nights. Another demonstration again later this evening?

I have been listening to and reading reactions to the election. Paul Krugman's column in the Times this morning stopped me just a bit. He'd been flogging for Clinton since day one, more so than I liked, as I saw her getting my own vote only because of Trump. Well, actually, the other Republican candidates would have scared me into voting for her too, just not so much. But Krugman seemed genuinely freaked.

Again, thinking of climate change, we should be freaked, although it's rare to see how “freaked” he comes across in his column today. Trump has built ocean retaining walls for his golf course in Scotland and will have to build them soon for his course in Florida, but he still promised to flush all existing United States climate change measures down the tube on his first day in office. And yes, that freaks me too.

Anyway, took a dose of the pain meds before setting out for the downtown and I'm thinking of taking another now that I'm home, see if they'll have any additional effect. I don't really think about it much, other than bitching about it here a lot, but that surgeon getting up into my nose passages has really screwed up these last and for whatever remaining years. There are worse things out there that could have come my way, not hard to run across others who can attest to that, but still. Bad decision on my part, that jaw operation, and yes, bad luck.

Evening. Skipped a second dose of the pain meds as the sinus-upper palate cleared up with a little bed rest. Well, while watching a shoot 'em up series on the tablet.

Turned out I'd seen tonight's New Tricks. Didn't seem to matter as I only flashed to the fact as it was ending, remembering the episode as the last scene played. Started watching Dalziel & Pasco, but decided, once I'd gotten some fifteen or so minutes in, it was time for bed. Too early to be going to bed, but no hesitation, tired, back to the radio if not the tablet.

Veterans Day. Not something I think about, the two years in the army a distant memory now, no psychological baggage from an experience with death or bullets. I suspect my attitude would be different if I hadn't been diverted at the last minute to Korea from Vietnam. One of the days you had luck when luck really mattered, if I choose to think about it. I occasionally choose to think about it.

The photo up top was taken of the window broken at the Tribune building by anti-Trump demonstrators this noon hour with a Nikon D4s mounted with a 24-70mm f 2.8 G Nikkor lens.


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