Thursday. An overcast morning, as the last many mornings, the sun due later, the temperatures again forecast to reach the low sixties. Feels like fall in the ai:, in the colors, in the temperatures. Halloween well on the way, Thanksgiving not all that far behind. Thanksgiving. Fall. What more can be said? Another winter ahead. Best to handle it differently, I think. Do things differently than I've done them before. I've said this many times, won't repeat the thoughts I've been having, having had them so many times in my unproductive past. But we'll see. Even old dogs can change their spots. A little fur dye, some contact lenses, a bit of the old impudence....

A photograph walking back from breakfast and the papers. I seem to have awakened pretty much at the usual hour, somewhat past six, a walk then to breakfast and a walk back. Why these two particular shots? Who knows. Still enthused about this new lens, the range it offers, 24 - 120mm. The enthusiasm of a week, perhaps, a fleeting jolt of current, but we'll enjoy our coming one week's high and shoot some pictures.

Reading the Oakland Tribune this morning, learning we've had as many people die of gunshot wounds here in Oakland as we've had in Afghanistan over the last nine years, noting one of the really intense areas is the neighborhood where I've been looking at a particular condominium now for this last year. A war zone, they're calling it, a place where the psychology is pretty much the same here in Oakland as it is on the battle fields, where the largest killer of kids in their late teens and early twenties is gunfire, mostly African American and Latino kids playing some of life's harder games. Probably why the condos are seemingly so, um, inexpensive. Do I want to walk around carrying these cameras in such a place? No. Not. Silly me. Too much silly in the mix around here I'd think.

But then a bus and a walk later to somewhere a little different to celebrate this new lens, shoot some pictures. I won't have the car until tomorrow, I keep forgetting it's in the body shop when I vaguely considered running here or there for groceries. I snap right out of it, of course, the mind is not that far gone, a bit of a reverie, the mind floating along, but it's interesting to see how little I really do use the car except for now and again. Important, though, those now and again's. We do spend money to keep them an option.

Later. I'm informed the car won't be ready until late Monday, something I was suspecting, the comment along the lines of “this is an estimate” pretty much putting me on notice when I dropped it off. Well, OK. I don't have anywhere I was planning on driving over the weekend, the one photographic opportunity accessible through BART. Still. Well, we'll leave it at that.

A walk and a bus downtown, a walk then to Jack London Square. A couple of photographs of Jack himself lost in the palms. I may find an angle on Jack I like, one of these days, if I keep at it. A photograph of a flier taped in a window, I was attracted by the heading, of course, but then I realized one of the DJ's listed is someone I know, the partner of a friend. I'm not sure old guys my age are brought in by the droves with ads like these - “Lust, Lust, LUST!” - but then who in the hell knows? Right down the way from here, this place, not hard to find.

The day has progressed well, nothing too exotic in the way of a walk or photographs, but we're making progress. The head feels reasonably good and I'm thinking of heading out to somewhere again in maybe another hour. The sun and the clouds have been spotty so far, but such is life.

Later still. I managed to talk myself out of going by Beverages & More this morning when I was in Jack London Square, but I'm thinking I'd like a bit of sake and, without a car, I'm forced to think in terms of having it with sushi down the street. A hard life. Maybe something other than raw fish. A piece of the green tea cheesecake for desert, certainly, a flask or two of sake and, well, maybe some chicken grilled in whatever Japanese fashion. They're into giving their diners a little latitude with their menu, not turning away those who don't always find sushi completely compelling.

Later alligator. A trip down the hill to the local sushi restaurant. Some of the usual fare with a double portion of the green tea cheesecake. You'd have had two too if you knew their green tea cheese cake. Four of the large flasks of sake, learning they have an unlimited sake entry on their menu, served in the little square wooden, but we'll keep that knowledge for possible use in the future. You'd think I'd have figured that out long before now.

I delivered a portrait to the sushi chef I'd taken at an earlier visit, he seeing I had one or two my entries this evening at a discount. Still, forty bucks out the door, not hard to see why I don't visit more often. I'll remember the unlimited sake the next time, though, save not a small number of dollars there. It isn't heated, but that's the way I prefer it now days, unheated, the same inexpensive Ozeki sake but at an unlimited refill price. Clever sushi restaurant. No wonder they're doing so well. Or is this a bad sign? A soliloquy about alcohol?

The Giants versus the Phillies on their T.V., of course. Why have I not followed the playoffs? Well, for whatever reason, we'll not think about it. The last I remember being knowledgable was with the Bash Brothers in Oakland. I didn't drift off because that era decayed into the steroid scandals, it's just I've not followed baseball since. Interesting to watch for a brief period this evening. The game does remain familiar.

You obviously had your share of sake this evening, babbling on as you are.

Life in the fast lane. We'll leave it at that.