The maps show our place sits between two creeks. There’s at least one good solid storm in the forecast. With a few days off to go, maybe it’s time to hit a point or beach for some nature while it’s nice out, since there won’t be any fish anywhere else we regularly visit. #mbnov
A visit to the old neighborhood is no longer a full meal, not that it was ever a buffet. No matter how long one lived there, there’s always bits and pieces to which one won’t be privy. These days, I graze. I pick up what fits on my plate, place it with care and move along. #mbnov
Looking forward to picking up a couple of friends for today’s book club. We’ll talk about last month’s pick: “Certain Dark Things” by Silvia Moreno Garcia. Club members enjoyed her “Mexican Gothic” novel last year. A. and I will bring pupusas from a local grocery to share. #mbnov
If I’d known I was going to have to leave this way, I’d like to think I’d have behaved different. Maybe I wouldn’t have sat with my friends in that Austin, Texas cafe fifteen-some years ago and shown them our futures. But by now, there wouldn’t have been anywhere to stay. #mbnov
The only ways I’m able to get insight into, or a deeper understanding of anything I’ve ever tried were to ask questions, read, treat it like a game: less abstract and theoretical, more physical and practical. Even then, it’s only understanding, neither success nor victory. #mbnov
The only exemption the future offers will be for those who act as if no one will be exempt. One may pray or plan, but the future usually laughs at them both. This means it is better to do what is right and necessary, lean into what is just and sustainable, and be watchful. #mbnov
The contractor who renovated our condo days before we moved in last year stopped by, taking in ideas for more upgrades and weighing what license our HOA may grant to carry them out, before letting me help install the curtains I’d tried and badly fumbled fingered on my own. #mbnov
Source: New feed
Yesterday’s day off involved several enjoyable things: the frictionless first-time use of my phone as a Clipper card to enter and exit BART stations; an hour or so talking with a friend about summer travel to Berlin and Barcelona and Stockholm; a serendipitous run-in with a blogging acquaintance; a few minutes sunning myself in a park and watching free coffee dispensed from a productivity software company’s pop-up truck; visits to and brief conversations within the San Francisco public library’s main branch (with someone who’d visited London during and apparently for the Jubilee, as well as the Isle of Wight and other unspecified southern England locations) and the Berkeley public library’s central branch for renewed accounts and freshly minted cards; the sneaking sense or awareness of time-off as something distant, not merely experienced or unwillingly dreamed about; and lastly, the view from certain hills’ backsides of stratus clouds slipping and clinging to the tops, unevenly spackling the ceiling overhead with patches of grey before giving way to a brilliant orange glow along the horizon just before sunset.
Played mandolin for an hour, and felt its tuning turn my fingers inside out; might mess around and watch some instructional videos later
Around midday today, I overheard a woman at a table in the cafe section of a chain bookstore. She had a British accent, and she was talking to a man sitting with her about the royals. She remembered having the day off from work in 1952, when George VI died, and she sounded a little rueful about how long she felt Prince Charles has had to wait.
