Monochromatic Outlook

OK, so I’m nowhere near as annoyed about Gov­er­nor Schwarzeneg­ger as I am about hear­ing about how The World Has End­ed Because Of Arnold. Real­ly. Big Deal.

What dis­turbs me is that we had a recall elec­tion at all. Gray Davis is not my favorite per­son on the plan­et, but it’s absurd that we arbi­trar­i­ly decid­ed to have anoth­er elec­tion just for fun.

Ahnuld? OK, so this was oppor­tunis­tic of him, but this is no sur­prise, peo­ple. Ahnuld has been groom­ing him­self … Read the rest

I actu­al­ly made it to the gym before work this morn­ing. I did a lit­tle run­ning – I end­ed up doing about 22 min­utes all told. Not in ‘s league, but I knew that time was lim­it­ed. I did some work down in the weight room too. My abil­i­ty to bench­press is real­ly weak, not sur­pris­ing since I hard­ly ever do it any­more. I also did­n’t have a spot­ter, so when I lost it after six reps at 115 pounds … Read the rest

I don’t want to jinx any­thing, but I’ve been on time to work all five days I’ve been a full-time employ­ee so far. Today I’m tempt­ed to take it one step farther.

Do I have time to get out of the house with my gym bag and my clothes and go work out in the morn­ing, then get dressed? Well, not if I dink around in front of the com­put­er. And this may not be the morn­ing for it any­way. … Read the rest

Four days in a row I’ve been to work on time. And for the two years pri­or I haven’t been any­where on time once. I guess I got sick of liv­ing that way, but I for­got how hard it is to change.

Tomor­row I have to get up extra ear­ly so that I can go vote. And I just real­ized that this is what my life will be like for the rest of my life. End­less days of going to … Read the rest

I’m afraid that if I let myself sleep in, it will be hard for me to get into the pat­tern of get­ting up ear­ly. So I left my alarms on even though it was after mid­night when I went to sleep last night. Since my neigh­bor­hood is still one big par­ty until 2:30 or 3:00am (why is it that some peo­ple nev­er learned vol­ume con­trol?) I have start­ed wear­ing earplugs to bed. This morn­ing I … Read the rest

I’m mak­ing din­ner at 11pm, and I’m almost too tired to.

I’ve got­ten up at or before 6am three days in a row, and sat at a desk for eight or more of those three days. I don’t mean to gripe — I’ve got it good and I know it — but still. I’m tired. It’ll get eas­i­er as I do it more, but I’m glad that my first week back was a half week.

I’m learn­ing new appre­ci­a­tion for … Read the rest

…and today is my first day as some­one else’s employ­ee in over two years.

So before I leave the apart­ment, I’d like to reflect on that love.

I enjoy San Fran­cis­co, and so do count­less oth­ers who vis­it here every year. I love show­ing the city to my friends who vis­it. I love help­ing tourists find their way to the par­tic­u­lar land­mark or attrac­tion they are try­ing to find. I love mak­ing the tourists’ stay a lit­tle more pleas­ant. OK, part of … Read the rest

I left by the back door
with my wife’s lover’s
smok­ing gun

It’s just beau­ti­ful how much infor­ma­tion can be passed in just a dozen words.

Reminds me of my favorite Brauti­gan short sto­ry, The Scar­lat­ti Tilt:

“It’s very hard to live in a stu­dio apart­ment in San Jose with a man who’s learn­ing to play the violin.” 

That’s what she told the police when she hand­ed them the emp­ty revolver.

See, that’s part of what I admire in a writer, and … Read the rest

I don’t know how I’ll ever do this.

One night in 1991 or ear­ly 1992 in Asheville, North Car­oli­na I was walk­ing home after the bars had closed down and kicked me out. I was very drunk and right after I turned onto Cum­ber­land Avenue I saw a pick­up truck parked on the first block. I’d seen that pick­up truck many times parked on the West side of Cum­ber­land, but I did­n’t know whose it was. Still don’t. The one thing … Read the rest

I received the news today that Frank Bren­nan passed away last night.

Frank was 80-some­thing years old. In his younger days he was a knock-down brawl­ing black­out drunk in the Mari­na. Those were the days when the Mari­na was a tough neigh­bor­hood filled with team­sters and long­shore­men, not a yup­pie neigh­bor­hood filled with frap­puc­ci­no-swill­ing cell­phone sym­biotes and jog­gers with boobjobs.

I used to see him around a lot, and he’d always greet peo­ple with his line: “be your own best … Read the rest