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Dreams and Station Wagons

Funny, I’ve been having strangely vivid dreams lately too (as well as waking up in the middle of the night too frequently). Not one of these dreams has been particularly disturbing, nor has any of them had any particular psychological meaning (that I’ve been able to discern, at least). The strange thing is that I’ve been remembering pieces of them when I wake up. I usually don’t…

I will say that several of them have had to do with transportation. There was one where I purchased the 1963 Dodge 440 station wagon (complete with push-button transmission) which my childhood neighbors used to own. In another, I was waiting for a train at a really large and crowded MUNI station, which was, for some reason in a very rural setting, surrounded by grass and one convenience store, not to mention elevated. And, of course, the streetcar turned into a long-distance Amtrak train as soon as I got on. I think it eventually morphed into a Greyhound bus…

The other one I really remember had a sort of romantic component to it and involved someone I have no intention of being romantically involved with, so I ain’t talking about that one at all…

It’s sort of nice actually remembering dreams again, but I sure would like to sleep through at least one night this week…

Icky Month

I went to Sacramento this weekend, and I couldn’t sleep there either. And now I think I’ve caught a little bug on top of everything else. I’m really not enjoying this month…

But neither is much anyone else, evidently…

Randomly Wednesday

Happy birthday, Mom…

I’ve slept. My little bug seems to have disappeared. I feel much better physically and slightly better psychologically. Be relieved; this might have been a really unpleasant journal entry otherwise…

I’m pissed off that (again) I’m not at the North Carolina State Fair this week. Everybody seems to be going, even my friend Rae, who lives in Chicago ferchrissakes. I want barbecue and hamburgers served by little old Methodist ladies in hairnets, dammit…

I’m also pissed that they finally tore down Anton LaVey’s house, and I never once went by to look at it and take pictures…

While I’m at it, I’m nervous that I’m starting work on my first website in a language I don’t speak. I’m also pleased to announce that The Hyaena is now one of us cool kids with his own domain…

What Attention Span?

What attention span?

  • The people I most worry about during these anthrax scares are the letter carriers. And not for the reasons you think. My fear is that some of them are going to snap and do unspeakable violence to the next idiot frat boy who cracks an anthrax joke, chuckling and thinking he’s probably the first one all day who was “original” enough to think of it.
  • Yes, these are the same frat idiots who run around yelling “hot enough for you?” when it’s 110 outside.
  • Yes, I work with one of these idiots.
  • Biggest score of the weekend: a cheap CD which sounds like it was mastered from a warped 8-track, but contains the song “Winchester Cathedral” by the New Vaudeville Band.
  • Children should not be heard and should only be seen from a great distance.
  • Sunday the 14th was one of the hottest days of the year. On Sunday the 21st, I almost turned on the heat for the first time. Ahhh, October.
  • Best find (as opposed to score) of the weekend: a semi-abandoned laundromat in Mountain View, where Jamie and I did our laundry (mine being a considerable amount) in realtive peace.
  • Second biggest: finding an Albertsons down the street from it, which was closing for good and selling out its entire stock (sale items included) for 25% off. I’ll have canned tomatoes, cooking spray, and Beef-a-Roni until the end of time.
  • Why have I suddenly developed this fascination with Oswald from “The Drew Carey Show”? It can’t be healthy…
  • Has anyone other than me noticed that all these super-patriotic commercials and public service announcements lately are disarmingly similar in production, tone, and music to those “free speech” announcements that ran at the beginning of almost every commercial porn video a few years back?
  • And has anyone considered what a good idea it might be to get some free speech announcements on the air right now, before people forget what it is?

Friends Coming, Me Going

Duncan and Rick are coming to SF for Christmas. At least there’s some good news…

Which is nice, since I was called a “weather pussy” today. My self-esteem is suffering greatly. And we prefer the terms “weather wimp” or (even better) “differently climatized” around these parts, thanks…

For the weekend: adventures in Fresnoland. For tonight: moving the car, more work on a website in a language I don’t speak, writing several checks to several doctors, and scurrying off to Safeway with whatever money might be left…

To Fresno

 

There is no good time to drive out of the Bay Area on a weekday. This afternoon, well before rush hour, it took me as long to drive the 60 miles from SF to Tracy as it did to drive the 120 miles from Tracy to Fresno. Fortunately, this was (once I left Tracy) to be one of those trips where everything worked out the way it was supposed to, from arriving on the one night the history room at the library was open late to actually enjoying the company of the rather compelling stranger I was coming to meet…

 

And gas was $1.17/gallon. Did I mention that?

I gambled and won. The history room in the Fresno library just happens to be open late on Thusdays. The only downside was that the pre-1960 city directories are on microfilm. I hate microfilm. Microfilm is evil.

It was actually warmer in SF than in Fresno today. That’s a good sign…

The Day That Changed Everything

I kept the room today for a home base and potential nap spot (thanks to a coupon from my mom) as I wandered about visiting thrift stores, taking pictures, and looking for ghosts of supermarkets past. There was no nap and there weren’t many pictures, but I was pleased with my day (and the cooler than average temperature) all the same.

It’s a little odd realizing that I’m in a city where the mayor is Bubba, by the way…

Tonight I met Mark at Club Fred. Even that was easy, as I stepped upto the bar to get a drink and he happened to be the guy in line ahead of me. We went to a low-key but pleasant enough Hallowe’en party for a while and then had a nice, big artery-clogging dinner at Denny’s before going back to Mark’s apartment so he could show me his iBook.

 

Eventually, I went back to the Motel 6, fantasizing that my second night in the same strange bed might result in more sleep than the first had. It didn’t.

Chicken Pie Omelettes, Finally…

 

Despite lack of sleep, I wasn’t feeling too miserable for breakfast with Mark at the Chicken Pie Shop this morining, something I’d been trying to do since my first visit way back in 1993. And it was indeed everything I’d dreamed it would be. In shades of green.

 

We walked around the Tower District for a while and I dumped all my stuff and my car at Mark’s. Then we toured Fresno. I’ve toured Fresno many times before, but it was extra fun (a) being in the passenger seat and (b) actually being with someone who lived there and knew exactly where to take me. We covered most of the strips and walked around downtown for while. And we didn’t go to the ninth-floor bar at some hotel whose name I’ve forgotten, because it was closed.

I got a prescription filled, as I cursed both the fact that it was five bucks cheaper at the Walgreens in Fresno and the fact that it causes me certain annoying physiological issues. We were amused (horrified?) by the singing James Brown doll. Then we went back to apartment for a while, before heading back out to the pizza place.

 

Afterward, we watched the South Park movie (sort of), avoided the Hallowe’en block party down the street, and eventually went to sleep. I actually slept pretty well, if not for quite long enough.

Sunday in Fresno

 

On Sunday morning, we spent a few hours trying to figure out what time it was, among other things. Then we had breakfast at a good Mexican place before driving around and taking even more pictures (many of which will be here at some unspecified point in the future).

 

Then it was time for me to make my obligatory stops by the cheap cigarette store, the cheap supermarket, and the cheap gas station, and to be on my way. I was home by 7:30 and only flipped off three people (all of them after I crossed I-680). I slept. It was good.

Funny, for my best Fresno visit ever, it doesn’t read very well. But I liked it anyway…