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Falling Apart

Falling asleep at the keyboard this afternoon from being up half the night convincing myself I don’t have a hernia. I don’t, and I didn’t really think I did anyway, as it still seems more like a pulled muscle which seems to be acting up off and on, especially after long periods in the car. But the way the past year has gone, I figured that if there was a hernia anywhere within a hundred miles of me, I’d probably have it…

It’s been a really sucky year for my assorted maladies, both chronic and acute. And it’s looking like a particularly bad allergy season too. Great. I’m used to being relatively healthy, thanks, and this shit’s starting to get on my nerves…

But since I’m at least not screaming out in pain anymore, pictures from the road trip should start later tonight…

The Weekend

Highlights from the weekend just past:

  • An actual barbecue in an actual yard with an actual kiddie pool.
  • Sitting in the living room with Mark naked, eating ice cream, and listening to Laurie Anderson.
  • Other things it wouldn’t be gentlemanly to talk about.

    Jarring experience of the weekend just past:

    • Getting in the car in at 4:00 in Fresno, with a temperature of 90F and getting out of the car three hours later in SF to a temperature of 50F with severe winds. While wearing shorts…

    Productive

    Productive day. I got a lot done on the new client site which is this week’s project, and a lot of updating done for another client. And I now have my video masters back, so you will see pictures of Seattle, Portland, and points in between soon. But probably not until after the weekend, because I’m off to Fresno in the morning…

    One sentence fragment. Two sentences starting with conjunctions. Bad first paragraph. Bad second one too…

    On a semi-unrelated note, I’ve decided that I photograph (perhaps “videograph” would be a better word) really badly in anything other than incandescent light…

    Malls

    Seems another city is engaging in a discussion about removing its ill-advised downtown pedestrian mall from the 1960s. They’re dropping like flies all over the country, from Winston-Salem to Chicago, as municipalities realize this well-intentioned attempt to compete with the suburbs actually did little more than make Main Street more desolate than it already was. And Fresno’s is even among the liveliest of the survivors…

    But San Francisco drags out the notion of closing Market Street once a year or so. Since we’re so “different” and “special” here, it’s naturally assumed that any idea which has failed miserably everywhere else in the country will magically and mystically succeed here if it costs a lot of money and inconveniences a lot of people. And especially if it involves making the city look just a little bit more like Disneyland…

    Yes, I know I’ve written about this before, but I never cease to be amazed by this san Francisco smugness which says that we can never learn from the mistakes of other cities. We’re only allowed to MAKE the mistakes so other cities can learn from US. Some would call this visionary. Some would just call it wasteful arrogance…

    Interesting time-waster for today. Cool photos. Many of which are disintegrating…

    Insomnia and Soccer

    Two insomniac nights in a row. Maybe it’s because, after 37 years, I somehow finally got used to sleeping curled up next to someone after doing so all last week. Anyway, tonight I stop working by 8:00, plop down on the couch, watch Tippi Hedren bat away at those birds for a couple of hours, and go to bed shortly afterward…

    Working on a new site. The great thing about freelance web design is that you get to learn a little bit about a lot of widely diverging topics, from the Gilmore Girls to Brazilian soccer to pan-channel wall signage…

    Back to Work

    Why yes, now that you mention it, things DID go to hell at work while I was gone. But not quite as badly as I expected. One of my co-workers at least has the exact same allergy-generated laryngitis and phlegmy throat thing I developed mid-trip. And here I thought I was special for having gone to Seattle and picked up some special malady uniquely related to the vegetation of the Pacific Northwest…

    Speaking of which, Seattle seems to have its own Embarcadero Freeway to deal with…

    And thanks to all of you who are allowing my vacation to last just a little bit longer. Only one piece of legitimate email so far today, and even it didn’t require a response. Wow…

    Post-trip

    Four months into the year and I’m finally no longer catching myself typing “2001” every few days or so. I think this is a very good thing…

    • Many things on my mind tonight, some of them weighty and some of them less so. I’m a little worn out after yesterday’s 820-mile drive (even though I wasn’t driving) so I’m not going to try to dive into them. But I’ll offer some highlights for later inclusion. Maybe…
    • After this trip, I’m convinced that Seattle is not only a more liveable city than San Francisco, but also a more attractive one. It looks better from a distance, and now I also realize that it looks better close up.
    • Portland is no slouch either.
    • I really desperately need not to live in San Francisco anymore. And soon. I know I’ve been singing this song for a couple of years, but the music’s getting much louder lately.
    • I was a little apprehensive about traveling with a companion. I needn’t have been. It rather makes me question that vow of solitude I took many years ago.
    • This semi-annual migration to and from Daylight Savings Time is just plain stupid. Arizona and Indiana have the right idea; they never bought into it.
    • I’m rather excited about this.

    Enough. Gonna go read one of my new books for a while. Trip pictures and stories may start tomorrow if I don’t have to write any rants about how things went to hell at work while I was gone…

    Home

    Home safe and sound. Lots of pictures and trivia to follow. But that will come later…

    Love ya, baby. Did you ever consider becoming a long distance truck driver?

    Randomly Wednesday

    Less than three days now until the great Pacific Northwest excursion. A whole week with Mark and none of it in San Francisco. Needless to say, I’m excited. I may not come back…

    This trip is a pretty significant event for me. I always travel alone. Always. And the fact that I’ve found someone with whom I’m sufficiently comfortable to take a week-long road trip is a pretty major thing. There’s no telling what I might feel comfortable enough to do after this…

    And on an unrelated note, all the last-minute programming changes at UPN and The WB are making my life a living hell lately. It would be nice to get through one entire week without having to make major changes to my station sites on 48 hours notice. Especially since I’m going on vacation and will be very annoyed by the prospect next week…

    Last but not least, I’m about to go satellite and finally sever the last of my ties with the pond scum at AT&T. I imagine that will start yet another wave of telemarketing calls (this time from the cable division) which will invariably receive very rude responses. I think the last time they called me about long distance, I replied that I wouldn’t use their service again if the only other option were carrier pigeons…