Shots from the Lip

 15 of those I've communicated with over the years still remembered - they sent me birthday greetings - including one who sent a long email.....one who I apparently made some impact upon but alas, I do not remember him other than sending birthday greetings.....such is life..... We went to Teddy's for breakfast yesterday.....not as good as the Pantry was but hey, close enough and actually, so fucking close to us to warrant going more often! We've found someone to repair our front fence - and will do this in conjunction with raising our current fence as it is 'refurbished' and putting in bamboo dividers to raise height without needing a permit.......we now need to go to City Hall to confirm what we can legally do without permit.

 Neither of us was in deep sleep and the noise we heard out front was enough to awaken us.  Had we been truly alert, we'd have run to the front door, turned on the front light and perhaps, had a chance to get a better view of a someone in shorts and a hoodie, blocking identification, throwing a 'pissatov cocktail' of what we believe was urine on our front porch...4th or 5th time???   We should have kept the front light on at night....we will in the future.....gets a better view for the Simplisafe system.  But Simply Safe did pick this up and we did remember to call SMPD who came 15 minutes later and we do have an incident report to which we can now post the material that we did not get a chance to present in Court. We'll go to Specified Bicycles to see what they picked up on their system and add that to the material that we can now add, through the SMPD website, directly to the incident report...........

 Yeah, that is one big breakfast!  Sausage patty, bacon strip, English muffin split in two, scrambled eggs, 3 pancakes, hash brown, orange juice......and lots of butter  and a small container of syrup. whew.......burp.......but no coffee......... I was out with Edwin, formalizing the next lease....then home to sit off all that food.  I'm listening go operavore (WQXR opera station) as I type.   I'm more or less up to date...got to answer Edwin and take a couple of bike pictures.....and read....that's it for today......... Perhaps a walk to Ralphs for a half pound of spicey shrimp ceviche? 25 years + a couple of days......the World Trade Center bombing.....a generation ago.  We were in China......probably in Guangzhou but it could have been Hong Kong as we had the Garley Building apartment and I could have been spending a weekend there with Joanna.  25 years ago....and now here I am at 84.....how the fuck did I get to be this old??? Have a great day...

 Last time it was Jose.  Today it was Henry who came and installed two cameras out front.  We still need him to return with a longer cord to permanently connect that third, front camera....but we no longer will need to put on the front porch light at nights. I did a brief morning walk today and I probably will stay home all day and continue to rest as I do have brain fog to contend with. I hear and understand everything said to me...I have vision problems that should be attended to...but what concerns me is my ability for a quick verbal response.....it ain't happening....... It is time to binge upon Closing Time, finishing it before going to anything else.....and searching to see whether I have Something Happened already on either Kobo or Kindle. Happy day - Something Happened, already purchased but never read, is on my Kobo!!!!!

 I went out in the morning.  After 4pm, I will go to Trader Joe's for purple onions.  Soon I will play piano for a bit.   I've already completed an additional chapter of Closing Time and am now 85% of the way through the book.  It is insightful but there are sections that Heller 'experimented' with that I found difficult to read. I completed this week's issue of the New Yorker online today.   Libby, the public library online app is wonderful for a few magazines, New Yorker included!

 Tonight I return to do Sweet Dreams after two weeks off because of a vagrant who assaulted me.  Such was life....such is life.... I still have to get the bicycle sold! My clown nose arrived....I look funny with it and it screws up my breathing.  I also got a clown bow tie with elastic band to hold in place and a wig that Katherine did not want to keep so we'll give that away. I do not seek approval to wear this and will patiently await Halloween - hey, I get complete autonomy for Sweet Dreams because no one wants to monitor me during the evening - especially the nursing staff who do not need an extra job.  They now ask me to assist them, going to some specific rooms each time.... Yesterday, assuming my iPhone data was correct, the temperature reached 35C late afternoon in downtown Santa Monica.  Around 11am, yesterday, after class, I walked from 2d Street to the edge of the Palisades, looking out at the beach and ocean.  One could see, one could feel the h...