Yo

I am on day 11 of my antique grind, a couple more days and I can go home and hopefully take a little break. Money is dribbling in, but unless the wind changes I am afraid that the swag from this trip will be meager. Things have been rolling along pleasantly enough but I probably spent a little too much dough buying stuff, on the assumption that a few more items would turn.

Nice up here in San Francisco, perfect weather so far although the weather reports predict a bit of rain tonight. A string of unremarkable if not bad meals but headed for Creola tonight in San Carlos with Cam and Isak and it never disappoints. Not  counting the amazing meal my friend Melissa made for me of course. Stopped at Tommy's Joint the other night with Dave, (his choice not mine) and he got sick on the brisket. Basically I have been complicit in the normal Bay Area debauchery and cranial damage all week and found myself putt-putting through the freeway maelstrom several times late at night like Mr. Magoo.

The van is starting to give me problems. Took it in a few weeks ago, four quarts down on oil, pretty soon after a change. It's not leaking, or burning oil through the exhaust, so a seal might be fucked up or some other internal doodad and Gary my mechanic thinks I may be looking at real money to fix it. Only 146,000 miles on it which is nothing these days. The plan was to get a little economy car and use this one only for road trips but life may not be willing to cooperate. Like the looks of the Mini Cooper Countryman S but can't afford either it or the premium gas or maybe the new little Nissan Crossover.

I hung out with my old friend K. who I painted with in college. Very talented artist and bright guy who found the blast and got in touch. K. is an audiophile of the highest order and has the finest homebuilt set up I have ever heard, Class D power supply with DEQX converters and yada yada. Stunning sound room.

I was a high end stereo guy in one of my older incarnations but all my equipment is 25 years old and really showing its age. Started out with tubes, went to hand built Classé monoblocks from Quebec, Mod Squad line drive and custom speakers. Everything a bit threadbare at this point. Need new cones, one of the monoblocks isn't functioning, etc. But stereo equipment is far down on my priority list. Only a single guy could build a system like K. A married guy who tried something like that would be skinned alive and left to bake in the desert heat while rabid marsupials feasted on his body parts.

It is interesting when someone from your distant past steps back into your life. He looked like he had gotten older in the past 30 years and I suppose I do as well. Looked taller than I remembered him too. Meeting someone like this gives you an opportunity to sort of chart your own life changes, we decided that neither of us had really changed much as human beings in the interim, something I took a bit of comfort in. Both of us still operating in our own eccentric orbits, on our own singular course of flight.

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I am going to be having a small potluck party at the gallery on the evening of May 6th. All blog readers and casual lurkers are invited unless you experience severe psychosis, have anger management issues or are just plain weird. RSVP. Come meet the coolest members of the Avocado belt. Bring your own libations. It's not an opportunity to drink all my booze, losers.

That's about all I got from the northern campaign. I do want to thank all of you who wrote the kind notes to me regarding my recent post about my late sister. I really appreciate your thoughts and support.