Aggravations today, both at the gym and on the job, but during a long phone chat with G we agreed that a lot of these journals are mostly whining, so I won't (today). He's been reading one by a Safeway employee called "My Life On Mars" (good youthful nihilism) and he also recommends eine Niederländisches Web-Cam. D has just flown away to Switzerland, Italy and France for two weeks! And the mail brings the new Smithsonian magazine with the Goodyear blimp on the cover - looking forward to reading this article pronto - I'm always interested in things LTA.

Speaking of which, a novel find down at my Safeway: dried vegetables. Slices of carrot, pieces of cucumber? lots of beige chunks, julienned potatoes - all dried to hardness and made tasty with something fattening. First potato chips, now carrot chips! The mixture was with the dried fruit & nuts in Produce, $6 a pound but real light-weight feeling.

Final Safeway tie-in: P was an employee at the Steamboat Springs store, working the deli section in the early '80s where she met L. Hence without that big red "S" my charming goddaughter V might not exist.

Watching "Rumble Fish" on video - yes, I have no television. But I can watch if need be <1>. What I do have is an old VCR (which no longer rewinds) and a monochrome green monitor (for more detail check this entry). When I watch a videotape I take it into work prior to return & rewind it on the machine in the conference room, pausing in a few places to get a feel for the colors (if it wasn't a black-and-white) - however (except for the fish and the ending) "Rumble Fish" IS black-and-white so no big deal. Things I like about this movie: the cinematography and general feel given with the "Koyaanaisqatsi-ish" time-lapse clouds and shadow-movement, the soundtrack by Stewart Copeland (with credits song sung by Stan Ridgeway <2>), and the cast - Mickey Rourke, Nicholas Cage, Tom Waits, Dennis Hopper, and the book's author in a cameo as a prostitute; things I dislike, Matt Dillon. Thankfully since "Drugstore Cowboy" his star seems to have fallen and I haven't had to look at his ugly mug so frequently - but he was in some great movies; besides this and "The Breakfast Club", if you ever get the chance, see his first film: "Over The Edge".

There's a dormant planter-box on the outside of the window my home PC table stands (and I sit) next to - I've been casting out birdseed there and now it's frequented by little birds. Can the overcoat, park bench and hemisphere of pigeons be far away? I am now officially elderly.