The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

I return to chez Zuckerberg to get the latest on my shattered shoulder.

It is very swollen and bruised but this is to be expected reassures Dr Catriona. I try to engage her on the novels of Robert Louis Stevenson but she is strangely unexcited. Even when I pull out my trump card of “Oh Davey! Am I no a bonnie fechter!” she insists on droning on about medical stuff. Lots of X rays and another cat-scan.

I also get a t shirt that has poppers along all the seams which allows me to take it off without a pain pass out.

Stern mistress Catriona suggests that it will be months before I will be able to lift anything but thinks amputation is probably no longer on the horizon. She gives me a big bag of Oxycontin.

I return home only to find a family from the Punjab felling a massive cedar in the backyard. They are very skilled!

My greatest concern related to the decimated shoulder is dysentery. I am unable to rise from the horizontal on the bed. I squirm around trying to sit up but to no avail other than great grating of fractures. I cannot get to the toilet. Nurse James has to pull me up.

Amazon to the rescue! Of course they have bedridden people hoists. Of course it comes the morning after I order.

Never a dull moment.

It is officially Fall here in San Francisco – so that is what I did. The result was a totally busted shoulder.

Everyone at my beloved Zuckerberg General Hospital was fantastic and I am now back in the apartment on Fell Street in the safe hands of Nurse James. I am falling in love with Oxycontin

It is excruciatingly painful but will pass I suppose. “But pain is perfect misery, the worst of evils, and excessive, overturns all patience.”

Some will remember that I was involved in the publication of a review of an autobiography by the esteemed Greg Loew.: Memories from Paris to Stanford: Life, Particles and Politics. https://thequietripple.com/2025/05/01/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/

Jonathan Dorfan wrote an excellent review for the CERN Courier. Read it here: https://cerncourier.com/a/copper-klystrons-and-the-cold-war/. Buy the book!

A lot of time has been spent tracking down health care. Many thanks to the people at the Potrero Health Clinic and the Mark Zuckerberg General Hospital who went way beyond the call of duty to help me. Hooray! I am now a member of Healthy SF. This covers me within the City and County of San Francisco. Another amazing social program to ensure that everyone in San Francisco has coverage.

James and I make another sortie to Chinatown because it is such fun.

Life is not hard.

Great excitement as a Mountain Lion is spotted dozing in a tree just across from the house.

https://www.ktvu.com/news/mountain-lion-exists-panhandle-peacefully-still-cats-meow-neighborhood

What fun – still so much wild life in California.

James and I go go for a raid on Chinatown. It is really Chineses down there. Lots of people do not speak English; they are probably spies sending important info back to the poor beleaguered motherland.

I like San Francisco

“Whirr, whirr, kachunk! Whirr, whirr, kachunk!” These are the dreadful sounds that greet me as I try to start the mighty Tacoma. In the 11 years we have been together, she has never failed to start instantaneously. The symptoms are unmistakeable – flat battery.

My extraordinary good luck holds, as the engine grunts into life on the last death-rattle attempt. Phew!

I immediately drive to O’Reilly https://www.oreillyauto.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooUVnrZhD1t3unI0zBjuJ1hWpK75bCNV8tvnpKs9eIbE_pSjAbj the best auto part store in San Francisco. It is not far away on Geary. https://www.google.com/maps/search/O’Reilly+Auto+Parts/@37.7808825,-122.5370085,13z?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDgxOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

The bartender is a short, very happy guy who with great skill guides me through the different possibilities for a 2010 Tacoma battery. This may sound dullish – not so. I learned so much about batteries.

” Would you like me to fit it for you sir?”

“Why, sure.”

He fills up my washer fluid and generally makes sure everything is OK. All this while exuding a magical aura of happiness and joy.

“No charge, sir.” What a great man. Thank you O Reilly.

James makes it back from Geneva after adventures!

Congratulations to Vivien and Jeremy on their marriage in Geneva on Tuesday!

Jeremy is my eldest boy.

All my very best wishes to Jeremy and Vivien. As I have already mentioned, they love each other. So important.

I am racked with guilt for not travelling to Geneva. Too far, too old.

James, second boy, represents the Californian Calders.

So ,everybody lift a festive glass to the happiness Vivien and Jeremy!

Meanwhile, people dance in the street in the park.

It is so delightfully cool here in San Francisco! Bright sunshine, fresh air and cool ocean breezes.

James gets another cake. This is a riff on the Black Forest cake.

Where is my wallet? I search everywhere without success. I search everywhere again – still no good. Green card, social security card, driving licenses, Japan and US, credit, ATM cards, Japan and U.S. Japanese permanent resident card, boat license and tons more. It is a good day to die!

I take a load of washing from the machine and in the pocket of a now clean pair of trousers; is my wallet. Drenched but unbeaten.

I drive over to Santa Cruz to visit David and Kendra.

I drive back home the next day along Highway 1. All up the pacific coast.

I like it here.

There is a big typhoon smashing around Okinawa as I write.

Please all pray for the well-being of my boat.

The last thing I did before leaving Okinawa was to pay my yearly Health Insurance bill – 12,902 yen.

This is about 75$. Hooray!

This gets me full medical and dental treatment.

I didn’t exactly leave Okinawa; I was driven away. For the last 3 weeks it has been 33 degrees day and night with high humidity. Unbearable.

I get to Narita airport in Tokyo. It is a huge place with distances of kilometres between gates. I am stumbling towards the lounge when an angelic voice fills my consciousness.

“Would you like me to take you to your destination?” It is an ANA lady with a wheel chair. Sad that I am obviously well passed it but gleeful as I get pushed around. She takes me to the lounge and organises for someone to pick me up and take me to the departure gate. I am first to board as I now have the very useful status of Pre Boarding.

There is a wonderful young man waiting for me when I get to Vancouver. Again the airport huge and he pushes me over monies the lang Scots miles.

There is a young lady from Columbia waiting for me when I get to San Francisco. She takes me to baggage pickup and then to the taxi rank. Luxury, the only way to travel. Thanks everybody.

Ah, San Francisco; so sunny and deliciously cool!

Yes, it means I have been back to the dentist. After misery and pain, I reward myself with a nice, big octopus from the Tomari Fish Market.

Mina san, who has been voted Okinawa’s funniest dental nurse, no mean achievement as the competition is intense, is eight months pregnant with her second daughter.

Charlie, the Bonny Earl, Murray, pays a visit from Australia. We all worked together 10 years ago and had a wonderful time.

Happy days.

This is what I have been leading over the last few months -no great drama, nor tragedy and only bits of comedy. I blame the weather; well, up to a point.

It rained consistently for the first 2 months and then from one day to the next, Okinawa became a cauldron of heat and humidity. Impossible to do much in either case.

Nonetheless, I continue with my rigorous training schedule of walking to restaurants and wolfing down large quantities of outstanding food – mainly fish.

Maybe the greatest excitement was getting a new car. Kiyuna san, who runs the rental company and is a fantastic bloke, explains that my current car needs to be serviced. Could I accept a replacement?

Kiyuna san’s hobby is restoring 50s and 60s American cars.

A big typhoon swept past but luckily not over the island this weekend. It was reasonably hairy with 70 knot winds. Poor boat.

A great joy over the last months has been the recovery of my tree. It had lain on its side in the blazing sun for several months, whilst I was in California and had evolved into a bundle of dried up sticks. He, she, it, they, fought back and with much care recovered remarkably.

This is no good, the poor tree blows over in fairly mild breezes.

I track down a suitably large pot and transplant.

Go tree!