As I stand before the house in San Francisco, I notice two things, the house is looking ever more derelict and that it is blissfully cool. Bright sun, blue sky but cool! What delight! I thought I was going to be a statistic for old people death in sweltering Japan.

Next morning I set off early to get my coffee at Central Coffee. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Central+Coffee+Tea+%26+Spice/@37.774305,-122.4468478,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x808580b283f9a8a7:0x69505be0a9a95b6f!8m2!3d37.7743008!4d-122.4442782!16s%2Fg%2F1tfqg0gz?entry=ttu

I turn the corner of Fell onto Central and this is what I see.

No longer in the benign, blossomy, boroughs of Okinawa but on the mean streets of San Francisco. It is however delightfully cool. Walking back home, all of 600 meters, I notice several self driving. cars.

As far as I understand, you can’t buy one yet but they do run a taxi service. I applied immediately but the service is massively oversubscribed.

I stroll up Haight to get some bird food and even some food for James and me. I shop at Gus’s, a fantastic place.https://gussmarket.com such quality, such choice.

On James’ last adventure in the truck, a good size branch went through one of the back tires. We need a new tire and also a new wheel mounting stud. Off we go early on Saturday morning to Larkin Brothers Tires. What a great place! The usual Californian bonhomie linked to complete efficiency. ” Sure we can fix that, you fellas grab some breakfast and we’ll give you a call.”

We are in the Mission.

James takes me to his favourite diner.

As we are on Mission St, we walk down to one of the amazing seafood shops.

As we pay for our mussels, oysters and octopus, the phone rings, “All fixed my friend, just come over when you want.” We stroll through the cool, temperature wise, and cool, culture wise, Mission. We pick up restored truck – so easy!

Hooray, back in San Francisco!