Dear diary, sorry for the lack of entries over the last few weeks. The reason, apart from the background drone of idleness, is that not much has happened really.

My horizons are much restricted by feebleness and quasi blindness. I am still weak after my spell of poor health in Japan. I go for a “long” walk everyday and can now walk the length of the Panhandle without stopping for rests. https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7767135,-122.4353989,3372m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQyOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

My vision is blurred by cataracts, which I think I will only get fixed once I get back to Okinawa in August. Waiting lists here on MediCal are long and I would anticipate at least a 6 month delay before surgery. Unfortunately this makes driving a bit “hit and miss.” Especially in the city where cars fly out at you from all directions. I use Waymo, which is fantastic.

I take a Waymo down to the Apple Store on Chesnut to get a new phone.

Brother Alan notices that the Imari plates used at recent meal are of similar design to a bowl that kicked around the house when we were young. I send the photos to Tomomi who replies that it is a remarkable piece of early porcelain, either Imari or Kakiemon . Whichever, it dates from the late 1600s.

Important job is to get my Green Card renewal procedure underway. This is done on the web of course but I also have to send documentation, including a money order for $600, to the Department of Homeland Security. It all seems to be going smoothly but the ETA for the new card is September. I will have to plan travel carefully.

James takes Eileen and I for a tour of the Botanical Gardens in The Golden Gate Park. Beautiful place!

Friend from SLAC days, Greg Loew, contacts me. He wants help publicising his book, “Memories from Paris to Stanford” I have been lucky to rub shoulders with exceptional people; Greg is one of them. Buy his book.

I sit in the sun in a bistro on Washington Square in Little Italy. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Washington+Square/@37.8007752,-122.4128267,1685m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x808580f1a98e88a1:0x24c815888a8a9ff0!8m2!3d37.8007752!4d-122.4102464!16zL20vMDVibjly?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQyOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

I read the first pages of Greg’s book drinking excellent coffee with a hot; egg bacon, ham, cheese, salad croissant.

I spend hours watching birds at the feeders I have installed just outside my window. Actually I could do this all day quite happily.

Nothing terribly exciting, just the train-train quotidien. Where better to have a train-train than San Francisco?