Day 339 of (mostly) Staying the Fuck Inside

Yesterday was a rare day of venturing out.

Numbers have been down, we took a day trip to San Francisco. We spent the morning at the zoo, visiting the rhinos, and our other friends. It seemed a little more populated, people-wise, than our foray there in November. On the other hand, we got to watch the otters (who are usually just hanging out) be exceptionally cute, and a very bouncy wolverine. Sadly, Larry the tiger is no longer with us, having passed away, but we did get to see the snow leopards. Boone and Gauhati (the rhinos) were in good spirits, and we spent the most time with them. We also checked in on the grizzlies and the wolves. Bruce the hippo was happily snoozing away in the water, as if he were having a spa day.

After the zoo, we took a trip into the Haight. I’ve been piling up a LOT of movies that I’ve been wanting to trade in at Amoeba. The original plan was to go last May, but then the pandemic hit. I think this was ultimately good timing, as their stock seemed a little less robust that it usually is. I gave them some stuff that I knew they’d be interested in (and that I’d upgraded to Blu-Ray), and received a very generous store credit in exchange. We weren’t even able to come up with enough stuff we wanted to use it all up, so there will be another trip in the future. Some highlights – The Begotten on DVD, The Conversation on Blu-Ray (figure I should probably have seen this by now), Crash (Cronenberg) and Dead Man on Criterion Blu-Ray, a replacement copy of Decasia, and a few other things.

One thing I noticed about SF that has never been an issue with me, is how claustrophobic it all seemed. Houses and buildings crammed up against each other. They’ve always been that way, but over the last year I’ve become (overly) aware of space and boundaries. Surprisingly, social distancing in the Haight (and inside Amoeba) was very easy to maintain. Amanda scored serious rock star parking, literally right outside their front door on Haight St. The only bit of unease was having to point out to the kid not to step in the human shit that was on the sidewalk right next to our car.

I’ll put it down as a lesson in being aware of one’s surroundings, and try not to think about it any harder than that.

Today, other than kiddo’s vocal lessons, we pretty much did nothing.

Having a difficult time maintaining focus on anything I try to read.

This is a new twist, and if you know me, you can understand that it’s a twist that I find supremely annoying.