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April 23, 2005
Time, time, time.
After delaying our RTW trip, we've decided to leave in early June. An affable former co-worker has agreed to mind the old homestead while we peregrinate.
Mulling this over, I popped out to Safeway this ayem for juice and things. Once inside, a half-gallon of lactose-free milk gave me quite a start.
The sell-by date: 6/20/05. By then, we'll be traversing the Indian subcontinent. I nearly put the milk back, even though I knew the carton would be moldering in a landfill by Memorial Day. Pre-caffeinated cognitive dissonance; look for it in the next review of the DSM.
Pre-travel time is short and therefore precious. I must be more mindful about skritching my cat, keeping in touch with friends/relatives and sticking to vague plans to eat "better" and exercise "more often."
For reasons I don't fully understand, an air of impermanence hangs over my little world. Who'll curse sotto voce at asshat drivers on cell phones? Will my cat be permitted to drink from the bathroom faucet in her foster home?
I can't envision a day in which I won't check email, voice mail, blogs, news sites, fret about my Top Three Worries, and hear the confirmatory "ker-CHUNK!" of post through the mail slot downstairs.
Regardless, that day is coming soon, so I better get comfortable with the notion.
While L and I circumnavidate, other activities will punctuate my hours, days and weeks. A muezzin calling on the faithful? A swarm of bats leaving their cave at dusk? Or maybe something as mundane as a recurring blackout that forces me to write with flashlight and biro.
You don't need to tell me that I make these things more difficult than necessary. The rational part of me knows that San Francisco will still be rife with all the things I love and hate when we return. The city will be as ever.
And just who will I be?
Posted by Your Protagonist at April 23, 2005 12:56 PM