July 31, 2024

I am in my last week on Howe Street. I have finished the first of the two novels L. lent me to read and am working my way through History of the Rain, slowly because the Paris Olympics are on and I spend late nights and early mornings watching gymnastics on my laptop.

I have checked out the closest pizza place and the Chinese takeout joint, had breakfast with a friend at Mama’s Royal Cafe and dinner with another at Teni East Kitchen. Dinner out or takeout provide me with food for at least another meal.

A breakfast out is an exception though: morning usually finds me feeding cats, grinding coffee beans and cooking something for breakfast: today it was an egg and two slices of sesame bread with honey. My leftover Chinese lunch is heating in the oven (brown rice, string beans and spicy eggplant).

I am becoming adept at bathtub laundry, tossing like-colored clothes in with me when I bathe or wash my hair, leaving them to soak for awhile, wringing the water out and carrying them to the drying rack on the front porch. The secret is to do laundry every few days so that I do not have more than I can hang out. We are having typical Bay Area summer weather with cool, overcast mornings and warmer afternoons.

Yesterday I took the afternoon off from a vexing situation. My friend J. spirited me off to Tilden Park in her little red car. We rode the Merry-Go-Round (my choice) and the Steam Train (hers) and capped our day off with ice cream at iScream on Solano Ave. I had a coffee malt (no dinner necessary) and J. ate chocolate and blueberry ice creams.

Pandora, the chunky cat, stays close to me, almost always in the same room. Cassandra, the skinny one, remains aloof, although she did give me slow blinks from afar the other day. She is not ready to be friends.

It has been a lovely stay in a lovely neighborhood. The house is quiet and cool. My hosts sent me a postcard of Yeats from Ireland. I have a new favorite cafe and a couple of restaurants I like here, having found them just before I leave California. I still have some food to use up — sauerkraut and sausages, cheese, ramen noodles, frozen blueberries and maple syrup and more coffee than I can drink.