Michele and I set aside today for packing before leaving tomorrow morning for LAX. We got to it after breakfast, contemplating clothes for parts of the trip, looking at the weather report for Nagasaki (warm now, cool later). Around my suitcase a stack of shirts, a small pyramid of socks, hats. When you have size 14 feet every pair of shoes has an impact. The plants got a drink, notes for caretakers finished. And by early afternoon our bags were zipped up and rolling.
Now what? We made the command decision to drive up to Los Angeles and not worry about tackling rush hour traffic in the morning. And here we are, ensconced in the mighty fine Manhattan Beach Best Western. The exterior is an ugly block of a building, but inside it’s a Spanish Villa, with an interior courtyard. I think there’s maybe five other guests here. Our dinner stop in Costa Mesa (“Pom and Olive”) was good food but also nearly empty. Lots of people on the highway headed somewhere else.
The trip has started! I’m looking forward to a change of environment. The current occupants generate an onslaught of… news? crap? every day that is performative and difficult to ignore. I know, I know, important policy stuff is also happening. But there is something McLuhan-esque about governing now. Evidently my attention is what is most valuable, not my opinion. Unfortunately I am not made of iron, and I often find it hard to dodge the topic-of-the-day. I resent it. So I welcome a break from the political celebrity machine, I think it will do me good.
Ken Chin-Purcell 