The Chronicles of Charlie: The Assassin Who’s Not Very Good At His Job
Dan | September 30, 2005
I’m off for the weekend; taking the train to the Peninsula, a wedding rehearsal, then a wedding, then the funeral, then home on Sunday. I was hoping to hit the bluegrass festival in the park, but other concerns definitely take precedence. Ah, well. Only one more weekend like this this year.
Hopefully minus [...]
Dan | September 29, 2005
Under any other circumstances, the walk from the clinic to downtown Manchester would have been pleasant. It had turned into a very nice high-70s day, the side of the highway was pleasantly shaded with fully-leafed trees, and traffic was light. Under our circumstances, the walk sucked. I had loaded an extra twenty [...]
Dan | September 29, 2005
Writing not as much in these past few days, because, well, I’m back to running like a nutcase. I went up and over Mt. Clarendon last night, then did another four miles this morning. So, I hurt. A lot. Ow.
And, I’m going to a wedding rehearsal, a wedding, and a funeral this weekend. [...]
Dan | September 28, 2005
Here’s what’s happened so far:
1) Up: finished editing a little thing that’s posted below, eight am this morning. It’s still not particularly good, but I got it done. Accomplishment before getting out of bed!
2) Down: Got email from my dad; an old family friend died last night after a pretty horrific bout with [...]
Dan | September 28, 2005
Dave walked back out to the table, where he had left three quarters of his sandwich. He looked at it, made a face, then thudded down into his seat.
“Nothing,” he said softly. “Nothing at all.”
We packed up our food wordlessly, shouldered our packs, and walked out to the Stratton resort [...]
Dan | September 27, 2005
Went to the library today, picked up:
The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper by John D. MacDonald.
The Anomalies by Joey Goebel
The Complete Strangers In Paradise, vol 1 by Terry Moore (on the recommendation of my brother; it’s supposed to be an amazing graphic novel, really a character-based piece)
Preacher: Ancient History by Garth Ennis. More [...]
Dan | September 27, 2005
I took the 6 today, because they’ve basically eliminated the #7. As I got on, a pretty wacky woman entered with me, and pushed her way to the back. Half a block down, another dude physically blocked the bus, then got on.
“Give me my package, woman!” he snarled. The woman, who was [...]
Dan | September 25, 2005
It had been a relatively chilly East Coast summer, until we started hiking. The minute we crossed over the border into Vermont, a heat wave hit the entire state, pushing temperatures well into the nineties. By our second day, we were making bitter jokes about watering the plants of the trail with our [...]
Dan | September 25, 2005
I’d forgotten that I’d never used this backpack for actual backpacking before; only for a bit of travel and knocking around. After spending two days in the Ventana Wilderness, carrying about 25 pounds (too much food; I always do that) up and down innumerable ridges…my shoulders hurt. My wrists hurt from over-using my trekking [...]
Dan | September 23, 2005
I’ve got my backpack next to me at my desk, complete with water bottles and trekking poles. People looked at me weirdly on the bus this morning; I guess even in San Francisco, the whole using-public-transportation-to-go-backpacking thing is a little bit odd. Whatever. I’m odd.
I can’t decide if going off by myself [...]
Dan | September 22, 2005
Went and saw the Waco Brothers last night at the Bottom of the Hill. Amazing show; John Langford and Sally Timms opened, and Sally showed up for the last few songs by the Wacos, as well. My fave was Sally’s joke:
Q: How do you know when it’s time to clean up the house?
A: [...]
Dan | September 21, 2005
Hm…hopefully heading to Big Sur this coming weekend for a quick overnight backpacking trip, most likely a solo jaunt to Sykes Hot Springs. It’s pretty sad that this is the only backpacking trip that I’m going to be able to go on this year; somehow along the way life intervened and I’m not even [...]
Dan | September 20, 2005
This evening, I walked over to have dinner with an old friend. She lives with her girlfriend over near Divisadero, about a ten minute walk from my place. It was a mellow night for walking; very little traffic, not too many people out, and a very bright 3/4 moon.
It’s funny; [...]
Dan | September 20, 2005
Is here. It’s rare that an interview with an author will completely turn me off of a book, but this one made me want to do violent things to Benjamin Kunkel. It’s pretty amazing that this guy, the darling of the New York literary scene (that phrase makes me want to vomit [...]
Dan | September 19, 2005
I was running this morning, thinking about breakup songs, specifically ones with male/female back-and-forth vocals. So, I thought I’d make a list.
1) “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” by Stars. My current obsession. It opens with a Shakespearian voice saying “When there’s nothing left to burn, you must set yourself on fire.” [...]
Dan | September 19, 2005
Damned right, me hearties! It’s International Talk Like A Pirate Day!. So, belt on y’ cutlass, run amok, plunder, pillage, and keel-haul everyone in sight! If ye be lookin’ for pirate gear, ye could do far worse than to go to 826 Valencia and gear up.
Dan | September 18, 2005
I took the weekend away from my computer, away from concern and worry, attending a 30th birthday party down the Peninsula. Of my old high school friends, I’m the youngest, and the last to hit the big 3-0. Three weeks and one day from this post, if you’re interested. I [...]
Dan | September 16, 2005
1) The latest albums from The Lovemakers and Stars.
2) The reaction last night when friend of mine announced to two other friends of mine (none of these people knew each other before yesterday evening) that she’d been dumped this weekend. All three of us responded “So, when do we get to go [...]
Dan | September 14, 2005
Finally finished the Dan-drives-across-the-country series, which turned out to be much longer and more depressing than I thought it would be. It’s weird; I started writing this after a night at a bar where I started talking about the initial drive to Vegas and our nutty night there, and a few friends said that [...]
Dan | September 13, 2005
We left Pittsburgh with a tidal wave of hugs and goodbyes; Cathy was headed off in two days to Slovakia to work for the government, and it was unlikely either of us would run into her again. With two days to return the car, we had decided to take it easy and visit [...]
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