Originally published in the S.F. Examiner on May 23, 2019.
Despite not wanting to set a bad example for my two-year-old by staring at a phone all day on the couch, I can’t bear the thought of sitting hunched over the computer right now. That’s why I’m thumbing these words into my stupid iPhone, letter by letter, resisting idiotic autocorrect suggestions and feeling like a sad hypocrite in the process.
This weather is bumming me out. I’m ready for the fog of summer and the empty promises of warmth when it blows off. I mean, who doesn’t love summer in San Francisco?
Soon, there will be flocks of tourists again. Those who haven’t been scared off already by the gritty reality of a boomtown. Some might even take taxis.
Tomorrow, the sun’ll come out again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But today, it’s cold and grey.
When Irina takes the kid toy shopping at Ikea, I sneak out back for a smoke. Survey my potted garden. All this rain has been hard on the marigolds. The mums might bloom any day, though, if we get more sunny ones in a row.
Returning to the couch, I grab a blanket. It’s not just the dank gloom outside making me want to crawl back under the covers. Any time I check Facebook, there’s even more gloom, mixed with plenty of doom, in the news. If it’s not the end of Game of Thrones, it’s the usual political nonsense or, based on your feed settings, the current state of San Francisco.
Which is – newsflash – horrible.
Everyone is bummed out.
The New Yorker and Washington Post have nothing good to report lately.
That’s nothing new. Hit pieces on The City come and go, each one more or less on target, the latest crop as close to a bulls-eye as any wordmonger can get, but hey… What are you gonna do?
As if anyone needs another reason to succumb to ennui and just drift into the oblivion of poly fibers on a rainy day…
Read the rest here.
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