In San Franciso

I arrived in San Franciso yesterday afternoon after uneventful flights from San Antonio to Denver and Denver to here. Cort, a long-time friend from Corpus Christi who lives here, was at the airport to meet me. We haven't seen each other in about 6 years, so it was fun to catch up on things last night.

I met Cort when he was 19 and I was 38. For some reason, we clicked as friends. Over time, I felt like our relationship involved me in the roll of mentor. To a certain extent, I came to feel as if he were the son I would never have--someone close to me who looked to me at times for guidance and someone I looked at with pride as I saw him accomplishing so much in his life. We have always managed to keep in touch and to share the events in our lives with each other. I am now 60 and he is 42, so there have been many changes through the years.

Cort owns his own home in San Francisco. He bought an older place and has completely remodeled the top floor to be a showplace like one sees in designer magazines. There are beautiful hardwood floors with elegant rugs in strategic places. The kitchen is of Euro design with lots of stainless steel and white marble. The general decor of the home is elegant and spare with white walls, orchid plants, contemporary paintings and photography, and furniture of modern classic design. Everything is elegant and perfect. Downstairs is an area still to be remodeled. It is just one big room that includes parking for the car. Eventually, it will be a two-car garage (a luxury in SF) and a guest bedroom and bath. The back lawn is paved with stones, lined with bamboo for privacy, and further landscaped in an Oriental fashion with a quiet fountain and other plants. The whole place is truly a fashion home.

Last night, we walked to the nearby Castro district. Then we ate dinner at a restaurant near here. Cort is at work today, and I will go out walking in town. There is fog and the temperatures are in the 60s. It's not too bad for being out, however. Cort has loaned me a fleece pullover to help keep me warm while I am here.

The zipper on the main section of my suitcase broke due to baggage handing yesterday. There were two zipper pulls. One of them got crushed and broke. What it means is that I can still zip the bag shut, but I cannot lock it. I will continue traveling with it and decide what to do along the way. I might get a new zipper installed somewhere like Thailand or Burma where it shouldn't be too expensive to do so. Or I might start shopping for a replacement suitcase. In the meantime, I will just have to trust that no one will try to steel from me when the suitcase is out of my sight. I will transfer the most important things to the pocks that can be locked and to my backpack which I can also lock.

I called SBC Yahoo this morning. When I tried to log onto my regular Yahoo mail account, it forced me into SBC Yahoo. I began to worry that there would be a problem getting my e-mail once the SBC Yahoo service is disconnected sometime today. The assured me that the regular Yahoo mail account would continue to be active once they disconnect my service, but they only told me that after first telling me that I had to go into my account and direct it to unbundle the regular Yahoo mail account from the SBC Yahoo service. I am hoping they are now right and that everything will work okay once they disconnect SBC Yahoo. But I will test it again tomorrow to see what happens. There are always little things like that to create a hassle and confusion when traveling!!