Disturbing the piece

"There's no law that says I can't..."
That's the response I got from my "neighbor" at 6am this morning, when I asked him what the hell he was doing with a leaf-blower at that time of the morning. Granted, it's not like it was 4am or anything, and I only had another 1/2 hour to sleep, but WTF?
"Everyone else does it!"
Really? Point to one other asshole out here right now with a gas-powered leaf-blower. Seriously.

At first I figured it must be some whacked-out drunk or something. I mean, even the weekend crowd doesn't get out this early. They usually wait until about 9am. Nope, it turns out it was my neighbor two houses down, who we've been very cordial with in the past. He kept ranting about how there's no law that says he can't. How about common courtesy?

What the hell ever happened to communities? I've only lived here a little over 20 years, so I can't speak about what it may or may not have been like before that, but in that time, I've certainly not seen much in the way of friendly neighbors or community. Folks here are generally pretty self-centered. We know a couple of the older neighbors here, and they're pretty nice, but even with them, it's all about their little corner of the street. I guess it's the fact that there's so many renters on our street, too. They come and they go. No roots laid down, so why bother to care that most folks don't want to hear you revving the hell out of your green 240z at midnight.
I love downtown San Jose. As much shit as I talk about it, I'd still rather live here than a condo above Satana Row. I guess we kinda just got a bad block. We were lucky with our last house. It wasn't in the nicest part of San Francisco, but it was a (relatively) quiet street, and we knew quite a few of the neighbors, and were friendly with almost everybody. I guess living on a major thoroughfare has its drawbacks, huh? I'd still suggest the area to folks. It's got some perks to it, and if you can afford a nice place in the North Side or Naglee Park, I think you'd be set. But the people that live around us are, with some exceptions, just not pleasant neighbors.

I'm still dodgy.

Or at least, I am again. I guess I've come full-circle.

I was comparing my old passport with my new one. I was so young then! but some things stay mostly the same.

I was walking last night, in my pea coat and knit cap, and I laughed out loud when I thought of my first days in Bath.
Pea coat, beanie, thick glasses, a crappy goatee, and a few extra pounds. Same as now.
I remember asking the lady bus-driver on my 3rd or 4th evening ride into town if she thought I looked dodgy. She said yes. I think that started something.
Over time, the goatee went, about 25 lbs went and I swore of blue jeans.
When Joan came to visit a couple of months later, she nearly walked past me at the airport. She didn't recognize me. Could've been the recently dyed ginger hair as well.
Lasted a while with all that, really. I guess it's easy to get back into the old routines, and living in an area that, while not it's not impossible, walking is made impractical.
So now, I'm about 25 lbs heavier, back with the jeans, the goatee, etc. Never gave up the pea coat, though. Too practical, even if people make longshoreman cracks.

It's the people...

I'm sitting at The Bell. Having a nice, local ale. Turns out, Director's, which I'd been longing for for years, is no longer available. Sometimes people look at me like I just came out of a time warp. I guess I kind of did.
I have to wonder why we didn't come here more often. It's nice, roomy, has a nice garden in back, free wi-fi (oh, I guess that didn't matter then...)
Good beer, and they had live music. Right down on Walcot, behind the Paragon. Ehh... Who knows?
So I've come to realize that what I've been missing all these years is only partially Bath. Turns out, the biggest thing I've been missing is the people and the lifestyle. Unfortunately, I can't just pop in on everybody and drag them out to the pub for 2 days at the tail end of a business trip. Would be nice.
I've gotten a lot out of this trip, emotionally. It's been nice just to refresh my images of the place and time, even if the happy faces aren't in the new images. I can superimpose them in my mind.
It's strange. Yeah, we saw and did a lot in our short stay abroad. I'm glad I've been to Stonehenge, Glastonbury, all those castles in Wales, etc. But I'm most glad I did it with the good people I did. The PEOPLE are what are etched in my mind's eye. I can get photographs of any of those locations off the internet, better than any I could take myself. But I have a few very special photos from back in the day that mean the world to me.
Doors that were once red are now painted black.
Fences are up restricting access to other spots.
And the pubs... they're just... empty.
I miss everybody so much, even those folks that I unfortunately can't remember their names. It has been a while.
Hell, even the post office, that center of trans-atlantic correspondence, is now a boutique.

I forgot how lonely Bath is to visit.
I'm feeling now much like I did in late June '97. I had come back to Bath after going to London and Scotland with my family, and Germany, Slovakia, Austria and Czech after that.
When I came back to Bath, nobody was here. I was in town alone. Yeah, Mary and Philip were here, but there was just nothing to do. I needed my friends. I'd have settled for an acquaintance.
I'm ready to go home now. There are a few more sights to see, and I'm taking Mary out tonight to a "proper" pub. After that, yeah... I'll be all set.

Time flies...

Yeah, it's been three months since the last post.
Compare that to the fact that it's been over ten YEARS since I've been in Bath. I just got here a couple of hours ago.

Yes, it's changed a bit in that time. much in the same ways that I have. Some parts have stayed very much the same, others have grown quite a bit, and not necessarily for the better!
When I got off the plane at Heathrow, "it" hit me. Just that familiar sense you can get from certain places and never others. I get the same thing when I go to Ohio. England is just so... English. And I love it. I had a great six days in Braunschweig, and we got a lot of work done, but England is different. Especially Bath. This place gives a whole new meaning to old. I mean, anything over 100 years old in California is made of mud. I think the building I went to school in at the Paragon was like 200+ years old. That's still not that old for this town. It's just a totally different perspective.

As my coach came into town, I got incredibly emotional like I never have before. I can't totally explain it. A bit of anxiety mixed with melancholy with a heapin' helping of nostalgia on top. After we got out of Swindon, I think maybe around Box, all of the buildings start being made of Bathstone. Kind of a yellow-ish stone. It just was so familiar.

To back up a couple of paces, I should say that I was devastated to find out that Philip Morris, tha man of the house where I lived in '97, had passed on around Christmas '05. I used to call them every year, and somehow I let '05 slip. When I called this past Christmas, Mary (his wife) told me he had died. I just felt so sad, because I always looked so forward to seeing the both of them again, and I felt like a bad "son" for missing the previous holidays. I decided I needed to come soon. So when a trip to Braunschweig came up, I turned a 3+ hour layover in London into 3 days. It'll be short and sweet, but sweet nonetheless.

Anyway....
Apparently there's a World Cup of Rugby, and apparently England was playing France (presumably for the championship?) By the looks of things in Bath this evening, they must have won. I've never seen so many people out! And it's really warm here right now. Just a bizarre "homecoming" for me.

I did the necessary first things- had a Guiness and then managed to walk across the City Centre and find the Schwarz Brothers and got a Chicken Special with veg. streaky rashers. Basically Morningstar Bacon strips. Brought me back...

I probably walked about 2-3 miles, up and down all the old streets.

This is just a trip.

Anyway, it's really making me think about what's happened in my life in the last ten years. In some ways, I get sad, thinking it's not been much. Upon reflection I see there's been quite a lot! I finished school, got married, got a "real" job, played in a moderately popular band, played some great shows (and played a LOT of really crappy shows!), bought a couple of houses and I have an awesome son. Overall I'm happy with the life I've had and have. It's the lifestyle I have now that's not right. It seems that all of my time is occupied, but I'm not enjoying most of it. It started to hit me in Braunschwieg. Last time I was there, one thing that jumped out at me was seeing older men and women riding bikes. Such a foreign concept! For a small city, it sure feels alive. It seems like more of a city than San Francisco, and certainly San Jose. You gotta love a place where a car is a liability, or at least I do.

I'm rambling. It's late, and I'm just full of thoughts. I think this'll do for now.

MZ

Wow... It's been a while

Hope nobody's been waiting for anything new.
I promise I'll try to write something worthwile later.

You look stupid.

Sorry, but unless your name is Nichelle Nichols and/or you're in a car and actually on a call, you need to take that thing out of your ear.
It should not only be legal, but I'd even say a civic duty that all good citizens should slap bluetooth headsets off of folks that consider them bling-bling.