At one time in college I had big hair. Not huge, but very big, like a halo, about down to my shoulders. I met another young man who had even bigger hair than I did, his big hair was like a magnificent pyramid, with a spread at the base of at least two feet and extending above his skull by a good 8 inches. So we became friends.

He also had Weird Al aviator glasses. Anyway, after college he moved out to San Francisco, stopping on the way to sleep in a tool shed to avoid the chicken pox. But he settled here, taking off once to go to Alaska, where he caught a 72 pound halibut. And he eventually developed a pronounced interest in climbing mountains. But he also bought a house, which is where he invited me to dinner.

It is a very clean house. White rugs, white marble floors and white leather couch set and no clutter of any kind visible. He prepared an excellent meal, which involved braised tofu, some esoteric rice chips, gruyere and olives, served with Chimay lambic. Then he set fire to some wood in barrel for a controlled burning bonfire, topped with rosemary to smell nice. And another fire of briquettes, which we used to roast some chicken, eaten with potatoes.

It was a nice spread, and, even though the previous owner of the house had poured concrete on the patio, there was a garden planted, which required the rental of a wet saw, to cut out a strip of concrete and put in loam. The garden was going along a little meekly, which was the result of deer eating stuff, as well as some underground animal like gophers eating roots. Undaunted, he had planted some elaborate plants inside steel shark cages. The point is, there was a nice view off his patio, which faced a wide valley with another high hill in the distance, which is what I always wished I had myself. I think it is important to articulate what you want to yourself, in order to set about getting it, which is what he did. Not that I want to live in a white house, but I like the idea of high elevation, so when the Mongolian hordes come for me I have the topological advantage and can pour hot oil on them.