I finally figured out why I see the same old Chinese woman every morning on the way to work. I thought it was just a sustained coincidence, but yesterday, when out moving the car, I saw her, about a half hour earlier than usual. But as I sat there, she passed twice, then I saw her again when I was on the way to work. Conclusion: she walks around the block in circles. One thing I see plenty of on the way to work is Chinese people. Not that there are that many Chinese people in San Francisco, though there are quite a few. But they seem to be the only people out in the morning. Many gather in the small parks that I pass, doing stretching and some doing exercise that looks like some variant of Tai Chi or Ba Tuan Chin or Nei Kung.

Also there are snails. I don't know where they came from, but you see them in parks. I can't imagine that they climbed up from the ocean, since it would take a million years, plus they would get squished by cars. Maybe they come from birds that drop them or they escape from restaurants. All I know is I have seen quite a few land snails. Perhaps this is the work of a person who has, for some unknowable motivation, the will to procure snails and transpose them to parks, or perhaps this is simply Mother Nature at work.

In any case, it is certainly odd. Speaking of odd, I have also seen reports that mountain lions are coming out and attacking people just south of the city. Also, you hear plenty of coyotes howling at night when you go even a few miles out of town.

These predators, coupled with the fact that I am often woken up by what I imagine are teenagers fighting on the street or yelling, smashing stuff, has me thinking it's time I got a gun, though when I half facetiously suggested that to someone here, that what I wanted was to sit on my fire escape with night vision goggles and a scattergun, he was deeply upset. So to clarify, I'm not saying I want to go hunting people who wake me up, but I'm not not saying that either. I mean, to roughly quote the Clash song, when Ivan kicks down my front door, I would rather come out with my hands on the trigger than over my head. And by Ivan I mean a mountain lion.

Hard as it may be to believe, the NRA just held a meeting in San Francisco. I attribute that to rich people, as the rank and file out here would have to be overwhelmingly anti-gun, but I'm sure there are rich people who are staying up nights afraid. A real problem with the whole gun nut mentality is that while, of course you want overwhelming firepower when a mountain lion jumps on your head, you'd have to go around with a loaded gun all the time, and would almost certainly shoot something other than a mountain lion. Maybe it's not so weird that the NRA is here, as there is a gun club on the 101 just south of San Francisco. The cops were just ordered not to wear american flags on their uniforms, as in pins or buttons, as people complained that they were intimidating them when they tried to protest the war. Which I found surprising. Not that people were intimidated by cops with flag pins, but that the department told them to not wear the flag pins.