THIS IS BAT COUNTRY

During the late afternoon Martin dropped in, and we discussed his latest lovely aquisition. He had for a long time veered toward larger briars, but his current tastes are more in the Dunhill group three borderline group four range. Normal sizes. He smokes two pipes a day, but he loads them more than once. He smokes clean tobacco, and is quite as neurotic and anal about these things as I am. Which is excellent.
A clean pipe is a happy pipe.

Two of my favourite gentlemen had asked me to clean up their briars, and a third dropped off a Porsche Design semi-bent for servicing. They are all three splendid fellows, but judging by their smoking equipment, doing the laundry at their houses must be a horrendous thing.
I am mighty glad that I am not their helpmeet. Some women are absolute saints.

Yes of course I assume that their wives do the laundry
Somebody has to, and clearly they cannot.
Cleanliness is too complex.

Left to their own devices they'd eat off of paper plates.

Look, boys, the cold or warm cycle both work, provided you do it often enough and use a sufficient quantity of detergent. Drying, also, could be cold or warm. There are laundromats in most reasonably civilized countries, even in many frontier settlements here. Worst case scenario, contract a dhobi, especially if you have shirts that need ironing. Knowing a tailor is also a good thing. Sometimes those pants are too baggy around the waist and bottom, and professionally you don't want to look like a slob. There's always Mrs. Ma on Stockton Street, or Mrs. Kwan on the alleyway with the merchant who denies having cigarettes for sale even though his sign in Chinese clearly says that that is his main line of business.
Just don't look white if you ask about smokes, okay? It spooks him.


Sadly, Marin is not really a civilized place.
There are some things missing.

But, as you can see from the illustration, there is plenty of parking, and that fools people. Especially Americans, who judge the world by such things.

Yesterday the road to the bush (the rural districts inland where there are bugs, rattlesnakes, mountain lions, and bears) was packed bumper to bumper with people taking advantage of the three-day weekend. So the city should be nice and quiet for the most part. Yes, tourists in all the usual places, but my neighborhood is not scenic or famously picturesque. On Monday I'll hike over the hill for dumplings in Chinatowtown and a smoke. With a bit of luck I will not need to use English at all, even to Germans.

North Beach is out of the question entirely. It is often filled with Italians, Midwesterners, and people speaking French or Arabic. And many people being artistic and intellectual.

Non possiamo fermarci qui questo è il paese dei pipistrelli.



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