The second quest of #SFPursuit was very well done! There is still time tomorrow if you're interested completing a scavenger hunt of 13 events in the #SFBA #SanFrancisco area over the next month. [Edit: It could come back, too; and even if you can't complete all the quests there are plenty of fun excursions to try.] https://sfpursuit.org/
Relating to my walk yesterday
6AM will come too soon. The past couple of days, I did not want to make yet more appointments with doctors and lawyers, so I’ve idled pointlessly. It’s an early, long day tomorrow and I don’t want to take notes or go to the tests. I will, but it’s been hard. Arguing has been hard. Seeing rapid declines and poor choices. New routines have been hard, or willfully ignored; I feel terrible having to cajole them, the word “infantalise” on my mind at all times. Wounds from long ago, maybe even hurts and traumas older than I am, sit like another person at the table. I’m hopeful, some days, and those are the times we plan a long-scheduled vacation. And the next hour is another crisis. And that’s when hope crashes, and we debate tossing our plane tickets in the trash.
And at the heart of it: I can’t make everyone happy, and I can’t keep my elderly parents safe from harm. They’ll have to go someday, like we all do. I try not to judge myself for that. I know I’m going to anyway.
A $3 @mta.info@bsky.brid.gy subway fare and some good Q train timing can buy you one hell of a view of the July 4th fireworks and the Brooklyn Bridge light show!
Huge shoutout to the train operator for slow rolling over the Manhattan Bridge and the conductor for announcing it.
The sound of every device and object powering up when the power gets restored is a little unsettling. The shredder, the computer fans, the DVR setup, the heater. It's like somebody restarted the entire apartment at once.
While the power outage is inconvenient for work, or meals, or heat, or hot water…at least the bidet still works. Priorities.
@akareilly
Just going to point out that "shitposting" is just an anagram for "TOP INSIGHTS" and leave it at that.
Thanks for following along this month for queer books for Pride!
You can find the full list at https://kence.org/2026/06/30/queer-books-for-pride-2026-edition/ and all prior lists (120 different books in total) at https://kence.org/tag/queerbooksforpride/
I hope you find something that makes you laugh, maybe something that makes you cry, but most importantly something that makes you feel loved, included, and seen.
Happy Pride! 🏳️🌈
#pride2026 Weekend lights in #SanFrancisco, photos from tonight and last night. Just noticed the illuminated outline of the Pink Triangle tonight.
#SanFrancisco #Pride #dykemarch
Happy Pride!
My mother called my phone four times in a row and left two voicemail messages while the doctor was trying to take my blood pressure.
It was a little elevated.
Your guide to S.F. Pride 2026: Marches, parties, and more
Looking for what to do in San Francisco for Pride weekend? Check out our guide to the biggest parties, marches, and events....
I believe that playing "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie at a medical appointment is simply cruel.
Even at the dentist's office. "If Heaven and Hell decide / that you should use more Fluoride..."
The nurse smiled behind his mask and told us that in Hawaiian pidgin there was a phrase "talk story," meaning to talk about life and living, and that he enjoyed our "good talk story." I said yes, I did too and thanked him again for his help with my father. I don’t know for sure if the nurse had heard me, but I appreciate his grace if he had.
Today while I was looking up the term I found the Hawaiian word “wala’au” which can mean smalltalk or "useless" chitchat. But the story here: (https://dapidgin.com/olelo/walaau) hit me, given where we both stood in the Veteran’s hospital. Easy chit-chat and too much smalltalk is the sound that people make when things are going okay. When things go bad, people get quiet. So it’s a good sign if we can talk story instead of worrying about the dire situation around us.
I hope I wasn't being too much of an uptight haole. Thank you for the good talk story.
(2/2) #storytime #story
I went into the exam room with my father and the nurse who was helping him, who was a nice, talkative Hawaiian man. He prepped my dad for a quick medical test and talked about places we've lived in the bay area, where he lived (and where we had visited) in Hawai’i, and how it was working through the first year of COVID in healthcare, where there was so much uncertainty and need.
I felt a little awkward with my rather deaf father half-dressed and not really following along in the conversation. The nurse led us back into the lobby to wait for the doctor and said it would be just a minute, and went in to the office. I said to my dad, clearly enough to be heard, "He was certainly chatty, wasn't he?" My dad nodded and then pointed behind me, where the nurse was standing again.
I felt the blood rush to my face, realizing he hadn't heard the words I was going to say next, which were: "Could you understand him with the mask on? This is what we were talking about."
(1/2) #storytime #story
Trying to make an appointment for a physical and to get a generic prescription refilled. The doctor's office I used to go to is now the Clinic of Theseus—over the past couple years, they were bought by a new health provider group, added a new doctor, lost nurses to different offices, and eventually the original doctors left for new practices and medical groups. Even the web portal is new (and lists none of my health or visit history.)
I can't decide if I want to: A) follow the original doctor I liked but haven't seen in more than 7 years, at a new practice where I'd be a new patient; B) see the FNP I saw last year, who is also in a new office but at least with the same medical group; or C) go to the original office who probably has my health history but whose MD and PA I have never met. And I'm terrible at deciding.
I'm fortunate that all of these options accept my insurance plan right now, but of course that may change at the whim of the insurance company.
In 1941, Irving Berlin wrote a song protesting Hitler called When That Man is Dead And Gone. It's had a recent uptick in popularity, for some reason...
On Friday afternoon I literally said, "I'm afraid to start the laundry for fear of having to leave partway through." I'm pleased(?) to say it's Sunday and we're back and finishing the other half of the laundry. 🙃
In art school my Introduction to Painting teacher said my painting style reminded her of David Hockney. At the time I wasn't sure if she meant that as a positive or a negative—what I knew of his work was full of stiff figures and flattened colors, which was something she also critiqued in us as new painters. In retrospect, maybe she was implying some sort of sensibility shared by gay artists. But as a budding art photographer, I was definitely inspired by his work at the time and appreciate his body of work, paint, photo, digital.
RIP David Hockney
David Hockney has died aged 88 (smoking until the end no doubt).
Few artists have managed to bridge the art world & popular culture so well as Hockney; his work was often both innovative *and* popular.
He will be missed, but his work will live on and be enjoyed by future generations.
I salute a truly great experimental artist.