good day sunshine

actually it's pretty damn hot with the sun broiling everything in sac. it is a typical late summer day when the light changes to a hint of fall gold instead of the harsh fluorescent radiation of high summer but the heat sticks like gum on the bottom of your shoe. but what matter is the heat when geof huth drives up for a long visit.

we met at the corner stone, a dive breakfast joint located in midtown on the corner of 24th and j st, where we caught up and the conversation veered from poets, poetry, the states of our health, movies, tattoos [geof reminded me that either i had asked him in an email or maybe i posted on my blog a question to geof if he would consider writing visual poems for the purpose of having them inked on the skin. i think he said he's got a little collection of them now] and so forth. the ease and laughter we shared felt more like we just last saw each other on the previous weekend rather than nearly a year and a half.

after breakfast we turned the corner and walked the 10 steps to the book collector and had an even longer visit with owner/publisher richard hansen. i'm still high from the banter, laughter and atmosphere as if old friends were making a reaquaintance. which it was, i'd say. i regret not taking my camera but the battery has been crapping out very quickly making the thing almost useless. but i knew geof would have his camera and it was a pleasure to watch him go thru richard's store with camera in hand snapping photos and picking up books and ephemera. geof and i exchanged our most recent publications, and geof bought a small stack of books, including several pubs by d.a. levy, while i picked up a couple of chaps from richard's store.

geof's been chronicling his n california tour at his blog and his book-buying binge. i'd be curious to see if he writes about the city of stockton, but i don't know if he's been in that city since he's staying on the outskirts. there are a couple of very good writers who live in stockton, such as poet soterre torregian and horror novelist dennis etchison. however, my city, sac, is not the east bay or sf. duh! it can't be but it does have its small charms, the heat not withstanding. so after a very hectic and stressful week seeing geof again and visiting richard with geof at the book collector was like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. the day became good again.