July 30th 1981

As usual, not a very active day.  Up at a reasonable hour, breakfasted, then drove in to Hayward with Meher and Salim, first to the bank (another drive-in) and then to a garage to get our car checked over.  The first one we tried was able to do the job straight away, for $16.50, so we waited there.  Of course, at the end the mechanic did not come over and tell us we had a perfect car (that only happens in dreams) – the news was more or less as expected.  Some new points were needed – we had a set sitting on top of the dashboard; the front shocks were worn, and, most important, the rider bar at the front was broken right thro’, a big and expensive job to repair, yet leaving it was dangerous.  Ho hum.  Anyway, we drove M + S back to the house, then immediately set off for San Francisco to do things we needed to do there.  The journey in was easy, so we were able to do the four things we needed to do quite easily.  1). To Safeway to pick up some pictures that had been developed again after we had returned them as unsatisfactory – they were much better this time.  2). To Crown depot to collect our outstanding wages – took a little while, but we were soon $100 richer.  3). Down to the 1 hour developing shop on Fisherman’s Wharf to order some re-prints for Bill + Meher, and, while we were waiting, 4). On to the Cannery (a shopping area) to buy a book for Aneema – we’d wanted “The Hobbit” but had to settle for “British Folk Tales”.  Drove back to Hayward, just about avoiding the traffic, and just in time for dinner – a beautiful chicken dish, with pumpkin.  And then in the evening we watched “Modern Times”, the Chaplin film.  Bill had brought it, and a projector, back from college, but unfortunately they hadn’t provided him with a spare spool, so that took a long time to find.  By the time it started, it was very late, and even then we could only watch 3 of the 5 reels – 2 were messed up.  What we did see tho’ was superb, especially the first part.

Not the most exciting of days, or diary posts – sorry about that.  Notable that the news about the car did not seem to disturb us too much, despite the described danger, such being the nonchalance of youth, I suppose.  And remarkable that we should attempt to watch a movie on a reel to reel projector; even then it was almost ancient technology; now, it comes across like a wind-up gramophone.  But still a classic movie, whatever the format.