February 2, 2005; San Diego, California

As I put on a supposedly clean shirt this morning I noticed a rank smell. Not completely out of the ordinary, it could have been me, as it often is. But this smell was different. It smelled like... like... like cat piss. The cat in El Paso had pissed on all my clean shirts. Probably getting back at me for picking him up by the nape and throwing him out of places he didn't belong. Maybe just some karmic retribution.

I threw on my least stinky shirt, got my cell phone service suspended and back-tracked to Tucson to find that the motel staff had not seen a phone, even though there were two calls placed an hour and a half after I left.

On the road to San Diego I ran into the Santa Anna Winds in the mountains. After going down the road like I had not had my V8 today, I saw the ocean and all was well. Shortly after I came through the mountains, troopers started to advise truckers to pull off the road to prevent their rigs from being blown over.

Once in San Diego, I found Sara's place. Sara was a year ahead of me on the UNI Swim team- back in the good old days before the men's program got cut. She is at UCSD earning another degree, and also willing to give me a spot on the living room floor.