writing in tsunami land we thought about evacuating being as we're right on the coast but orders never came and the air raid sirens that are regularly tested Tuesdays at noon and have been for 35 years or more did not sound out here at Ocean Beach, and I wasn't one of the many observers standing on berms watching for Armageddon because on the one-in-a-million chance that a tsunami did come I didn't want to be awarded a posthumous Darwin Award. It would have hurt my posthumous pride. so unlike my many surfer friends gazing languidly westward ... I stayed well back from the shore and ate breakfast and listened to news reports about boat damage in the Santa Cruz harbor ...  so it's safe to come to the workshop on Saturday as it's the first one of a new series, and as usual I'm not exactly sure who's coming but I know there's room so if you'd like to join us and get in on the first session, please do come. As always the address is 1966 48th Avenue SF CA 94116 the yellow swirly house We start at 3 p.m. and go till 6 $50 to drop in or $380 for the 8-week session I'm not sure what Norma's baking but it's always fantastic 415 308-5685 for questions or directions see you then  Sunday March 27 is the one-year anniversary Portuguese Artists Colony reading at FivePoints Arthouse  I'm already working on a new piece for that. Mark your calendar. I love doing the Portuguese Artists Colony thing. Once a month, the last Sunday of the month, at 5 p.m., we go to Fivepoints Arthouse at 72 Tehama (bounded by Howard and Folsom, First & Second Steets) to entertain you with our new material and hear others read from their novels and short stories and plays and poems and we hang out with fascinating people we meet and listen to them play music and especially now we like to go and see the live writing competition, in which four contestants are given a prompt and must write brilliantly under duress and then read aloud, and the winner is then conscripted into next month's army to read a completed work. It's growing in popularity so come early to get a seat.    and don't forget the free noon writing practice every friday at cafe la boheme We keep doing it. Apparently we can't stop. what is making me happy OK, the sun is out today and I'm fed and well housed You know, sometimes I have to look around and find things to be grateful for because gratitude is not a natural state for a restless, curmudgeonly soul but Norma's just driving up with the dogs in the car and sometimes just having her and the dogs is enough. That and a blue sky.  what there is to look forward to well, I might be slow but I keep working on these books, my own, and the books of others, and we keep doing the workshops, and I have a new guitar! I almost forgot! I have a new guitar and I'm writing songs again! besides, heck, what's not to look forward to? See you soon!