The following is a work of fiction.

Not Nick Nolte's Diary, Malibu, California
January 15, 2005

Improvise

The sky over the ocean today is a wonderful cocktail of cumulus congestus and altostratus. John Toll has a great joke about how many shades of gray there are, but I can't remember it. The view reminded me of John. No one can take a better picture, Diary. Don't bother asking him to do private portraits. He turned me down and said he didn't have the right insurance. I left it at that and let him set up the shot in silence. I drove up to the top of the ridge to get a better view but the guard at the gated community up there interrupted my reverie. I had my binoculars trained on a roosting hawk. Granted, it probably looked like I was trying to steal a eyeful of an indesposed mistress of the house. The guy was not a birder, so I just slipped him a twenty and peeled out of there. I think it's a story that will improve with time.