He makes a turn at the far end of the cafe, negotiates his way to the next aisle, spinning all the while, then plunges back out the door. Not a drop of coffee is spilled. A few minutes later, he repeats the stunt.
Nobody seems to notice.
During 20 years of wandering the globe, between the time I graduated from UCSC and the time I returned over two years ago, this almost mythic and at the very least strange Santa Cruz was never far from my imagination. Santa Cruz is a small town, although it is not as small as it used to be. But in the minds of many longtime residents, Santa Cruz is immutable, more idea than place, more symbol than reality. None of that is even remotely true anymore. With the changes have come problems that have gotten so big they seem to defy solution.