šŗšø Haight-Ashbury - 10.17.24
āIf youāre alive, you canāt be bored in San Francisco. If youāre not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life.ā
ā William Saroyan
A few days patrolling in San Francisco. I had a cool apartment in Haight-Ashbury, just a half a block from the panhandle of Golden Gate Park. Iām walking Danās German Shepard, MsGussā¦ and in exchange I get the full run of the place.
Itās an ideal location and suits my personal ethos. I adapted to the vibration in L.A. ā but hereā¦ Iām comfortableā¦ comfortable in an intrinsic wayā¦ comfortable in my uniquenessā¦ comfortable being surrounded by people that are comfortable in their own uniqueness.
Except one day, on the #2 bus downtown, 2 young people wearing pajama pants, talking like cartoon babies, singing ABCsā¦ ALL passengers were squirming. A lilā too much uniqueness on public transport. Down one notch please. š¬
I happily ditch my car in SF. Itās walkable and public transportation is ample. Bus, subway, trolly, street car, bike, electric scooter, Uber, Waymo autonomous taxiā¦ I love it.
I take the bus to the gym downtown and itās on the edge of Chinatown. The gym is in an old bank unit and still has the vault door. They appear to be unfinished renovating the space and thereās zero ventilation. Fans push air, yes. Ventilation, no. Mucho locker room smell blowing around. If you played hockey or know someone who hasā¦ hockey bag smellā¦ that!
After the gym there are Chinatown snacks. Much to choose from and the neighborhood is forever interesting. The #1 bus will get you close to Presidio to walk off your dozen pork dumplings.
The Presido has an Andrew Goldsworthy sculpture. Itās not the most interesting but cool enough. I ran across him in Edinburghā¦ I kinda wish I had given him a shake and told him I saw him on a TV show. Oh well, next time.
There was an air show in the Bay. āFleet weekā is what it was called. Lots of airplane and jet noise. I was sitting having pizza at a shop on Haight, looking out the window, having a surreal moment, watching the Blue Angels jets scrape the city. Yup, aerobatics over the masses. Craziness.
I had a city dog to walkā¦ so it was just Guss and I mostly roaming around the center of San Francisco. Golden Gate Park is glorious and is always a healthy hue of green. Buena Vista Park is a little nature mountain smack in the middle of the city and only 2 blocks away. For the most part, I would parade up and down Haight Street taking pictures, window shopping and dishing out greetings to passers-byā¦ sometimes with the dog and sometimes solo.
Enough times and people start to recognize your face. I had some exchanges with some cool looking street kids. They liked my beatnik/gen X lookā¦ and after some jawing, one said, āā¦we should hang out!ā āā¦bring beer!ā
āLetās!ā I said, with sincere intent.
And I contemplated. I thought it would make for an interesting experience, sitting criss-cross applesauce hanging with the street kids on Haightā¦ butā¦ sipping, toking, snorting things with said street kids on Haight, doesnāt exactly align with my; drink shots of ginger/turmeric in the morning, veggie smoothie, 3-reps of this and that, promotion of natural chemicals, high on life equation. Soā¦ prolly not.
Thereās certainly a shadowy part of me that wanted toā¦ but just keep walking Mister... I donāt think I want to eat sidewalk hot dogsā¦ and wake up with 1 to 7 street kids sleeping in my car with meā¦ wearing my clothesā¦ eating my snacksā¦ selling my passport. I donāt like to use the phrase; āIām too old for this.ā But Iām too old for thatā¦ and maybe too wise [arguable].
It was a short stay in the city but enjoyable, and I have a vision of one day never leaving San Francisco. Iām now in the Stinson Beach/Muir Woods area for a couple of daysā¦ then onto Oaklandā¦ thenā¦
āSan Francisco has only one drawback ā ātis hard to leave.ā
ā Rudyard Kipling
#flowersinyourhair
#spottyteenagers
#IheartSF
