There's the Saint Stupid's Day Parade coming up at noon in San Francisco and I'll head over given the good weather. No reason to hide. A good omen in starting a month, I'd say: pictures of San Francisco people doing silly things in costume. April is the month for the long anticipated good weather to gain traction, we'll see what this next week may bring. We're ready for the sun. We like the sun. We're into the sun, here in the climate warmed outback of cold old Oakland.

Later. A bus to the BART station and over to San Francisco, just like that. A walk from the Montgomery Street station (I couldn't quite remember if the Embarcadero station might not have been the better choice) to the Pyramid building between Washington and Clay, arriving an hour early thinking I would indeed have done better to get off at the Embarcadero stop. One lone woman standing at a corner wearing one of those odd looking funny animal knitted things on her head. I figured I'd come to the right place. A bit early from the look of it, but that's my particular bent.

A small coffee shop across the street had two people inside and, although I discovered they were closed, they took pity and sold me an Americano since they had no coffee on tap. Alright. I walked down the short block to a sunny spot on the sidewalk across from the meeting site and wondered what an Americano was. He'd poured an espresso into the paper cup and added hot water, suggesting to me twice I might like to add sugar. I said no, but he was right. Didn't matter, it was warm, I was then warmer and people had begun to show up, most of them carrying cameras of every size and shape, more photographers than participants. Hup!

So an hour or so shooting, the crowd increasing rapidly as it approached noon, a walk then back to BART when the parade set out, this time to the Embarcadero stop (I think it is shorter), off at 19th Street in Oakland to go by the one ATM my bank has that I'm aware of on Broadway (the Americano had wiped me out). A bus then home at Webster and Grand. Three and a half hours of running around to get some pictures.

No one except locals will know where any of these places you're mentioning are located, you know. Grand? Broadway?

Knowing doesn't seem to make a difference.

So a bunch of pictures, some few of them reasonably good, most of them not so pretty good, a decent outing that will result, I'm guessing, in two more sections for artandlife. When I finish them. It's been three hours now and I'm not half done.

Again, the day has remained nice. A bit chilly in the morning, I should have added a sweater to the mix, but no complaints. Getting back to the apartment the muscles had begun to ache. Nothing too terrible, but taking their time to settle in and finally calm themselves down. Still have a twinge or two in the back. So we're getting older, we're getting slower, but we're still getting out. Hup. Make another mark on the good side of the ledger and shut the mouth.

I think it's more you haven't had a decent outing in a while. Blaming it on age can only go so far.

Another excellent excuse to bitch about the weather.

Evening. Guitar and processing photographs ended with bed at nine. We'll get some sleep, see what tomorrow may bring. The artandlife section is now within an hour or so of being complete.