Saturday. I guess I watched a Netflix movie longer than I thought last night as I turned off the alarm this morning at six and slept in until eight. A walk to breakfast, the sun out, the day starting, no thought of driving, back home now at ten. I took this picture seeing the framing, no effort of wait on the woman to strike a more interesting (or less awkward) pose. This I found interesting sitting by the sidewalk, for its shape. Automotive art.

I'm skipping out on the photographic event I talked about shooting this morning in San Francisco. A group of naked bicyclists setting out at eleven from Justin Herman Plaza near the Ferry building for a bike run. I like the idea, very San Francisco, but I don't like the image of an old guy scrambling around with a bunch of other old guys trying to take pictures of naked women. There's a certain icky character to it, although I'm perfectly happy to take portraits-candids of naked women in the studio without a crowd looking on. Image butts against reality. My, my. How complicated, this coming to grips with the world.

All of that to say you're skipping out on a photo op you'd promised to photograph?

I promised one of the managers of the San Francisco Street Photographers group on Facebook (I was just one of many invited who responded they'd come), which really isn't quite the same thing as letting someone down, but there is a certain mea culpa in all this old guy chasing nekkid ladies bit to which I'll admit. I'm out of photographs, as mentioned, yet I'm skipping out on an event. I'm due to go to San Francisco later this evening to hear Mr. S's band. I'll undoubtedly cop a shot or two while I'm there.

You're still making excuses.

Later. Well crap! For all the above I find they ran the San Francisco St. Patrick's Day Parade this morning. I really would have prepared for and photographed the Saint Patrick's Day parade. Time to check my old calendars to see when the various parades and such have run in the past and then look them up on the web and note this year's dates. I'm shaking my head.

Later still. OK, the day is now heading toward late afternoon. I did get my act together and got out the door, taking the bus downtown thinking I'd have a cup of coffee out on the Patio at Peet's. Clear the head, see how I felt once I'd been outside. It generally does some good.

I did, whatever else, have the urge to take pictures. Sitting where I've sat now at Peet's for so many years doesn't aid your creativity, but I took a couple of photographs grasping at straws. A far away look? The overweight guy with his coffee sitting on the trash receptacle smoking a cigarette you can't see, what's that? They really don't quite work, but the urge was right and the attitude good. Reasonably good.

Similarly walking back along Broadway coming up on Grand I stumbled upon a mural painting project in a parking lot that's usually death on graffiti, part of a national or perhaps international shared event to get people out and involved. I didn't ask involved in what. This overhearing a little of what they were saying to one another, could be wrong, but they had t-shirts that repeated the theme. Sounds good, nothing negative to say about murals after all. More so the legal ones like these, where the artists can spend their time painting as opposed to looking over their shoulders, than the less legal ones done at night, but still favorable to both when the execution is good.

Back now to listen to the news and play the guitar, the emphasis on chords. I've been beating the riffs and the fingertips to death since my lesson Wednesday and that's not going to stop. Actually it becomes much harder to beat the fingertips to death anymore, they really are getting harder (and stronger hup! hup!).

Evening. OK, we both figured we really didn't want to drive to San Francisco this evening to take in Mr. S's band at Ireland 32. It isn't St. Patrick's Day today, but I suspect the crowd that shows up will be there to celebrate anyway as it falls on this Thursday the 17th in the middle of a week. So too many people, too much to drink, too much for an old fart to want to handle and now looking to weasel out. Well, two old farts, Mr. E of a similar disposition.

I have been following the nuclear reactor scramble in Japan hearing they've flooded one of the reactor cores with salt water. Salt water destroys the core and I'd be willing to guess they're doing it because they're desperate and out of options. You don't do something that's never been done before where nobody really knows whether it will work or not unless you're in trouble. Screw these reactors. Screw the people who want to build them.