Awake now from an hour's nap. They seem to go about an hour when they go at all as this one has. A bit groggy, sleep still with me, but that I hope will pass. The overcast is breaking, there really was quite a dark cloud cover this morning, and I'll head out for the fair pretty soon. A Sunday in October. I'd hope the temperatures are ready to cool. How's that for complaining?

I bought a train ticket to Portland to attend the family Christmas party in Seattle with my sister on the 22nd. A roomette. Cost an arm and a leg, but I haven't taken the train in a decade and I'm not for the moment willing to drive. Besides, after getting a speeding ticket on the last two trips, the difference in cost isn't that great. It would be unusual to be pulled over by the Highway Patrol while riding in a streamliner.

Later. There are some days that are made for staying in bed and reading. Sleeping, if you can, but reading certainly, and I think this was one of them. I very nearly didn't go to San Francisco to photograph the Castro Street Festival, but I did get out the door and once out the door the decision was made, no going back unless something unexpected happened. Nothing happened in more ways than one.

The transfer to Muni went smoothly, their stations sit on top of the BART stations along Market Street from the Embarcadero to the City Hall, so it was a matter of an up, then down escalator ride to catch the L line and get off half a dozen stops later at Castro and Market. About an hour of walking through the crowd on Market and Castro, a large crowd, shooting roughly sixty pictures, a miserable number, maybe half a dozen of them turning out. So my heart wasn't in it, maybe just the lack of energy. Tired. But, you know, willing. Interesting to see Castro Street again after these last ten years.

I'm tired of photographing street festivals right now, not sure I need to see another one ever again, probably my lack of enthusiasm for the day coming to roost. It will pass. Get a good night's sleep, my bucko, relax through the coming week, finish the new Woodward book, pick at the guitar. I've not got the stamina to string these events together, a matter I would guess of spreading them out, no more two events in a day, try to slip a day in between, even on a weekend.

Is that night out Friday a part of the problem?

Well, it's an event, just as today was an event. I'm not giving up on the occasional night out, not with the few I have anymore. I'll think of it in those terms for starters. That hard drive is arriving Wednesday, B&H is open again after shutting down for Succos and they sent me an email this morning. Make that my event for the week, schedule everything else (naps, reading, television, naps) around it. I'm bullshitting, of course, but only a little. I'm tired and possibly burned out.

Early evening, dark outside, the late summer days have come to an end. I have a jury duty notice for next week and a premonition they may actually call me in. That hasn't happened in years. Whether I get empaneled or not is something else. I've not sat on but one jury in my entire life. Called in to sit and wait for a day, yes, a number of times, but not empaneled and I'm not guessing this one will be any different. Just the feeling I have I'll be called. Could be true, could be not. Be interesting at least.