Well, nothing much of any significance has happened in the
last few weeks, so initially my aim was just to recount some of the highlights,
marking the passage of time, but then last night I had my first little brush
with the local lawman. I’ll get to
that in a minute. First the
trivia.
As I’ve already let on, the last two weeks have been pretty
routine, settling into the new job.
So far I’ve been sitting in on a class that I will eventually be
teaching; the class on conducting the “Driver Performance Evaluation” or as
most of us know it, the drive test that we all took when we first got our
licenses. It is a fun test to give
and I think it will be a fun class to teach. It has been a hoot to see the students and their reactions –
their “aha moments” - as they go through the process of grasping the test
scoring criteria. I’ve been
experiencing a bit of a personality conflict with one of the lead trainers of
the class, but maybe I am being a bit too sensitive or overly judgmental
myself. I’ll reserve further
comment until this escalates…
The weekends have been mildly eventful. Two weeks ago I picked up the Subaru
from the body shop, and I must say they did an excellent job. It looks better than before it went
in. I then spent the weekend in
San Francisco. First, I met Audrey
for lunch. We ate some memorable
grilled calamari at a fancy taco joint in the Mission, then hit a few thrift
stores before she had to get back to Berkeley to work on a paper. I then met up with my friend Colleen. Some highlights include dinner with her
and Ron at “the chicken place” in North Beach (definitely worth a return trip),
reacquainting myself with Bushman on Fisherman’s Wharf (you’ve got to love the
reaction he gets as he jumps out from behind his “bush,” scaring the living
daylights out of passersby) and The Classical Guitar Jukebox Monkey at the
Saloon (a guy in a full monkey suit, sprayed silver, who actually plays
classical guitar pretty well). San
Francisco: no place like it! What a collection of characters.
And then back to Sacto, the farthest outpost of the Middle
West, right here in gold rush country.
What a contrast! SF and
Sacto may be only 90 minutes apart by car but the distance in psychological
profile/mindset is immense. Light years.
Last weekend brought two gigs for Agency EL84, my surf/spy
instrumental band. Friday night
was at the Old Western Saloon in Point Reyes Station, then Saturday was a benefit
party at a really interesting space, NIMBY in Oakland. NIMBY is a do-it-yourself workshop
space for people creating custom motorcycles as well as sculptures and other
objects for Burning Man. Really
cool work. They had built a nice
big stage in the main – cavernous - workspace but unfortunately the only people
in our audience were Mark Gartland and family and the guys from the band going
on after us. The other band was a
heavy metal act, but they seemed to really enjoy our show, rushing the stage, head
banging, giving us the devil horns, blowing wafts of pot our way. Too bad there were only four of
them. I’ve got to commend them for
their prodigious energy though – must’ve been drug enhanced. When they took the stage, the
place was still empty, but they were up there with Marshall Stacks, banging away
at Spinal Tap volume. The Agency
did not return the favor of being a good audience. We made a quick exit. Unfortunately, overall it was another disappointing
experience audience–wise and we vowed to never do another gig like this. Which I am sure we will stick to, until
we are offered another gig like this… because, bottom line, we just like to
play together.
Talking after the gig with Scott, I found that a mutual
friend, Pete, will be buying Scott’s customized van conversion with the intention of
“going mobile.” Now, Pete is
a guy with plenty going for him: good, well-paying job, owns a condominium in Pacifica, and quite the par-tay-down lady’s man (I wonder what the van living will do for him in THAT
department). I was also interested
to learn that Scott himself has a considerable yen for the mobile lifestyle. When I mentioned a bit of road weariness
myself, he seemed a bit bummed, as I blew the cover off his freewheeling fantasy.
I suppose it’s a mid-life thing. Living on the road, no kids, no commitments outside of your
own - sounds pretty darned attractive when you feel hemmed in by life, job,
bills and other’s agendas. Of
course life on the road has its moments, good and bad. One day I suppose I’ll come back “inside.”
In the meantime, I continue to live someone's version of “the dream,” "free to ride our machines" without being hassled by the man” blazing
the pathway for the vicarious thrills of other more stationary souls. Not that I’m so brave…
Over this same gig-filled weekend I stayed at Bart’s, hanging out with the
kids, going to the various ball games that Bart was coaching. We ended the weekend with a nice little
backyard BBQ. The pool was open,
kids playing. Picture perfect.
Then once again back to Sacto, gateway to the Midwest….
Throughout these weeks, Dolphin Manor has been parked in the
same spot on Hallmark, between Ethan and Howe. As noted before, there are no parking restrictions and not
much in the way of pedestrian traffic.
The only thing I have been concerned about is an office building right
across the street. I’ve been
afraid that someone might complain that the RV, continually parked in the same
spot, is an eyesore. Well,
last night (Thursday) as I returned to The Manor, I noted a man walking a dog adjacent,
so I parked my car in the lot at the office building to observe. I wanted to let him pass before pulling
up and essentially announcing that I am the guy who lives there. He walked to the corner, let his dog do
his business, then walked back up the street to a storage facility located on
the block and went inside. Or so I
thought.
Believing he was out of sight, I pulled the car up in front
of The Manor and started to unload some stuff. Looking up the street, though, I noticed the fellow out in
front of the storage facility, looking my way. Afraid that he might be scoping me out to see if I was the
low-life homeless derelict living in the RV (parked in the same spot for the
last two weeks), I kind of froze and acted like I was fiddling with the car,
rearranging some luggage or such.
I then looked over my shoulder to see a gorgeous sunset. So, I’d say that he was more
interested in the display behind me rather than my relationship to the RV. Maybe.
But…
As I sat in my car waiting for the guy to go back inside, I
saw what at first seemed to be a security guard’s car pull up and stop across
the street from the camper. He was
facing the sunset, but that show was now past its prime – its glory had
faded. He waited a while and then
pulled away. As he left, I saw that this was a Sacramento County Parking Enforcement
Vehicle. Hmmm… Were they documenting my presence on
the street? Had there been a
complaint from the office building?
Or maybe a complaint from the guy at the storage facility that, by the
way, rents storage space for RVs – so he would have a motive to not want people
parking for free on the street.
Hmmm...
Well, today is Friday, and I am leaving to go south to LA
for the weekend. This morning I
got up and moved Dolphin Manor around the corner and down the street for the
weekend. It will be parked there
for less than the three day maximum that most cities have as a limit, so I
expect that there should be no problem for now.
But what about in the future? That’s the question on my mind. Sound paranoid?
Well, that’s one of the downsides of life on the street.
Gee… I started
this entry thinking nothing much had happened. Trivia indeed.
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