The weather is beautiful here in the fall. Our best time of year. A lot of the nights are clear and dry, not too cold. Good for sleeping out under the stars. I was in San Francisco yesterday; Golden Gate Park was spectacular. They’re getting ready for the (free) Not Strictly Bluegrass Festival this weekend. I looked at the lineup in SFWeekly, got excited by all the great groups, then realized that it’s gotten too big for me. I used to park my truck out at Ocean Beach, and ride my bike over to the park, then ride around between the 5 stages. But the last time I did this, the whole thing was over-regulated. Can’t ride your bike here, must cross street here, lots of people telling you what to do, where to go. Just too big (500,000 + people.) Like Burning Man. The downside of success. I’m skipping it.
Anyway, coming up to Golden Gate Bridge on the way back home from the Presidio, past the parking lot, a 20-something-year-old guy on a rented bike with a kid in a seat behind him yelled out something to me as I turned left. I pulled over and he rode up and said. “Aren’t you the guy who does the books on homes?” Turns out he was from British Columbia and he said they all loved the books. Small world.
nice..
I suspect, Lloyd, you also made his day.
When one enjoys books by a particular person (at least for me), you (I) start to feel as if I personally know them. Almost feel as if they are my neighbor.
It's a bit like accidently running across a much admired neighbor/friend, ways from home. One feels an instant joy/kinship.
Then one takes a sudden plunge to make conversation, and hopes it really is that person, hoping one hasn't just been woolgathering and wrong..
Always nice surprise to be greeted as a friend.
Thanks!
RE: Large successful festivals.
A-yep, BTDT. Allowed myself to be phased out of my 28 year staff position with the Oregon Country Fair due to the event becoming too large, too crowded, too noisy, and too many (mostly younger) people in staff T-shirts thinking that they had ultimate authority over every move you made.
Kind of missed it the first year away, but then realized that the event was no longer the same one that I had grown to love. The best years of the Fair were long past for me, so it was time to move on and cherish the memories of the old rather than fight the order of the new.
BM? Was never even tempted to go bake myself in that desert oven. Would rather kick back in a mountain hot pool in a quiet forest.
Lloyd, you do know you're famous, right?
Lloyd,
you're welcome….
and
may I some day actually "run into you"….
let's see, maybe you could think of a "secret sign", only for your blog readers..
that way, if I should ever run in to someone who "may" be you, I can do the secret sign, you can do the secret sign, and I will know it IS you….You will know it is one of your readers….grin.
mmm
let's see …..
ah heck, guess I will just ask if you are Lloyd, the book guy..
maybe you could come with a star trek type hand wave, or something, "the small house" hand wave sort of thing, …?
Sharkey,
And it's not just fairs and festivals, it happens in movements. Like what happened in the Haight Ashbury in 1967. It wasn't the end of those ideals, it was just time to move on. And actually, the world changed.
I'm heading to a riverside hot springs with 2 friends next month, about a 5-hour hike upstream…