third time's a charm

So I'm in San Fran for the third time. I really like it this time. Maybe it's just that it's been a fun trip, but I have not been impressed by it in the past.

I'm giving up on the topical crap - maybe. It is just silly. This is just really an experiment in ego. Why should I be concerned if people ever even see it? Certainly that should not matter.

I'm trying to stay on East Coast time out here. I've been up since 5am. Watching the sun rise has been very nice. The skyline here looks so clean. I don't know why, but NYC looks dingy by comparison. NYC still looks better, but the clean lines here and the bright colors have a different quality that's nice, too. This is an old city. The (hilarious) cabbie said that the cable cars alone are 130 years old. But it has a look of something that was put here just yesterday.

The cabbie is a story unto himself. German-born, and quite the character. We caught him by a chance - he had passed me by when hailing. But then he turned on his "for hire" light down the street and I ran down to get him. Mike from the UK sat in the cab while Joe from Boston had to be dragged down from the office. We wanted to get Mike a bit of a tour before he left. The cabbie took us to the waterfront and gave s several views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate - both looked quite nice in the setting sun. He drove us down Lumbard Street (the curvy street) - even though cabs are supposed to be banned. The whole time he was full of jokes and stories. He spent a considerable time telling us how New Yorkers always ask for some ridiculous amount of money back - "They give you a five dollar bill for 3.75 and then ask for a quarter back... why??" We laughed the whole time. In the end, Mike gave him twice the meter. Of course, as he was about to pull away, I leaned in and asked him for a quarter. I could have planned a tour for weeks and it wouldn't have been a smidgen as fun as that was.

So far so good. I've been writing in this thing often enough. Maybe I'll actually tell some people it's here soon.