Many years ago, someone asked Rudyard Kipling what he didn’t like about San Francisco, and he responded: “‘Tis hard to leave.”
I found myself having the same problem at Bardog Tavern yesterday. I took the laptop there about 1, and jumped on an open wireless network in the neighborhood. Over the next 5 hours, I got a lot of work done – I wrote 2 articles for my new website Saving Consumers Time, and officially announced the launch of the site on my blog. I did more than that though… I drank several glasses of PBR, ate a deluxe grilled cheese sandwich with ham and bacon, talked to various people who passed through. You know, it was a weird experience… I skipped the “official” group Sunday Fun Day plans, and yet, sitting there at Bardog, I got a feeling I hadn’t had in a while, a feeling similar to my first couple of years Downtown doing Sundays at Sleep Out Louie’s. It felt like a celebration of living Downtown, that I can walk right down the street to a place full of good people and good times. It really reminded me why I moved down here in the first place.
So, my plan was to work until my laptop battery and spare external battery both died, which tends to be about 5 hours. “So I guess I’ll do a venue change to the Saucer at 6,” I thought. But 6 was shift change at Bardog, and the evening bartender, Melissa, came on, and I thought, “okay, I’ll have one more PBR and talk to Melissa for a few minutes, then go to the Saucer at 6:30.” Then Air Traffic Mike came in, and I thought, “okay, I’ll have a beer with ATM then head to the Saucer at 7.” Then the estimated departure time became 7:30. Then 8. And so on. I had no real desire to go anywhere else – I was happy being there. Finally, at 10 PM, I realized it was time to leave, in order to get a decent amount of sleep for work today (especially since my allergies are still driving me nuts). So, if you’re wondering why “what’s the fire sale?” never got updated yesterday, it’s because I never made it to the Saucer.
Back to my website Saving Consumers Time – if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a product review site. I welcome suggestions for categories of products to review. For example, a reader e-mailed me yesterday asking me to write about digital-to-analog TV converter boxes, so his old “rabbit ears” TV will continue to work after TV goes all-digital in February ’09. That’s a great topic and I’ll probably work on it tonight. I like topics like that, recommending items that solve a problem someone is having. You can send me suggestions for topics to write about at feedback@savingconsumerstime.com or at paul@paulryburn.com. My goal is “30 by 30,” to have 30 articles up (so far I have 5) on Saving Consumers Time by November 30.
I’ll probably research and write the converter box article immediately after work, then hit Pint Nite at the Saucer around 8. Plans for the rest of this week:
- SMA meeting at Safari, then trivia at the Saucer on Tuesday
- Downtown Alive! mini-Goner Fest on Wednesday, then the presidential debate
- The Majestic, Circa, et al. block party on Thursday, then The Dempseys @ the Saucer
- SabaFest @ the Cadre Building on Friday
A full and exciting week… looking forward to it.