{"id":2654,"date":"2008-10-13T12:26:50","date_gmt":"2008-10-13T17:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/?p=2654"},"modified":"2008-10-13T12:26:50","modified_gmt":"2008-10-13T17:26:50","slug":"the-problem-with-bardog-tavern-tis-hard-to-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/13\/the-problem-with-bardog-tavern-tis-hard-to-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"The problem with Bardog Tavern: ‘Tis hard to leave"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many years ago, someone asked Rudyard Kipling what he didn’t like about San Francisco, and he responded:\u00a0 “‘Tis hard to leave.”<\/p>\n

I found myself having the same problem at Bardog Tavern yesterday.\u00a0 I took the laptop there about 1, and jumped on\u00a0an open wireless network in the neighborhood.\u00a0 Over the next 5 hours, I got a lot of work done – I wrote 2 articles for my new website Saving Consumers Time<\/a>, and officially announced the launch of the site on my blog.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u00a0similar to my first couple of years Downtown doing Sundays at Sleep Out Louie’s.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It really reminded me why I moved down here in the first place.<\/p>\n

So, my plan was to work until my laptop battery and spare external battery both died, which tends to be about 5 hours.\u00a0 “So I guess I’ll do a venue change to the Saucer at 6,” I thought.\u00a0 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.”\u00a0 Then Air Traffic Mike came in, and I thought, “okay, I’ll have a beer with ATM then head to the Saucer at 7.”\u00a0 Then the estimated departure time became 7:30.\u00a0 Then 8.\u00a0 And so on.\u00a0 I had no real desire to go anywhere else – I was happy being there.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Back to my website Saving Consumers Time – if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a product review site.\u00a0 I welcome suggestions for categories of products to review.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 That’s a great topic and I’ll probably work on it tonight.\u00a0 I like topics like that, recommending items that solve a problem someone is having.\u00a0 You can send me suggestions for topics to write about at feedback@savingconsumerstime.com<\/a> or at paul@paulryburn.com<\/a>.\u00a0 My goal is “30 by 30,” to have 30 articles up (so far I have 5) on Saving Consumers Time by November 30.<\/p>\n

I’ll probably research and write the converter box article immediately after work, then hit Pint Nite at the Saucer around 8.\u00a0 Plans for the rest of this week:<\/p>\n