360 oy, traffic

Maybe my dream of being a race car driver isn't over.

Apparently this is part of the Maker Faire, if that survives. After a flirtation in my twenties, I'm generally not that into creating garbage just to have fun, although it sure seems like our bins are just as full as everyone else's every week.  I grew up in a pretty hippy slash New England setting. It was all about using what you have until it breaks, then fixing it.

When I moved to California and started earning adult money, I discovered there was another way. You could buy stuff, use it, and then throw it away. This is true of stuff like party plates and cups and water bottles, but also shit like electric toy cars you drive in one race per year, or art projects you obsess over, then drag up to the desert and burn, or furniture you set out on the street when you're tired of it, or entire home remodels that, you know, are just so one decade ago.

After a while, and watching the plastic pile up in our environment, that stopped seeming like a good idea. 

Still...I could be a race car driver!

Is this good news?

As "normalcy" looms, so does the prospect of flying to visit family again. And while I'm excited about seeing people, honestly, I'm not sure I'd be disappointed if I never flew again. 

This is about 60% of the traffic of the same day two years ago. 

What are my options? Even with train-commuter Joe Biden as president and a $2T slush fund, I haven't heard anything about a national high speed rail since the early days of the O44 administration. So if I want to go cross country without flying, I'm looking at a bus, train, driving, biking, walking, or my thumb.

Years ago I did the math comparing the fuel use of driving and flying. I can't remember what I came up with, but I kinda remember that even with two people in the car, flying may have been more efficient. Maybe I should revisit those numbers. 

Cause gosh, I sure didn't miss the TSA, or those tiny seats, or all of those people jammed in around me, or the stress of... What exactly? 

Flying, for me, is a huge act of surrender. From the minute I step into the airport, I basically throw away any sense that I'm in charge of my life. The only goal is to do what they tell you to do, in order for everything to go smoothly. Take off my shoes? Ok. Pat down? Sure. Wait here a while until my number is called? Ok. Sit in this seat? You got it. Buckle up? No problem. Hold my shit together while me and two hundred strangers are lofted into the sky in a piece of tinfoil with a rocket attached? Sounds great!

In the spirit of travel and looking forward, here are two maps of hotel prices. I actually looked this up for Mark Twain's Barbary Coast Revue, I was checking to see how much putting up a cast member overnight might be. 

Above is today's availability around Fisherman's Wharf. Several hotels, all around a hundred bucks.

And this is in October. It sure looks like the hotels in town are expecting a return of tourism. I suppose that's good news for our show, and also, if you want to visit SF, now is the time.

Although it's looking like the parklets will be around a while.

Turns out, we like them!

I'll believe this when we find putting on a musical this summer to be no problem. When last I checked, the venue we were invited perform in last year still had an application for live entertainment on it's door. This required several months and I believe close to ten public agencies to sign off. (It's on Port of SF territory, so you get all the city stuff, plus the port stuff, plus the neighbors.) This was in the middle of Fisherman's Wharf, where there is no residential at all. Three months of permitting, public meetings, etc, to put up a musical and drag shows in a big huge bar and restaurant in the middle of a tourist zone. 

So yeah, we'll see.

 
File under: saving the world versus saving on gas

I've known for a long time that people who buy hybrids tend to put more miles on their car.

But did you know that people with electric cars tend to also have a gas guzzler that that drive more than the electric car?

Call it the "my other car is a prius" syndrome.

While we're on the subject of emobility, and going places just to go places...

There are getting to be some damn interesting new ways of breaking your neck.

Of course, if this cute little guy drove by, I might break my neck taking a look.

And finally, it is always exciting to see dinosaurs depicted with colorful feathers rather than the grey-green skin we got when I was a kid.

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