Saturday, August 25, 2007

On the corner of Montgomery and Kenwood, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.

This fellow was sleeping hard when I arrived, despite
spitting rain and beeping cars.
He woke later to lecture me on being nice.

Self-portrait (timer shot).

I originally parked my scooter in this lot, but some big guy came out and told I had to move.

The big anti-anti-bush guy was from the hobby shop.

He had a fellow meathead from JB's lounge.

I'm fat, but the JB guy has me beat hands-down.

Out of the blue this fellow on the right arrived to participate.
He said his girlfriend had called him and told him about me, and he came right over.
He also told me he was a saved believer who thinks bush is giving god a bad rap.
A former mechanical engineer, he sees globalization has ruined local manufacturing.
So now he's studying industrial design.
He told me his name, too, but I don't remember that.

As I was leaving I saw the hobby-shop guy checking me out.
I think he took a picture of me with his cell phone, but ducked behind the column when I took out my camera.

A moment later a cop arrived, so I think he had been taking my picture to show the cop.

I guess the hobby shop guy forgot I was still across the road with my camera.
I went over and talked to the officer, M. Bitterman, who told me the store owner had filed a
complaint about me parking on private property. The officer also said he had me on the traffic
camera obstructing traffic and that if I came back I'd be cited and taken to jail.
I don't know if it's just this officer, or a new policy in the county, but free speech and political
dissent and protest have not been subject to this kind of harassment before.
I can hardly wait till next time.
The hobby shop guy will be even bigger by then, no doubt.