San Francisco Autumn Round-Up 2010

Last week was crazy here in San Francisco.

On November 1, the SF Giants won the World Series!

(For those of you from other countries and/or nations: We're talking baseball; And we call it a "World Series"- but it's just the United States. And parts of Canada. I hope it expands to include Japan and Cuba some day. We can call it the "Galactic Championship" or something...)
 
Then, on November 2, SF voters made it illegal to sit or lie down on the sidewalks from 7am-11pm. And California voted to keep marijuana "illegal". (unless it's for medical purposes).

(We voted on lots of stuff, actually. In SF, California and the whole nation. But, I'm going to narrow my focus in this post for brevity's sake).

So, the day after that, SF had a big parade to welcome the Giants home from Texas!

I took this picture on my way to work- 2 hours before the parade. It got used by sfist.com (I'm #8 in the thumbnails)

I had to work, so I wasn't there to be sure; But, I assume the cops kept people from sitting or laying down. It is the law now, after all. I'd hate to see it applied only to certain people in certain places. But, that's the very reason it was voted into law by so many SF citizens...

Full disclosure: I voted against the sit/lie law, in case my subtle sarcasm wasn't apparent earlier. Hey, if it makes the Haight safer I guess I'll just have to accept I was wrong, right? Stay tuned!

There must have been lots of people with prescriptions at the parade. I hear the air was thick with a certain aroma.... Feel better, folks!

(at least former Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill to decriminalize marijuana before his term was up. That's something, at least).

Speaking of former CA governors: Welcome back, Governor Brown!

Our mayor is now our Lieutenant Governor. And I'm glad. You go, Gavin! SF will be OK. Seriously. Go. And don't look back, baby.

If the status updates from my various Facebook friends are any indication (oy, I can't believe I just typed that phrase): Nobody- no Democrat, Republican or Tea Partier (I think there might be one)- is 100% happy with the way the mid-term elections turned out.

So, see? The system works! We're all equally pissed off. U-S-A! U-S-A!

Enough about politics; Let's go back in time a few days- before all this "you're not allowed to sit on the sidewalk and smoke weed" nonsense became a reality. Let's talk about October 31st: Halloween!

I have to admit, Halloween at the Fireside hasn't been the same since The City shut down the Castro Street Halloween celebration. Lots of people would stop in on their way to the Castro. It was great! But, the Castro street party got too big. And then 9 people got shot.

That was four years ago. And there have still been some lively Halloweens since then. But, this year was pretty quiet (at least for me). I was without my Halloween sweetie. Donna was going to be a killer bee and I was going to be her beekeeper/parole officer. But, she ended up having to work. As fate would then have it, we found an awesome pair of butterfly wings at Goodwill:

So, Donna worked her shift as a butterfly...

Donna is a beautiful butterfly

And this ended up being my costume:

I'm not really sure what I was supposed to be. But, I hadn't worn my pith helmet in a while, so... 

Not helping matters was the fact Halloween fell on a Sunday this year. AND, people still had a World Series to focus on. So, yeah, it was a low-key Halloween.

Well, that wraps up my autumnal update, gentle reader. Thanks for stopping by!

Previously:
Sunsets of the Inner Sunset: October Orange