The day I looked at my first apartment in the Lower Haight, I arrived early for the showing and walked around the block to get a feel for the neighbourhood. I walked in to the Sunrise Market to pick up a drink, and when I walked out a man was peeing against a tree.
This morning I was walking down the same block, and another man was watering the garden, nonchalantly, in the middle of the sidewalk. The Lower Haight: it isn't just for the dogs, even when it comes to pooping and peeing on the sidewalk.
Addendum: Yesterday evening, two men were standing on Haight St., outside the weird metal condos in the middle of the block between Steiner and Page, rolling a huge joint. This morning, in more-or-less the same spot, two other men were talking about some drug delivery device (a zepplin? a dirigible? something like that ... ) which involved nitrous and marijuana. Oh yeah, that spot is just outside The Vapor Room ("... emphasizes non-carbonizing vaporizers as a healthier way of introducing THC into the body ... ").
And this morning, around 6.45: I was one of three people sitting in the coffeeshop. A dirty-looking sort stuck his head and said to the man sitting at the nearest table: "Is that your bike? It isn't locked up." The man said yes, it is my bike, and I didn't lock it. (I don't like my bike outside the café, either. I don't know why.) The smelly interloper nodded and mumbled his way back out the door. Just now I saw him again, pushing a bicycle past the construction site across from the DMV.
Reminds me (again!) of the Neistat Bros. short about stealing bicycles in New York City.
Matt Davis has an amusing summary of a meme that circulated several months ago, and its linguistic challenges.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.