Skateboarding Dad

People arrive at Flying Goat Coffee on every imaginable sort of conveyance. This dad on a skateboard was pushing a stroller with two kids wedged in it…notice the kid in back, who is four, I learned, putting on his shades.

When he arrived, I had the perfect opportunity to get a shot, but with great dispatch he put his skateboard in the back of the stroller and pushed the whole thing inside. I went inside to return our cups to find him ensconced at a tall table with his two boys, the large stroller cum skateboard parked next to them. I asked him if I could take his photo and he very graciously agreed. Just as the two boys began pushing the stroller out the door and across the street.   He said that he would be passing on his skateboard shortly…noting pleasantly that the boys appeared to have dislodged a couple of homeless guys from their spot in front of the train station.

It is the ultimate Blipper's frustration that having waited while he played around the train station with the kids, he packed them up, got on his skateboard and smiled me as he passed, the camera wasn't focused and by the time I got it together, his skateboard was neatly covered by a mailbox. I offer the picture despite it's deficiencies because if you look carefully, you can just about spot the tip and tail of his board on either side of the mailbox. And I liked the total attention he paid his boys, his calm demeanor and the absence of any devices.

I  have discovered that one reason so many people sit on the railroad tracks to drink their coffee is that the tables that are set outside are in the shadow of the building and can sometimes be quite chilly. I admired the enterprise of three pleasant young men (extra) who moved a table and chairs into the sunshine. One of them was telling them a story about the infuriating and complicated rent control laws in San Francisco, where he had purchased a house but couldn't even ask the tenants to leave so that he could move in. They didn't have any devices either.

Everyone seemed to be in a mellow mood on this beautiful morning….

We are heading out to Yosemite tomorrow and due to sporadic and frustrating wifi and phone connections there I have decided to go 'deviceless' , except for my trusty camera, of course, so I will publish the pictures and catch up with everyone when we return.