So I talked to the naked guy

Yes, today was a designated in-day, due to the very real need to conserve my 47 year old bones, since I have 8.5 more days here, followed by 13 days in Seattle ... so I was good.  I wrote some postcards, did a wash, hung out, read a bit, posted yesterday's volume of photos to instagram ...

Which btw - here is the link:

http://web.stagram.com/n/velvetbabe/

There are loads of photos there from this entire trip.  The ones you will see first will be the latest ones.  If you decide to go here, I suggest clicking on the upper right corner where it says "grid", so you can see multiple photos in groups per page, instead of a lineup of photos.  In "grid" mode, you can simply hover the mouse over the photo for a description of what the hell yer seeing.

At any rate, I decided to make one small trip down the block, to both visit the post office to mail my wares, and to check out the sign in central Castro that I heard about on the news today - in pink poster board, no less - on which people are writing thank you's to President Obama for being a principled adult and finally coming out in support of gay marriage - despite what it will cost him in the fall, mind you.  So I exited the post office, and there, coming up the sidewalk heading straight for me, he was:

I thought to myself, dare I say anything to this completely nude stranger?  Seeing as this was maybe my one opportunity, I decided to.  What the hell.

Me:  Excuse me, can I ask, would you mind telling me why you're walking around naked?

(Sounds like I'm kidding, but this is verbatim what I said.  I literally had like 10 seconds to decide what to say.)

Him, looking around, smiling:  It's such a beautiful ,sunny day!

Me:  Do you get hassled, though?

Him:  It's not illegal.

Me:   It's not?

Him:  Well, not on the sidewalk, but you can't walk into a bar or a shop, or anything.

Turns out, the dude could not have been nicer, and in fact we had about a ten full minute conversation right there on the sidewalk, he and I.  I joked to him that I'd been out the previous day and had gotten sunburnt, (wondering but not saying so, if he gets sunburnt in places he would rather not), and we talked about the neighborhood and how it's changed over the years (he's been here since '83 - wow, a long time, and would have seen the ravages of AIDS every day,) his trip to Boston, and the similarities between the two cities, how expensive the rents are etc.  It was about as normal and friendly a conversation as two strangers could have, no matter that one of them was naked.

The funniest thing was, I was not at all uncomfortable talking with him - I quickly totally forgot he was in the buff - and he was just nice as pie, and had an open vibe about him, but wasn't dreamy/hippy-dippy seeming - but out of the corner of my eye I repeatedly saw passers by turn and gawk at us - meaning him - and it was hilarious to be in the center of this sort of sidewalk distraction. 

At the close of our talk, I asked him his name, to which he replied with a straight face, "Woody".  Okay, he might have been serious, I don't know, but anyway, he asked me mine, and I asked if it would be okay to take his picture, and he said sure.

You can see in the photo he has a nose ring, and he also had those plate-like things in his lobes, which always look painful to me.  Anyway, I told him it was for my blog, and he asked me the name of the blog and said he'd look for it - so if you're reading this Woody, I hope to see you around the neighborhood again before I leave!  It was really nice chatting with you!