PERITOPIA!

This town is filled with interesting folks who do some really interesting, and sometimes off-the-grid, stuff.

• The guy who skates and surfs and gave me my first Mendo lesson: “Stop asking people what they do for a living.  Everyone here does the same thing.”
• The “water creationist.”  He makes waterfalls — not water.
• The guy with an Irish accent who freely admits he is not Irish but just lived in Ireland for six years and decided to keep the accent (I call him “Pretend Irish Guy” or “Irish-ish”).  Far as I can tell, he just walks around.
• The guy I met the same night as Pretend Irish Guy and saw again the next morning in the Safeway parking lot with a cardboard sign that said, “Need Money to Buy Truck.”  I applaud goal-oriented begging — makes it more like an investment!
• An assortment of folks who bear a startling resemblance to certain celebrities.  I don’t even know their real names — just refer to them by their look-a-likes.  David Duchovny (allegedly in “real estate”), Owen Wilson (allegedly a “stuntman”), Leonardo DiCaprio (allegedly a “mechanic”) and Kevin Nealon — among a small group of locals who freely admits to how he pays for drinks.
• Mary — whom I met when she solicited money to pay for her lawyer because she was just arrested for — oh, jeez, you can guess.
• The guy who didn’t talk much, and, when pressed, said it was because of “emotional damage and drugs.”  I hate it when that happens.
• The really big guy in front of me at the market check-out who asked for 15 cents to buy a bottle of port (I now call him “15 Cent”).  Saw him later, littering — and then later again, just hanging out.  Awesome.

But there are plenty of people here who do regular, ordinary, great jobs.  I’ve linked to THEM!