It sure was a dynamic day. I wanted to spend the last day in Mammoth working from Black Velvet all day, but that didn't actually work out. I got a few hours of work done and our documentation call (there wasn't much background noise on the third story) then I was interrupted by two girls who thought the third floor was the best place to be. I don't blame them, but I did joke "This is my office" when they asked if they could sit at the eight-seat table. At least they laughed.
So I did get to check off that daily reach goal of talking to a someone in a coffee shop. I actually did before those girls sat down, though. I saw someone using Sublime Text, and being a ridiculous technologist, I thought I would ask what he did. He very plainly said he worked for the government, and asked why I was interested. I gave up at that point. He seemed pretty disinterested. At least the government let him use a Mac.
The conversation with the girls was way more fruitful. It actually kicked me out of some anxiety I was having about tomorrow's road trip. The first thing I asked them was whether they voted for Bernie, because they seemed like the type. I'm terrible at reading those, because they immediately said they can't vote. But hey, I'm not one to exclude high schoolers from great conversation, so I kept chatting with them about politics, and they were surprisingly informed on it all.
Then, after I did a bit more work, we veered into talking about Neil Young and how much one of them Alison, didn't like him at all when she was younger. "It's one of those things your dad shows you and says you'll like when you're older," she said. I didn't care much for Young up to about a year ago, so I can agree. She's going to see him and some of the other greats at Desert Trip. Her mom was stunned by the price, but walked away for a moment, paused, and said "get my credit card". What an awesome parent.
I did a few other things today, including picking up my delayed package at the UPS hub and eating delicious beets for lunch with the family. Things wrapped up with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Dan Benjamin mentioned it in an episode of Road Work. It was the best anime film of 1984, he said. And he was right. It was strangely fantastic.
Tomorrow, I'm off. 12 hours of driving, apparently.