Every summer in San Francisco, the streets are overrun by do-gooder college students on break. They take to just about every street corner and make eye contact and wave to you when you’re a solid half block away, so there’s very little you can do to escape.

“Hi!” they chirp, “Do you care about the environment!”

Yes, it’s a question with an exclamation point. Their cheeriness and pluck makes me ill.

The worst question they always ask, seeing me with child in tow, is, “Do you care about children!”

And in that moment, I have to look down at the adorable little sprite at my side, her hand clasped in my own as we go swinging down the sidewalk, and say, “No. No, I don’t. Children are the worst.”

I used to to feel bad for ignoring these street hawkers. Sometimes I’d speak French and shrug, as if to say in my horrible, broken accent, “I do not speak the things you is speaking.” I pretended to be deaf once until the woman smiled and signed right back. It was remarkable how quickly I found my hearing and voice, which just happened to come out in Spanish. It was even more remarkable that the woman had studied in Barcelona for a year.

There is no winning.

Now I’ve just taken to timing my stride just right, so that when I pass them, I’m hiding behind unsuspecting tourists — a lesson in street awareness my daughter has already learned quite well.

“Oh god, there’s one! Slow down, slow down … now speed up!”

No, I don’t have a thing against the environment or whales or Planned Parenthood, or whatever else it is they’re out there raising dubious donations for. (I say dubious because these street donations barely make it to the causes they’re advertising for.)

It’s just that … stop talking to me!

So I admit it felt a bit odd to suddenly find myself accosting strangers on the street yesterday.

You see, a friend told me Dad’s Book of Awesome Projects was in the front-window display of a bookstore in Pacific Heights. I may or may not have slowed down to let the child out at school before barreling over there to see for myself, to take a picture of the display, and to affirm that it’s not all one big cosmic joke — that all the hard work has finally paid off and there it is, on a shelf, waiting for the world.

It just happened to be a masterful display of DIY books and crafting gear. Someone had taken the time to cut out little paper people and hang them like a banner. People actually stopped to look at it.

And there I was, standing to the side.

“Do you like crafts!”

“Wow, that one book, right there, in the corner, see it? It looks awesome! You should probably buy it.”

“Do you care about children!”

When one man expertly hid behind his wife, I realized it was time to go.

In an amazingly fun bit of book news, I’ll be doing a Google Hangout this Friday from 10 to 11 a.m. PST with my incredibly generous friend Charlie of How To Be a Dad fame.

Charlie is real mensch and I can’t wait to catch up with him online, although I do fear that my inability to successfully interact with humans (see above) could make this one of the most awkward things to ever happen on the Internet. It’s going to be great. You should check it out.

In all seriousness, Charlie and his partner Andy wrote one of the best books to ever happen to early childhood. Should be informative stuff about writing and books. Should be.

Go to How To Be a Dad to find out more and get ready to be nonplussed by the awkwardness.

At the same time, during this online chat, from 10 to 11 a.m. PST this Friday, I’m doing an Amazon experiment and I hope you’ll join me. If you ever planned to buy the book, now’s the time.

Apparently if everyone buys at the same time, it juices the Amazon rankings and helps the book shoot up to higher visibility. Hopefully, if it goes high enough, more and more people see it and keep it high up in rankings, where even more people see it …. It’s worth a try at least.

You can use this link to buy the book from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST this Friday.

Then, on Sunday, I’ll be hosting my first book event at Books Inc. in Laurel Village. It’s from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. and it’s less of an author talk and more of a crafting open house. I’ll have surprise craft bags for the kiddos and parents can mingle and spend their time buying the book….

So I’ll see you, online, this Friday! Or in person this Sunday!

Believe me, you don’t want to miss it.