I guess I'm pretty much like the rest of the working world when I say that I'm not particularly fond of Monday mornings. I especially despise them after a long, sleepless weekend. Come to think of it, last week was just a long week in general. Between seeing DMB on Tuesday night and the long days at work, I should have spent the weekend in bed. But I didn't.
I went to the Metro House in Oakland on Friday night to see five bands play. They were five bands that I'm sure none of you have heard of, unless you were at the Metro Friday night. I went because some of my sister's friends, well now sorta my friends as well, have a band, "That Which Binds," and were playing that night. I have seen them twice and think they are pretty talented. The lead singer, we call her Jersey, is very talented. They are still what you might call a weekend band as they usually play in small bars with a bunch of other bands and have 45 minute sets. They play about once a month. I enjoyed their Friday night show even though I think I was the oldest person in the crowd. The Metro is an 18 and over club and there were some serious teenagers there. I had never been to the Metro until Friday, but ironically it is about 10 blocks from my new apartment, so I can get my fill of fledgling rock bands anytime I want. To my sleepless weekend point, after the show, I went out to breakfast with my sister, brother and brother in law, so I did not get home and in bed until after 2:00 AM. An early night as it turned out.
I spent a few hours on Saturday afternoon working on the network at my sister's work. I'm their de facto IT guy. I manage and repair their network for them as a side project. I don't do it for the money as much as the experience - besides, I like it. I went shopping on Saturday evening. As some of you know, I like to shop, so this is not a complaint. I only bought some dishes and a set of steak knives. I'm not kidding when I say I own nothing and the list of things I have to buy for my new place is long. Saturday was my monthly poker game at Bertolas so I headed out there around 9:00 PM. The game doesn't start until after 10, but I wanted to get a steak and have a few glasses of wine before the game. We played until 3:00 AM and I won $6.00 - big winnings in that game. On the way home I decided that I wasn't done with poker for the night and drove to the local card room to play with the professionals. I played hold 'em until about 9 AM and then went home to get a few hours of sleep.
I spent most of Sunday lounging around the house alone. My family was all out celebrating my niece's birthday at a local park. I tend to try and skip the kids family functions when I can as 11 of my nieces and nephews together can be a bit much for me to handle. I went to bed last night pretty early, around 11:30 and got up early to head to my office in San Francisco and that is where this rant begins.
I generally split between driving into the city and taking the subway depending on whether I need my car that day for appointments on the peninsula. Well, I have an appointment this afternoon so I figured I better drive into the city. When I drive, I try and leave a little earlier to beat the morning commute. Well, apparently I did not leave early enough today. All was going smooth until I came upon the sign in Berkeley that tells you how long it is to the Oakland airport and downtown San Francisco (where I work). Now usually the time from the sign to my office is around 13 minutes. Every once in a while, it is as high as 17 minutes. As I approached the sign this morning it said 33 minutes. 33 minutes? That can't be right. It is only about 9 miles and I'm still cruising along at over 50 mph. Their system must be on the fritz today. A mile or two later I came upon the dreaded mix master, this is the point in the Bay Area where four freeways come together and it is the congestion point all commuters hate in the Bay Area. I'm still moving well as I take the direction toward the Bay Bridge but as I round the turn all I see are break lights. I am still a good mile from the toll plaza and I'm now stopped cold. Here is the breakdown in time from there...
7:40 AM - Reach mix master and hit traffic. No worries, I have a toll tag so I should cruise through this.
7:55 AM - Finally reach toll booth. Toll tag sucks, what good is it if only two of the 18 booths are for the toll tag only. I think the lines with people paying their $3 were moving faster.
8:02 AM - Finally make it through the metering lights. These are about 150 yards from the toll booth. I guess they need some way to make 18 lanes squeeze into 5.
8:13 AM - Across the bridge and reach my exit, the first exit BTW.
8:16 AM - Travers through the four traffic lights and reach my parking lot.
Total time - 36 minutes. I told you their system was on the fritz. Sometimes I hate modern technology. I'm guessing that the sign cuts down on the proverbial road rage. I mean, if they tell you it is going to be 33 minutes from that point, then you have no reason to be pissed when you are stuck in traffic on the bridge, right?
I'm still the first one in the office. So here I sit with my fruit cup and diet Snapple (raspberry). Ready to take on another week.
Time to new apartment - 10 Days.
No comments:
Post a Comment