March 2006 Archives

Also written started on the train!

It would appear that I didn't take the 9:04 Baby Bullet yesterday. While they have started staggering the stops at which the 3xx trains stop, none of the southbound trains in morning (nor the northbound in the evening) have been staggered to stop at Sunnyvale. (The opposite configurations both have, *grumble*)

I guess the local express was running late, because I arrived after it should have left. The trouble was that there was a train pulling in just as I came down the stairs, and I still needed a ticket, so I didn't have too much time to scrutinize the situation too much.

Today, I definitely got on the right train. It was even better than yesterday. I hadn't been in the new bike cars yet. Facing seats with two power outlets for each set of 4 seats! It was wonderful!

Fortunately, the conductor called out the two next stops, which made me realize that this train wasn't stopping at Sunnyvale. That made me check the schedule, and realize the mistake yesterday. I rode in from Mountain View, rather than taking VTA. I'm pretty sure I beat the light rail to my office. Yay!

[Oops, forgot to post this last night... ed.]

I'm actually writing this on the train. Today was my first day back commuting on Caltrain.

This morning was fantastic! The trip to 22nd St. was all downhill, so it was a breeze. This was good because I got (at most) 4 hours sleep last night, and woke up with just enough time to make the last Baby Bullet at 9:04.

I've ridden the Baby Bullet before, and most of you have heard my "WTF, we're here already?!?" story. It was a very nice ride, but I realized I'd left the power brick for my laptop at home. It was time to get a spare, anyway.

I rode to Sunnyvale instead of Mountain View, to force me to ride in, and it was nice, fun, exciting near misses with stupid drivers yakking on phones while failing to aim their sublimated sexual inadequacies^W^W^Wurban assault vehicles. It was too short, I'm actually thinking I'd more enjoy riding from Mountain View.

Actually, I just realized that once the days get longer, I should consider getting off at San Antonio, and riding through the Baylands to the Stevens Creek Trail! I could have my (very) old commute back! I loved that ride! I still miss that ride.

On the way into work this morning I realized that I had left my light at home. Based on that, I decided to take VTA home rather than ride in the dark.I looked up this evening and realized it was nearly 6pm. I checked the schedules and realized that I had a slim chance (if VTA wasn't in any way delayed) of making the last Baby Bullet if I raced to catch the next light rail train.

The Caltrain wasn't pulling out as we pulled up, as I expected, but I needed to buy a ticket, and the machine didn't work, and it pulled out as I was running to the other one.

The next train didn't stop at 22nd St, so I waited 40 mins (total) for the next one.

Even with all of that, I'm very happy with my commute so far. I know it's still a honeymoon, and I may feel differently in a few months. But right now, I'm REALLY looking forward to working on my own projects (like blogging more regularly) and relaxing.

I may feel differently once I've scaled the hills back to my house.

Update: Holy crap, that hill kicked my ass! The cyclist in me is ashamed at how badly such a "short" hill got to me.

But it hasn't affected my enjoyment of the commute. If anything, I look forward to making that hill my bitch.

Mav & I have a long standing conversation revolving around our Flickr photostreams, and the "most visited" list. Put simply, we don't understand it at all.

I'm willing to accept that weird confluences of random chance, the karma tornado, and other forces outside my control will conspire to make odd, random photos in my stream viewed more often than my personal favorites.

Today I took a metric fuckton (well, ok, 260+) of photos of our new house, most of them intended to be stiched togoether into panoramas. As I was copying them, I noticed that I'd rolled my camera's numbering. (!!) Well, to be fair, I started this numbering on my d30, but still:

I've taken over 10,000 photos since September August, 2001!

That number is high enough to be suspicious, and I do suspect it. But I don't remember jiggering the numbering (except to restore it after Chiara or Matt borrowed my camera/card) so there's no rational reason to expect it to be wrong.

Kinda humbling, actually.

. . . In the middle of the street.

All good things must come to an end. So, too, must my time in Sunnyvale.

I'm sure there are aspects of living in suburban hell that I will miss. (I suspect I'll be seeing a lot less of a few of you and that makes me sad.)

Officially, as of today, I am a resident of San Francisco. I believe my disdain of anything south of 280 is coming along nicely (and has been for years), but can someone tell me where I need to go for my facial hair & sideburn implant? I think I'm going to need help with that one.

We're all set to converge on Potrero Hill: