February 2, 1990
Dear Everyone:
(Groundhog Day)
TGIF!!!
This has been my week to drive the Van.
Actually, my week to drive the Van isn’t until March 19, St. Joseph’s Day, the
day the swallows return to Capistrano.
This is really “Glen Long’s” week to drive the Van.
Problem is:
“Glen” joined the van pool back in October and, so far, none of
us has even seen him. First,
there was the BFDGB (Bridge-Fall-Down-Go-Boom) which prevented us from
using the Van for a month, although there were some people in the pool
who were positively frenzied at the though of having the Van free (the
Van Pool Office announced no fares for the month) and not being able to
go anywhere in it. One
person actually suggested that we drive from Pleasant Hill to Lafayette,
a distance of about 5-7 miles, each day just so we could get the free
mileage.
Then, by the time the Bridge was back up, “Glen”
had been temporarily assigned to work in Company Park.
Nevertheless, he’s been sending in his check each month to pay
his share of the fare and to hold onto his seat.
He expects to be back in the City by about March; but this was
not considered by the people who assigned the Driving Schedule, which
they did by drawing numbers out of a hat.
When they assigned “Glen” the week of January 29, they just added
a “(?)” after his name to indicate they didn’t know who would be driving
and it was “Glen’s” problem to find a replacement.
Poor “Glen”.
It’s not that difficult to find someone who wants to take your
place as a rider, the waiting list is in the double digits.
But finding someone who wants to
drive is something else.
If it were easy to find drivers, we wouldn’t be in the position
of playing musical Driver’s seat ourselves.
“Rowena” gave him a short list of those of us who had driving
weeks in March and April and suggested that he try to trade weeks with
one of us. So he called each
of us and left messages.
I was the only one who had the common courtesy to
return his call.
By
Hobson’s Choice, I wound up trading weeks with
him. This has its good
points and its not-so-good points.
The good point is that after this week, I won’t have to be
bothered with this little chore again until June 10, by which time
anything could happen. We
could even stumble across someone who
loves to drive Vans. The
not-so-good point is that it’s still dark in the mornings and I don’t
like to drive the Van in the dark.
Still, it could be worse.
We could have to walk to work.
So, Driving the Van:
You drive your own car to the Pleasant Hill
BART
Station, but don’t park inside the Station parking lots.
That’s not fair, since it’s intended for people who actually use
BART. However, at 5:45 in
the morning, there’s still plenty of parking on the street; and we all
tend to park in the same spot, right across the street from the Van
pickup point.
“Herb Kopp” drives the Van to and from his house
where it spends the night.
He also takes care of feeding and watering and other such maintenance
chores. In return, he is
exempt from Driving.
So, you park your car and cross the street and get
into the Van. This presents
the first hurtle: Getting in
on the Driver’s side. You
see, on the passenger side, there’s a step mounted under the door to
make getting up and in easier.
But not on the Driver’s side.
Real Drivers don’t need steps.
I have this down to a habit now.
I open the door, reach across the Driver’s seat, which is roughly
at shoulder height (for me), and dump my briefcase, purse and any other
accoutrements in the space between the seats.
Then I grab the steering wheel with
both hands, put my foot on
the floor of the Van (it’s dark, no one is going to see up my skirt) and
haul myself up just like a truck driver.
(For some reason, some of the other Drivers have been complaining
that the steering wheel seems to have developed a lot of “play” in it.
I can’t imagine how that might have happened.)
Once settled, I change the radio station (Drivers
get choice of station, “Herb” likes NewsTalk which I detest) and we head
for the freeway. Usually this is
fairly easy as traffic tends to be lighter at 6:00 am than later in the
day. So what if I can’t see
anything in the rear and side view mirrors?
We take Highway 24 to 580 which will take us to the
Bridge. However, once on
580, we’re going to
Sacramento.
We don’t want to go to Sacramento, so we need to merge over to
the left about 4 or 5 lanes.
At the speed limit, or whatever the traffic will bear.
Think of it as a game of “chicken”, only sideways.
Once we’re over to the far left, it’s clear
sailing. The farthest left
lane is a Carpool Lane which means that only vehicles with 3 or more
live occupants can use it.
(They specify live because once a man driving a van for a
mortuary tried to use the Carpool Lane on the grounds that the back of
his van was filled with cadavers; a judge ruled against him.)
Since there aren’t a lot of cars in this lane, you tend to pick
up some speed, heading for the
toll booths.
Slowing down to go between the booths is optional.
Think of it as threading a needle – at 70 mph.
However,
once we get through the toll plaza and onto the Bridge, we need to get
over to the far right side of the Bridge for our exit.
More sideways chicken.
Leave the Bridge at Fremont, swing left, then right, then right
again and stop in front of my building on "Mirabel" Street to drop off the
passengers. Then up First
Street and turn right just after
the white fire hydrant, under the freeway into the parking lot.
Weave through the lot, swing out across the sidewalk onto the
street (nitpickers might point out that this is a one-way street, going
the opposite way) to get around the big pillars which happen to be
holding up the freeway, and, if no one is parked in the way, slide in
next to the pillars and I’m parked.
Now I just have to get back to my building.
The route is as follows:
Through the parking lot; across an alley; through another parking
lot (also under a freeway, it’s the only place to park in the City);
down an alley; jaywalk across Howard Street (this is easy because Howard
is one-way, meaning they can only come at you from one direction);
through another alley; across Mission (trickier as it’s both ways, but
at this time of day, there’s not much traffic.
Face it, would you be
on Mission at 7:45 am if you didn’t have to be?); up another alley;
across Stevenson (fancy name for another alley); around the corner; buy
the morning paper; take the elevator up to the 13th Floor and
I’m at my desk.
Now all I need is a cup of tea and I’ll be awake.
Love, as always,
Pete
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