I am not a child seat

Jeep Cherokee. NPR, but only in the front speakers. I got in the vehicle 1st, which had tinted windows. The 2nd passenger went around the other side to get into the back seat because he saw there was something in the back (i.e. me) but couldn't identify what it was through the tinted windows. He thought maybe it was a childseat (which is common). I am not a childseat, and I don't play one on TV.

Nothing coherent

Older Honda Accord. Silent. I left very late today. There were still cars lined up for carpool action at 9:00am. I was a chatterbox in the carpool, but I don't remember what I said - I am mildly delusional today due to lack of sleep.

Role reversal

Subaru Outback. Jazz 91. I drove today. Both passengers were reading books. I changed lanes too much on the bridge. The carpool drop spot is Fremont/Howard. Many people jump out on Fremont before the corner, sometimes while the light is green. Also, some drivers turn the corner & immediately stop to let out passengers, blocking the cars behind them from doing the same thing. All they have to do is pull up a few feet. Both of these scenarios happened today. 'Twas ever thus.

For the Birds

Subaru Outback. NPR. Program on endangered species being taken off the endangered list. Driver & I agreed it was a conspiracy. Have I told you about the birds? On the approach to the bridge you can sometimes see white egrets in the morning. About 6 months ago there was a mother duck with her babies that would be right on the side of the freeway every morning - literally where the grass meets the road, 8 feet from traffic, there's these freakin' ducks. It was crazy. Quack.

Precision

80's Volvo sedan. Silent. Went to work early. Line of 7 cars waiting for riders. Got in back seat & said "Good morning. Been waiting long?" Reply from middle aged professor type, bald with tweed jacket & spectacles: "No, I was the 7th car in line & I've only been waiting 6 minutes." Maybe he is a math teacher?

Jammed

VW Golf. NPR. Turned on NPR after passengers entered vehicle (a curious yet common protocol). Driver had stealth cell phone earpiece on which he had a short conversation in Chinese. Traffic jam. Mildly aggressive driving. Small leather Kleenex holder on driver's side sun visor.

A Big Display

Avalon. Silent. Car had an extra large center dash display panel showing date, time, temperature, trip timer and compass. Very large font size. "Yes, I'll take the jumbo size display panel with 96 point Helvetica please." Watches & bike computers can fit this stuff into a small space & have it be quite legible - what's with the expansive leading, Toyota?

NPR vs NPR

Camry. NPR. Pledge drive is still going, so the driver flipped from 1 station that plays NPR to the other. Content was not repeated, but this did make for a disjointed news narrative.

Traffic, now with drum machine

Subaru Forester. KFOG/KQED. Childseat. Morning edition pledge drive is almost over. Driver flipped to KFOG & they had the traffic report with really bad drum machine music playing behind it the whole time. With all of the things distracting people on the road, now we need a stupid ass drum machine playing while we're trying to hear the traffic report? Duh.

Continue to develop the product

Honda SUV. Adult contemporary female vocalist CD. Husband & wife. As I enter the vehicle, wife is finishing a cell phone conversation with the one liner "continue to develop the product." Then they turn on the CD player and it's a crappy, watered down Edie Brickell type of thing. Shuffly backbeat. Trite lyrics repeated over & over. String section in the chorus. The bell curve that defines peoples taste in music is rather severe.

Hey! Taxi!

Yellow Cab. KCBS. A cab pulls up into the carpool line & I stare in disbelief. He motions for 2 passengers to get in. I am in the front seat, which diminishes the chauffer experience, but does give me an opportunity to learn about the cab's GPS system. The driver says that even though he is supposed to get fares from the dispatcher through the GPS, that sometimes the dispatcher will call another cab on the phone, and the supposedly guranteed fare won't be there. The dispatchers get a kickback for giving a driver the scoop on a big fare (like an airport ride). Cool to get the inside dope on the cabbie life (other than reading "Night cabbie" in the SF chron).

On the bus

"So if you can't carpool back from SF, how do you get home?" Funny you should ask. I used to take BART. It's usually 5+ minutes late, and most of the time I'll get a seat, but sometimes I have to stand up for the 25-30 minute ride home & it's all packed in like sardines and you get stuck in the tunnel and the AC isn't working & yr trying not to smell peoples smells and it's generally not too relaxing.

So now I take the bus home. And so far it's right on schedule every day and you can always sit down and it's faster & even slightly cheaper than BART. You also get a great view of all the bridgework & cranes & barges because you're on the lower deck, but higher up than in a car. It's pretty rad. Don't tell anyone though.

Punishment for being late

Jetta wagon. KCBS. Left 10 minutes later today, just in time for John Madden on KCBS. There are not strong enough words for how much I hate listening to that guy. There was lots of traffic. Then the threat of the double whammy appeared - "coming up next, the Osgood file." Luckily, I got out of the car before the Osgood file. Phew. So who do you despise more, Madden or Osgood?

Pledging your attention

Subaru Forester. NPR. Childseat. Kids' toys everywhere. Couple in front. She's driving. NPR playing. Heads nod in approval. Then a pledge drive announcement happens for 10 minutes. Then back to regular programming.

Q: Why the hell didn't they change the station during the horrible pledge drive banter?
A: They're not really paying attention.

Sports

Newer 4 door Honda Civic. Classical 102. Driver switched to AM740 to hear the traffic, but John Madden was on. After they didn't play the traffic she switched back to classical. I told her that AM740 has traffic & weather together every 10 minutes, except for when John Madden is talking. She said "who's John Madden? I don't listen to sports." Pretty cool.

Also, this lady was a non-merger. There are certain people that don't want to merge across 5 lanes of traffic to do the flyover before the bridge, so they stay in the right lane & get into the carpool lane just before the toll booths. Sometimes this is just as fast, sometimes you get burned. Today it was OK.

Pit stop

80's Toyota sedan. NPR. Female driver described environmentalist/leftist friend as "woo." Front seat passenger's wife used to work in my office, but left for a better job which made me frowny.

Modeling behaviours

Accord. NPR. All summer there were 20-30 people waiting in the carpool line, but it never took more than 10-15 minutes to get a ride. Today there were 9 cars waiting & no people. Lots of traffic, too.

I asked the middle aged asian woman who got in the back if she had enough room - no response. By the end of the ride it was clear she didn't speak English. This is the 3rd time lately this has happened. I wonder how people find out about the casual carpool? Anyhoo, the driver was a nice 40 something lady & we talked about Burning Man. She said that some families are starting to go, and she'd like to check it out, but doesn't think it's appropriate for her 14 year old daughter.

Cement shoes

BMW 7 series. Joe Zawinul CD (nice sounding stereo, damn). Pleasant, middle aged dude with Mr. Clean haircut. Smelled of cologne. 2nd time I've ridden in his car. Radar detector on dash. Took cell phone call #1, spoke in Russian (?). Very Goodfellas. Possibly ordering a hit on someone? Took cell phone call #2, spoke in English. Discussed hiring shopping mall mogul's daughter, & setup meeting with City Hall insider regarding real estate for business relocation. Then we had a short conversation about the healing powers of music.

9/2, buckle my shoe

Took BART.

5 offices

VW Jetta. No radio. Talked about commuting with 2 ladies that work for the De Young & Palace of Fine Arts. They work at 5 different locations.