I have been a little off kilter all day today, primarily because I am tired from my extended weekend travels. This morning, it was my strong intention to ride the 7:58 Baby Bullet Caltrain into S.F. I got to the Mountain View station in plenty of time, but was confused (once again) by the signs for the overflow parking. The signs say to follow the normal Caltrain parking rules, which require that money be paid. However, the last time I parked here (January), the parking machines that do the taking of the money weren't configured for the overflow lot.
Fast forward to today -- I assumed that the machines just had to be configured by now, so I wasted a goodly amount of time walking to the machines, finding one that was inservice, and then finding that they still wouldn't take my money! But under normal circumstances, this little detour would have been a minor annoyance. However, when I went to buy my Caltrain ticket, there were lines at every machine. And of course, the woman in front of me was trying to pass a dollar to the machine that it wouldn't take. I jammed a fresh dollar at her, allowing her to buy her ticket and get onto the train. But the doors closed before I was able to punch up my ticket.
:(
So, I took the next train, which put me into the city at least a half hour later than I wanted to be there. This threw off the whole day, as I was going to use that half-hour in order to plan out the sessions that I wanted to see.
Now flash forward to this evening. I cut out of a BOF about 30 minutes early, in order to begin my walk back to the Caltrain station. For some reason, I lost track of time, and didn't start running for the station when I should have. I got there at 9:07:30, and the train left at 9:07. This is a much bigger "Doh!", because the next train is at 10:07 PM.
:( :(
Since the 4th & King Caltrain station can be a little sketchy at night, I decided to walk around. I happened upon a Borders, where I made an impulse buy that has made me feel a bit better. But still, I hope that I have better luck tomorrow, otherwise this is going to be a damn long week.
-Andy.
Posted by andyr at June 28, 2005 10:13 PM