Here’s to razor thin margins
Normally, I incorporate a little wiggle room into my plans, but sometimes it’s just fun to operate at the margins. Today has been one of those days. I had to be up by 2:00am so I could leave for an early flight to San Francisco to deliver a presentation.
If everything had happened according to schedule, I would have arrived just as things were beginning. However, BART was much slower than planned so I was still waiting for a bus miles away from my destination when festivities started. Realizing I was going to miss my presentation, I flagged down a cab and made it into the room just before it was time for me to speak.
Still energized by nearly not making it on time, I delivered the presentation which went over well. Afterwards, I washed down a very decent lunch with some nice beer and returned to the airport for the trip home. On an aside note, the buses in San Francisco suck. You wait forever, they’re jam packed, and they crawl. I really missed my bike today. I might check to see if there’s a folding bike that can be taken in the cabin of an aircraft.
Once the plane landed, I had to drive a natural gas powered car a little over 60 miles. That would not be significant except the needle was buried on Empty within 20 miles and the low fuel light came on. It was after 11:00pm, there were no natural gas stations, so I was holding my speed around 50mph, drafting off trucks when I could, and shifting to neutral in some places to save gas for the remaining 41 miles. I didn’t think I was going to make it, but I coasted into the parking lot on fumes.
The trip from the motor pool was not without excitement. 3 blocks from home, I got pulled over by 2 cop cars (bad tail light). It’s after midnight now, and I’ve been up for more than 22 hrs straight, but strangely I’m not tired.
Today’s been a good day and having that many close calls all break my way is worth a drink. Nothing less than Auchentoshan Three Wood will do to wrap things up.