Took a Lyft down to Sunnyvale. A toss-up.
Rent a car or get around with Lyft?
It’s certainly easier to do the latter and I suspect that, after all the
extra charges are added and top up the gas and ensure you're insured. Its’ been a while. Just how long does it take to get to Sunnyvale
in rush hour these days. Normally it
would be under an hour but given the way people complain it might be more like
two.
My driver welcomes
me into the car and then mentions he needs to off to urinate. What can you say? He takes a while and then I translate from
Chinese into English and say something that I always say in Beijing: “Safety
first. And . . . if you can go quick I’d
appreciate it.” We fly down 208 and I
work through an online payment and refill with my fuel company back in New
York. Apparently, things have gotten
cold without fuel.
By the time I’m
off the call I notice that there isn’t any traffic. As I mention this to my driver I remember
that today is technically Veterans Day. That must be why we are making such good time.
He mentions that he rather disappointed in PG&E. “Didn’t someone think to cut back the trees
from the power lines”, he wonders. Now
they’ve been sued into bankruptcy. He has
a friend who says Shenzhen is cool. He’s
interested in going there some day. I
encourage him to do so.
I’m twenty-minutes
early and settle upon a table for four near the front door of this Starbucks. A rather short older man with a stoop and a
limp approaches the counter after me and the barista there knows his name. The first person arrives, and we take seat
out in the sun. From across the street a
woman approaches with a logo on her tee shirt which I consider for a second,
but when I look I see that something is wrong.
Her face has been swollen to unfathomable proportions so that her she
seems to be cartoon face swollen in this horribly exaggerated manner. I consider her courage and her misery as she
walks past me into the Starbucks. What a
tremendous burden that poor girl has.
Monday,
11/11/19
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