Thursday, March 16, 2006

There But For The Grace of God



The nicest part of the daily commute this month back and forth from Silicon Valley on Caltrain...



...is that it forces me away from the computer screen and either into the pages of a book (Agnes de Mille's series of autobiographies, starting with "Dance to the Piper")...



...or into meditating on the view outside.



The nastiest part of the commute is the San Francisco #47 Muni bus which travels down Van Ness Avenue to South of Market, stopping by the city jail and the homeless shelters before it reaches Caltrain.



On at least half of those trips, the bus is graced with at least one crazy person hauling bags upon bags of neither food nor clothing nor anything particularly useful, but precious junk nonetheless, sprawling across aisles and seats.



The gent above is the worst offender and I can't seem to go anywhere without sharing a Muni bus with him.



I can't complain, however, as I have a cozy apartment with a wonderful view...



...that includes protestors in front of the School District headquarters chanting "We Want A Contract!"

7 comments:

Delphine said...

Same but for the protestors and homeless!


Taking the bus to Northbeach, though, can lead you to a large expense of ear plugs, to escape loud Ipods and people who absolutely need to share their un-interesting phone conversations with you...

When they are not singing gangsta' rap with a piercing headphone voice.

I learnt a lot of uselees unladylike vocabulary :)

Civic Center said...

Ah, Del, you must be taking that other infamous Muni line, the 15 Third. My condolences.

Anonymous said...

the first photo is truly beautifull..
uau
p

Ced said...

Mike,

if I may suggest, you should ride your bike to caltrain from the civic center. It would be faster than muni, and you can carry it with you on the train (limited space on some of the baby bullets, which I see on the pictures though). And then you seem to have quite a bit crossing the freeway at your destination, so the bike would help there too. That is, assuming you have a bike.

If you do: look for me in the bike car and say hi.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Moon called me last night and said the train was over full. However, they are trying to add another car and would know by Monday or Tuesday. Mercury in retrograde indeed -- but it goes direct on the 25th. Happy St. Patty's Day.

sfwillie said...

A Muni bus affords slow death to its riders, faster death to those it hits. What if you're riding your bike and a bus hits you and you don't die but your camera is broken? Imagine how frustrating it would be to ride in an ambulance with strong but gentle EMTs and not get any pictures!

Anonymous said...

We do not need newspapers anymore. They have raped the public with exorbitant ad fees etc... plus they have no more substance. NOW, the blogs are attracting better photograhers who have actual brains. WELL, didn't Sharon Stone's hubby get a run for his money. Boy, used to be bigtime,--- fire useless Phil== and all he was, was a flight of her fantasy. He is not Orson--