On the Road Again

Well, on the road again tomorrow. 8am flight to SFO to begin another lovely week in Sunnyvale. Actually brings back some memories of the 23 plus years of commuting to the valley with my old company. I will never forget the earthquake during the world series and the miserable night in the company apartment. It was memorable mostly for the bad movie script part. Here I was stuck in the company apartments in San Jose with no power and no food. Every restaurant and grocery store is closed due to the damage and no power and I don't even have a pack of crackers in my stuff. After putting all the furniture back and picking up all the dishes that didn't break when falling out of the cupboards I am just standing on the balcony surveying the scene when a couple of young ladies appear on the next door balcony who are demonstrably borderline hysterical. Between the weeping and shrieks we determine that they work for Apple and all are from the East Coast and have no concept of earthquake. Much handwringing and stuff and I establish that they are clueless about what they should do. It is not helping that aftershocks are happening every half hour or so. After some questioning we determince that they have a hibatchi and some charcoal and there is some stuff in the fridge. I volunteer to make some "desparation stew" and that and the bottle of Vodka that appears actually turns into a pleasant evening, aftershocks and all. While the ideal outcome would be for yours truly to comfort these young ladies through the night my culinary heroism did earn me a candle to bathe and shave by the next morning. Disappointing I know, but the truth. I like to think of it as the Lone Soup Ranger to the rescue of the fair damsels...but whatever. Anyhow the good new is I was on the first departing flight out of SFO the next morning.
Remind me someday and I will tell you the story of the lone spot of power on Saratoga-Sunnyvale and how the single Denny's waitress save the day.