Holly Doyne

Oh, let me see.

You get up early and gather everything you need for yet another trip into UCSF. Load the husband, medical supplies, cross-stitch into the car. Find your phone, grab the car keys. Before starting the car, you order coffee from Peet’s (large latte, thank you very much) so that you can deal with the drive into the city.  Stopping at Peet’s, your coffee is there at the take out bar as you walk up. This bodes well for the trip.

Compared to Tuesday, the drive across the Bay Bridge is a breeze. Minimal slow down at the Toll Plaza and the metering lights aren’t on. What is even more surprising is that everyone seems to understand merging lanes of traffic.

Since it is going to be a long day, it is the parking ramp for us. The first anti-biotic is essentially in as we arrive so that George gets to head inside for his blood draw without dragging an infusion along. Blood draw completed, he rejoins me in the car so that I can start his second antibiotic.  Apparently the clinic is ok with him hanging out in the waiting room so off he goes for a comfortable chair and WiFi access.

I settle in. It is now 0945. His appointment is at 1200. We didn’t have a choice about the early arrival since one of the blood tests was to measure the trough (blood level just prior to dose) of the second antibiotic.  If we had come in later, he could potentially be 4 hours late getting started..

So there I am, sitting in the car. Having parked at the outer edge, I have enough ambient light to stitch. I am listening to an audiobook while carefully picking out stitches of a color that is just not working for me in a sampler. Finally done, I move on to the next project. Every 10-15 minutes, I restart the car as it shuts down so that I can listen through the car speakers.  Not a problem, except for one small item that has escaped my attention.

Are you starting to get an idea?

More than an hour early, George reaches me on the phone and I “participate” in the clinic visit. Done, he comes down to the car. I pack up all the stitching and turn the key. Na-dah. Nothing. Just enough to go “click.”

Now, I thought I had started it several times. But, I had forgotten to turn the lights off…. and had been using the car speakers for my audio book. My phone was happily at 90%+

As it turns out, the parking attendants have this lovely, small portable charger. I had walked up to the exit and asked who was the best to call (so they would let them in the garage). Turns out I am not the only one who has had a dead battery. This nice man came down with one of the other attendants (new) and showed him how to jump a car. Small device. I remember the old, huge chargers which had to be wheeled. Just a minute or two and my car started. Obviously, I had enough sense meanwhile to turn off EVERYTHING that could suck electricity and ran the car for a few minutes prior to heading up the ramp and home.

Moral of the story? Obviously, don’t run electronics and headlights when hanging out in a parking garage for hours…

 

After getting everything organized – I headed over to a 1000 appt at Volkswagen of Oakland.  There have been two ongoing challenges. The first is seemingly easy – the “check tire pressure” light keeps flipping on. The second is a bit more problematic. The passenger door no longer locks.

Now, in the good old days when you could just press down a button, it was easy to lock a car. Admittedly, a determined thief armed with a wire coat hanger could break into your car in the old days. With today’s electronic locks, most of the old fashioned break-in methods don’t worked and have been replaced by hammers and crowbars. Even not keeping anything worthwhile in the car doesn’t completely render a car safe from thieves.

And, when you think about it – if you are reporting a theft/break-in, one of the first questions asked is always “was it locked….

So there I am, with a passenger door that doesn’t lock. I get everything organized (yes, I said that before) and drive to Oakland. Attempting to check-in, I am not on the list. They look me up in the computer. George is the one who made the appointment and gave me the information. Well, 1000 was right. Unfortunately, the appointment was for yesterday….

Some times it is just not possible to do anything useful. That particular word is related to the stitching I was doing, not from the point of view of the cat.

There I was, last night, just before 2200. Happily stitching away on the rather large cross stitch that inhabits my floor frame and chatting with Jill, who is doing much the same while in her home on the eastern Australian coast. And, suddenly, as noted above – I am sitting in the dark. It is quiet. No motors anywhere. No signs of life. No computer, no wifi, no FaceTime.

Looking out the window – our entire neighborhood is dark. Ok, it is not our circuit breaker. The dark extends almost the entire way to the bay with only an occasional gleam of headlights as cars make their way along without the benefit of street lights or operational signals.

Over the next few minutes, I can hear the occasional generator starting up, breaking the peace and quiet. But it is dark. My phone is at 35%. Using it as a flashlight to head to bed will take the charge down further. George checks the PG&E website – yes, they know the power is out. These leaves me wondering if another squirrel has been crisped, since that was the origin of a previous transformer failure.

Somewhere after midnight the power comes back on. No, I wasn’t still awake. But the lights came on….