The time was 0930 in the morning and we had left the house on the way to UCSF. The HOV lanes were still active so after making a kamikaze series of four lane changes to the left, we sailed along to the left sided flyover headed toward the Bay Bridge. There isn’t all that much traffic in the left lane, made even less by those single drivers smart enough to get out of the HOV lane before the cameras documents their law breaking activity. From there the flyover lane crosses to the right side and meets up with the HOV lane coming from the Oakland direction. Sailing through the toll plaza, we entered the main portion of the traffic just past the metering lights. To our left, and ahead of us was a small, reddish Fiat. There was no one around the Fiat by 10 meters or so in any direction. In a location where traffic was almost bumper to bumper, there was this bubble of “no drive” around the Fiat.

From there, all the way across the bridge, no matter the speed for the rest of the traffic, this Fiat seemed to travel at a slow and constant speed with everyone avoiding it. Traffic going 40? The Fiat is going 30 and everyone passes it. Traffic going 20? The Fiat continues to sail along with everyone avoiding it. Admittedly, I didn’t see much with it traveling faster than everyone around it. More like it turtling along with every single last car, truck and motorcycle avoiding getting anywhere near the Fiat.

When last seen, it was puttering south on the freeway, its bubble space still intact.

Arriving at UCSF early, George had his labs drawn and his follow up appointment. From there it didn’t run as smoothly as I would have liked. Because his feet hurt, someone hadn’t been drinking enough fluids. Not drinking fluids puts one’s kidneys at risk. Instead of heading home, we wound up spending almost an additional  four hours while someone (fill in the name yourself) received a significant amount of IV hydration.

The drive home was painful as the afternoon rush traffic had already started. My afternoon errands had been completely and totally taken over by hanging out at UCSF while someone’s IV went drip, drip, drip. Taking a deep breath here and releasing the last of the pent up anger, frustration and general disgust….

But the next time someone doesn’t drink enough on his own – he can Lyft or Uber home….