Less than an hour

My skin normally starts to crawl when I even think of facing the traffic into San Francisco from my side of the Bay. Since this is Thursday, George has an appointment at UCSF.

Taking a deep breath, I made an early run to fill the gas tank. Trust me, the very last thing I want to do is run out of fuel on the Bay Bridge and become “one of those idiots” who impact traffic with their rudeness. I think you understand. So, full tank of gas (petrol) followed by a coffee stop at Peet’s for human trip fuel before heading back to the house to grab my passengers. Since Alex had to make a run into the city today, I had the three of us–the magic number for the HOV lane. Rather than committing myself to having to get off at the Fremont Exit, I skipped picking up a fourth passenger at the North Berkeley Ride Share and just headed out.

My least favorite part of the trip, if one could say that any portion of the trip was all right, is having to work my way across five lanes of traffic to get to the HOV lane from the University Avenue entrance. Three of those lanes are Oakland bound and they are by far denser than the right lanes. And, hello – this is California where a turn-signal doesn’t seem to mean much of anything. I can actually be appreciative of large trucks, they never ride the bumper of the vehicle in front of them so there is usually space that I can squeeze into.

Once we hit the HOV lane, it was clear sailing all the way to the San Francisco side of the Bay Bridge. Even the traffic up Olivia wasn’t that bad. All in all, we were at UCSF in less than an hour from leaving home, an unheard of fast trip for rush hour. George is stable, getting a bit stronger everyday. It would be really nice if his red blood cells and platelets were recovering as fast as his white cells, but I guess we don’t get to have everything. He has been shifted to weekly visits from twice a week, so that is excellent from my point of view.

After we returned home, I spent the afternoon organizing my studio a bit more and machine embroidering lace doilies, just because I could. And, they are pretty mindless with few, if any, color changes.

large and small

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About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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12 Responses to Less than an hour

  1. Scooter says:

    Great George is doing better.
    We are off to Kona Hawaii for 2 weeks!

  2. Mark says:

    Wouldn’t it be nice if you were being drive in an up-armored Humvee. Or better yet, one of those USMC wheeled armored vehicles.

    • Holly Doyne says:

      these are idiots who don’t even have enough sense to get out of the way for emergency vehicles. I would be safer in an unarmored vehicle, but wouldn’t get there any faster. But it is tempting….

  3. Bill R says:

    Thanks for the update! And Thanks for making me grateful that I don’t have to commute in the cities anymore

    • Holly Doyne says:

      I am a huge fan of public transportation when dealing with major metro areas. Unfortunately, there are all sorts of germ bearing creatures on them, so George is restricted to POVs

  4. Brad says:

    Glad to hear George is improving.

    For both your sakes.

    Best wishes from us both.

  5. Cheryl says:

    There are more than a few drivers here in Alabama who need to remember what a turn signal is, too! :). I’m glad George is getting better!

    • Holly Doyne says:

      I don’t think any area has a monopoly on idiots! But it is the ones that don’t yield to emergency vehicles that drive me nuts.

  6. Cheryl says:

    In DC they used to tailgate the ambulances! The only time I was in a forgiving mood was when it was the patient’s husband.

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