Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

When I was over at the Flying J truck stop, I saw another new BART car being transported by road.

( BART Over the Road )

I don't think these things should have been moved by road in the first place. They should have put them on flatcars and transported them by rail. No, they couldn't have transported them on their own wheels. Beside the fact that BART uses a non-standard gauge and transit couplers, not the kind you see connecting freight and passenger standard rail cars, you wouldn't want to move a transit vehicle in an over-the-road train anyway; they don't meet the same standards. But it still seems to me that they should have been able to transport them by rail rather than on rubber tires.

Yesterday was a very long day in many different ways. For most people in the USA, it was due to the national election results. For me it was because I spent most of it on an airplane returning from the UK after my trip to Eurocon.

( By Metro, Trains, Planes, and Automobiles )

After unloading my luggage and making out the bed in the RV, I called Lisa, who I'd briefly contacted when I got to SFO, to reassure her that I was okay, albeit running a couple of hours later than I wanted to be. Then, just short of 24 hours since I'd gotten up in London, I lay down and was asleep, I think, within seconds.

iamradar very generously gifted me two Giants tickets she could not use, provided I could get up to Fremont by 4 PM to collect them, which I did manage to do. Alas, none of my friends in Fremont whose phone numbers I had were answering when I called, or if they were, they were out of town, so I had both seats to myself. Since I had to go to Fremont, I rode BART to the game, then walked down to AT&T Park. Friday's game was also "Perfect Cain" night, as the Giants celebrated Matt Cain's perfect game that he threw a few weeks ago. I got a commemorative pin, and there were ceremonies on the field honoring Cain's first-in-franchise-history perfect game. I ended up with several extra pins, in fact, as the family sitting next to my two seats was visiting from Chicago and didn't want their pins, so they gave them to me. While talking to them, I mentioned that I'd be at Wrigley Field in a few weeks along with a bunch of my friends, thanks to there being a Giants-Cubs game going on the Friday of this year's World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago. (As usual, I had to explain what Worldcon was, how it wasn't always in Chicago, how I've attended every one since 1989, how it's in different cities and not always in the USA -- he seems startled at the idea that I'd travel to a science fiction convention in Australia or Japan or Great Britain, but that's typical.)

A foul ball was hit into my section, which was in the lower level down the left field line (section 130, for those familiar with the park). It landed only ten seats to my right, but that was I think closer than any ball has ever come to me in my years of attending Giants games.

Unfortunately, the Giants bats fell asleep tonight, and the Rockies, the worst team in the division, were able to score three runs. The Dodgers won as well, so now they're tied with the Giants again for the division lead.

Since I was on BART rather than Caltrain, I didn't have to rush out of the game and hotfoot it to 4th & King to catch the post-game express train. Instead, I took the longer walk down the Embarcadero along with many other people and rode BART back to Fremont, arriving there just before midnight. After finding a gas station whose pumps were still working (I was almost out of fuel), and picking up a few things from Walgreen's (saving me having to go out and do those errands tomorrow) I headed back to San Jose.

As it happens, I'd planned on some errands in Fremont on Saturday anyway, and between getting the tickets from iamradar and catching BART to San Francisco, I was able to get them done. This means I have no plans to go anywhere on Saturday and will stay in the apartment, probably getting some "home" work done that's been pending since Westercon. But more importantly right now, I don't have to set that dratted alarm clock this weekend.

Late this afternoon, I got a call saying that my van was ready to be picked up. I spoke to the dealership's courtesy shuttle driver and gave him directions to my place. I started figuring that I might just barely have enough time to go to SF in SF after all.

( BART Fail )

When our train lurched back to the Fremont platform, I bailed out. It was now so late that I would be lucky to make it Montgomery Street by "halftime" of tonight's reading. I told the station agent the situation and he stamped my ticket and let me use the luggage gate so that I wouldn't be charged the "excursion fare" for exiting from the same station from which I'd entered. I hope there's no difficulty using that ticket, as it's what I plan to use on my trip to SFO to catch my flight to Australia on the 30th.

Alas, this story isn't true. I wish it was. The pity is that it's a much more reasonable approach than what's actually happening.

The Giants play the A's this weekend in Oakland, Friday-Sunday. There seem to be plenty of seats available, including excellent, in/close for under $40. I'm thinking of going to at least one of them. It would be the first time I've seen a game that counted at the Coliseum. I'd take BART, of course. There's a Capitol Corridor train that would get me to the game at a convenient time, and I have several unused Capitol tickets sitting here, but getting home would be a hassle and would require me to either have to walk the 6 km home from BART late at night (doable, but inconvenient) or take a taxi.

For the benefit of those who don't know the Bay Area geography, the A's play in a ball park that's closer to me than the Giants ("my" team). The A's park is adjacent to a BART station, one I go to fairly regularly because it's also the connection for Oakland Airport.

( Digressing into the A's potential move to Fremont and the transit disaster therein )