~Tuesday~ I packaged my clarinet in its case, which fit perfectly into my empty Pampered Chef deviled egg server box. The length was exact, and I stuffed plastic grocery bags down the two-to-three inch column on either side of its width.
I caught the Wolfline #9 Greek Village bus at Gorman and Avent Ferry, where I sat in the very back of the bus, along with 11 other people in that section. A quick count surprised me to find four out of the twelve of us wearing watches. I was not one of them, and I was surprised that the percentage was that high, especially since just about everyone of us had a smartphone, which of course has the time on it.
The guy to my right seemed to be talking to himself, and I craned long and hard enough to find a Bluetooth device in his ear. I thought it must be in the ear that I did’t have good visibility to, but I never did see one. Things that make you say, “Hmmmm,” to yourself.
The bus got pretty crowded, and at one stop, the bus driver said twice to the people standing in the aisle, “Please move all the way to the back. Step up the stairs and all the way to the back.” However, I guess the guy who was right at the stairs—and essentially needed to be the first one to move up so the rest of the people could follow—didn’t think her request applied to him.
I worked in my office until 10:00, at which time I caught the Wolfline #1 Avent Ferry bus over to the Avent Ferry Technology Center (AFTC), where I had meetings from 10:30-11:30 and 11:30-12:30.
After those, I caught the #1 up to the shopping center at Avent Ferry and Gorman, where I mailed my pampered clarinet to Jacksonville, and then had lunch at Laziz Biryani Corner in the same shopping center. Two colleagues of mine were in there—my boss’s boss and one of the directors that I’d met with earlier at the AFTC.
I caught a Wolfline bus back to my building, where an androgynous person sat across me wearing a t-shirt that said this on it:
Stay
bru
tal
-thiscityisburning
records
At Western and Dan Allen, an older man carrying a gas can boarded the bus.
Later on the way home, on the bus again, in a definite sign of the times, two students sitting next to me were talking about a class they were in—the same course with the same instructor, but at different times.
They were talking about something they were required to draw, and the one said, “I drew it with Paint.”
To which the other one replied, “Dude, my partner and I drew it on paper and then we web-cammed it.”
I wanted to go to a coffee shop this evening to hang out and check off some to-do list items. At 8:40, I looked online at the hours of both the Cup A Joe at Mission Valley and Helios. Helios indicated they were closing at 10:00 tonight, and Cup A Joe’s site said 10:30, so I went to Cup A Joe.
At 8:53, I arrived at Cup A Joe—the same Cup A Joe by the way that you might remember previously, in a similar situation back in May, when they were trying to clean up and they asked me if I’d move to another section of the place, and I asked them, “Would you prefer I just leave?” the barista answered, “Actually, that’d be great.”—but I bitterly digress…
I ordered a plain, regular coffee, about which the barista said, “Is that for here or to go?” although in retrospect, I’m not sure why she even bothered with that question, since she put it in a to-go cup anyway.
I sat down, opened up my laptop, and logged in when, at 8:55—that’s two minutes later—she announced to the place at large, “We’ll be closing in five minutes.”
You know I was perturbed.
As she walked by me to wipe off a nearby table, I said to her, “You know, I checked the website before coming out here, and it said you’re open until 10:30 tonight. I would appreciate you guys updating the site to accurately reflect your hours.”
She said, “Yeah, I know. See, we closed at 9:00 during the summer hours, because there’s not that much business with the students gone, and well, it just hasn’t picked back up enough to change back to staying open until 10:30 yet.”
“Yes, I can understand that, but I wouldn’t have driven all the way out here had I known you were closing at 9:00,” I said.
To which she replied, just wiping away, not the least bit ruffled—or getting it, “The Cup A Joe over on Hillsborough Street is open until 10:30.”
Now getting hotter than the coffee in my to-go cup, I said, “While I appreciate that, I’ve driven here now and not over to the Cup A Joe on Hillsborough Street.”
Again, clueless, she said, “Well, you’re welcome to sit outside here as long as you want to.”
Instead of saying what I was thinking, which was: “But, I didn’t come here to sit outside in the 100% humidity among those carcinogen-exhaling patrons sitting out there, now did I,” I simply said, “Let me be as clear and explicit as I can about what I’m asking you. I’m asking you to please ask the management—or someone who works here who can—to update your website to accurately reflect your current hours.”
“Oh, okay,” she said as unapologetic as she was unfazed.
Packing up my stuff, I was going to go to Helios, but on the way downtown I remembered that The Borough is open until 2AM even during the week and has free wi-fi, so instead of going to Helios, where I’d have to pack up in less than an hour, I went to The Borough.
I enjoyed one bourbon and diet, and then switched to coffee. Two firsts for me at The Borough: 1) I brought my laptop in there, and 2) I drank coffee there.
I created our Manbites Dog board of director’s meeting agenda for this Saturday’s meeting, and sent it out to the board in conjunction with answers to a bunch of questions sent earlier in email be Ed.
I also made several Scrabble moves while there, and had an instant message conversation with Robert. I headed home at about 11:40.