November 20, 2007

Riding the shuttle, I looked up from playing chess on my blackberry and noticed how clear it was this morning. No barking from the dog, no smog...


I picked up ten downtown tags in the office this morning - paychecks. They were all really close together and I knocked them out in half an hour or so. I saw this truck with a furnace while dropping the 90 New Mo[ntgomery].

Crossed the street to get a closer look. Maybe its for melting tar or something. Anyway, was weird to see an open flame in public.

A few minutes later next to 333 Market, I saw another flaming device in the middle of a construction site. For tar, maybe?


Good thing it's next to some oxygen tanks.


After I cleaned up downtown, things were unusually slow and I hung out at the statue for half an hour. I forget the guy with the cup's name, but he's fast. I first met him at QCR and and a few times since. These two were talking about their bands and music.

The guy on the bike works for Expresso I think, but I don't know him.


Don't know who's bike this is.

It was a chilly day. Sitting around for so long in the shade was chilling. After awhile I headed down to the courtyard of 50 Fremont and busted out my lunch. I've been packing a lunch for the past two weeks in an effort to save money.



Rice with spam, kimchee and some pickled radish. I'm starting to get sick of this. Need to switch it up soon. Maybe I'll make beans next.


Had a rush pickup at 545 Sansome. These Trigon intercoms are the worst. Such a shitty operating system if you can call it that. It takes way to many complicated steps to find and call a company on these bitches.


After another rush pickup at Wells Fargo on Mont[gomery], I picked up a third rush, (all three going to city hall) from Gladstone Properties at 177 Post and checked out the rooftop garden for the first time.Nine stories isn't the highest rooftop garden (Mechanics Bank on Sansome is my current favorite) but it's a nice respite from the rush on the ground.

City Hall. Willie Brown really did a good job cleaning it up. Sure, SF had bigger problems to throw money at, but in hindsight, I'm kind of glad he dropped a bunch of money on sprucing up City Hall.

One of my drops was in the Mayor's office, the door in the middle.




Had a drop at 1111 Gogh, St. Mary's Cathedral. It looks like a washing machine agitator.


It's cool.

Headed back downtown to drop the return from City Hall back to 177 Post. The lady I gave it to said she was glad they (the accessor or something) accepted it without a notary.

I used to work for this hot dog slanging company. When I started messengering last year, the vendors would hook up the free dogs all the time. Those times are over. Now they're tight asses.


During my morning downtown run, I picked up a 505 Parnassus. After I dropped that, I ate the rest of my lunch at the UCSF Cafeteria on the second floor, rode down to my old hood (9th and Judah) and got a donut at the donut shop on the corner. The guy remembered that I'd moved to Berkeley and asked how it was. He wondered if there were "a lot of protests all the time". I told him not in my area.

Anyway, the above shot is around the 1700 Block of Vicente. Had a pickup at Edgewood Children's center at 1801. I took the bus up 19th - free ride - to the top and rode done. Lazy. Plus I had to take a dump and didn't feel like mashing up the hill.


Unloaded at Edgewood then was told to head over to Caritas Manegement at 1358 Valencia for an exclusive pickup (tags from cheapest (least time sensitive) to most expensive (most urgent): Sameday, Express, Now, Exclusive). My dispatcher recommended cutting over the Twin Peaks area by way of Portola and heading down Clipper.

At Twin Peaks. I heard that's a good TV show. Heidi Blais, the girl I was in love with in Jr. High, recommended it way back then. She was advanced.




At the top of Clipper, about to head down.

It was an awesome ride down. Clipper ends at Dolores.
s

That's the street I went down and why my job is fucking sweet.


I made it over to Caritas and picked up an envelope. Is that latin for something?


Then I had a pickup at 55 Filmo'. Here's my grip for skitching up Market, up the little hill around Oak. I have mixed feelings about skitching and will go into them more in another post. The main two are fear and exhilaration though.
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The union at 55 Fillmo'.
\Then I had an interesting pickup at Guitar Center on 1645 Van [Ness]. A pair of drum sticks. The third exclusive in a row. The girls at the counter thought it was funny that someone at Levi's would send a messenger out to pick these up. They ended up not charging for them. But we charged $41.51.

Above are the drumsticks in my bag, and the copy of "Royalty" magazine I picked up that morning at UBOC (where I got the 1111 Gogh tag). That magazine is a trip. Some royal women are really smoking hot. If that's the result of inbreeding, do more of it I say.



The view from the 36th floor of One Market's Spear Tower. Such a clear day.


This is how and where I lock my bike up when I deliver to Levi's on 1155 Battery. Fucking annoying.