My Time With a Conductor was Electrifying

Oops. I forgot to load any trip photos into a blog post last night and I am already at work today.

However, since I can create a CoV from anywhere with interweb access, I can inflict one of those on you. Here is one inspired by our cable car conductor who was flossing and spitting off the back deck as we traveled through San Francisco.

Since I mentioned our conductor, though, I will tell you about Calvin. He was a SF bus driver for 12 years before getting hired on as a cable car conductor, where he has worked for the last 5 years. I do not know if he aspires to become a gripman or not.Calvin stands on the rear deck and controls the brakes when descending hills. When we first got on his car, he placed Salesman Son and I on the back with him and corralled the rest of the family into the car. He made someone give up their seat to Daughter-in-love and the baby. She said it wasn't necessary, but he insisted. A lady next to them also invited KNW to sit on her lap.

As we moved around on the deck, Calvin and I started talking, where I learned the above info and that he cannot afford to live in the city, so he lives in a suburb where the summer temps reach into the 100s. He has two kids, but I did not learn more about them...this time. By the way, he said he was not supposed to tell his name to passengers, but he felt it was OK with me.

When we were on the top of the hill at California Street, just as we started moving, he pointed to the East and said, "Did you get that picture?" Wait! What?! There was a beautiful shot of the sun glinting off the Bay Bridge, but I could not get my camera up in time. He promised to remind me on the return trip, but by then, the sun was gone. Oh well. I took the shot offered anyway. Maybe I will remember to post it tonight.

Wait. One more anecdote. At a point when the car was moving between cables, Calvin had jumped off and flipped a lever and was laying on the ground when the rest of the family saw him and he noticed them. We were on the return and he had allowed me to again be on the back deck with him. The rest of the family was in one of the benches at the front facing outwards (they had been inside in the back on the first trip and could not see anything. When we reloaded, he would not let anyone sit there until our family got seated). Anyway, he was laying on the ground, looked up and said "Hey, there's The Randys." He only knew my name, but knew they were with me. Any of The Randys have something they want to share about Calvin?

If you are going to SF, he said we should ride the Hyde Street line next time as it is the most dramatic line in the system. He said that, sometimes, the gripman will only lightly connect to the underground cable and the car can really get moving on long, downhill stretches. Even if you cannot, though, ride the cable cars. We had a blast.

I did not talk to the folks today, and that's good. Hmm, that did not sound right. I meant it to imply there was no problem for which they felt I needed to be notified. I was distracted when I left work because the power was off at the house for a while, and when the temps are above 115F, that is not good.

I really need to make a new version of this show. It is a photo mosaic, made up of hundreds of other shots. This was many years ago, and I know I have thousands more shots available now as source material. For now, though, enjoy.

I am taking over a project from another PM today, and our first meeting is in two hours, so I need to read over the documentation so I can lead it. I will be sharing more vacation verbiage tomorrow.