Car Pool Log: 2006 08-04

Edna was the Driver again for today. This ride was similar to CPL: 2006 08-01; the same lay out within the car, the same Second Passenger. I wondered if they worked together but then I remembered that he gets dropped off the same as me. Second Passenger read a magazine similar to Newsweek. Since there was nothing to note inside the car for today I made a point to watch people as they drove by or we drove by them. Mostly construction workers in beat up trucks or contractors in shiny, new trucks and clean, crisp shirts. Made eye contact with a few people and I shyly looked away, not being strengthened by tinted windows.

As we came off the ramp a ten-wheel truck got its wheel stuck against a concrete barricade. Driver attempted to move around the truck but it drove itself free. As we were being let out Second Passenger said to Driver:

“Remember the house in Chicago? The alley with the fence? They had to tear it down because so many trucks ran into it.”

Car Pool Log: 2006 08-03

Dark blue, Subaru Outback station wagon. In the backseat: a black canvas bag, a legal sized pad with a black ball-point pen. Driver was listening to mix CD, during the ride he played Miles David and Norah Jones. The car had a faint smell of pastries or donuts. From the bridge I saw over ten barges in the bay to the south going towards Oakland. There appeared to have been one boat that had capsized, snapped in half like a pill and sinking. There was a crane nearby to the apparent wreckage. No one else seemed to notice and there was nothing in the paper in regards to a water accident.

Car Pool Log: 2006 08-02

White Toyota Tacoma pick-up. Driver had the passenger seat already moved forward. I got in the back and went to shut the door but Driver was already moving the seat back. The backseat was small, I sat there perched on smallish bench and had difficulty getting my seat belt on. Once I was in Driver turned up the radio, KQED; President Bush claims to have gained an extra 5 pounds from eating too much birthday cake. A cell phone on a friction pad, some paper work on the dashboard. I was under the impression that Driver seemed disappointed to have two men in the truck. On the freeway Driver was going 70 mph. Once we got on the bridge Driver changed the radio station. Magazines in the pouch behind passenger seat. At the intersection of Howard and Fremont Driver stopped the truck at the green light to let us out. The car behind honked at us while we disengaged from the vehicle.

Car Pool Log: 2006 08-01

Got into the car with Edna this morning. Second Passenger had his seat far back which I was sitting behind. I didn’t mind, I actually liked being well contained. Listening to KQED; President Bush and his travels through Florida talking about the conflicts in the Middle East when he was slated to talk about the economy. Sauron’s eye is staring to the warring nations of the Ancient World. A box of Kleenex underneath Edna’s seat along with a magazine. A children’s book in the cubby below the radio along with a FasTrak monitor. Edna was wearing leather sandals with white socks. I can’t figure out what she does, I want to say she works in a hospital or a university. Edna dropped us off on the corner of Howard and Fremont, I said thank you and she smiled and told me to have a good day.

Car Pool Log: 2006 07-31

Approached a black mini-SUV with a babyseat in the back and Second Passenger in the front. Driver told me to go around the other side and thanked me. I smiled and said no problem, said good morning to the two of them. Baby tissues in a carton on the floor, CD’s in a visor holder also on the floor, a container with one cinnamon Tic-Tac left.

They continued their conversation from before I got into the car. Driver was talking about being in an airport and how if your paperwork wasn’t properly filled out then they would send you to the back of the line. I didn’t hear what country she was referring to, it seemed that every time she spoke a key noun a motorcycle would rumble by or we’d drive over a bump in the road.

Driver spoke, from what I could gather, of adoption.

Second Passenger asked Driver if she spoke at the seminar she had gone to.

“No,” she said. “I didn’t have to which was lucky. There were plenty of big-wigs there, supervisors, managers. But I was the only clinician.”

There was moderate traffic on the bridge. Driver turned on AM radio to hear the traffic report and pointed out a helicopter flying close to the bridge.