Car Pool Log: 2006 08-11

Silver-blue, Toyota Prius. Driver was hunched up in his seat as if perched, hands on the steering wheel. Second Passenger I was guessing to have been Driver’s brother, possible twin brother. There were similarities in stature, in voice tone as they spoke together. Black leather bag in the backseat, KQED on the radio. A woman spoke of losing her husband in 1936 to leukemia and how, at the age of 80, wrote a book using the love letters they wrote between each other. Her name was Nora Percival and her husband was Herman Gund. I got a little choked up, looking out the window, listening to this woman speak to her granddaughter about what had happened.

“You should probably take the 45.”

“Does that stop in front of the terminal?”

“Well, you’ll need to walk a bit.”

Second Passenger got out of the car quickly and dodged to avoid a low hanging branch from on tree planted on Fremont Street.

Car Pool Log: 2006 08-10

Honda Civic, blue and gray. The first car I went to get in Driver said that his car was broken. “I think it’s the starter,” he said. So I fell back to the next car.

Second Passenger was already in the car when I arrived. Black canvas bag in the backseat, various dirt marking on the seats and back of the seats. Music was a mix, featuring the Dandy Warhols, Badly Drawn Boy, and a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat.” Driver’s keyring consisted of the car key and one other key.

Driver suggested that he could take us as far as Howard and 4th if he chose to. Second Passenger and I both agreed to be dropped off at the usual corner.

Car Pool Log: 2006 08-09

Dark green Lexus sedan, tan leather interiors. Driver said hello to me through the sunroof of his car as I was stepping into the back. A suit and a tie hanging on a clip in the back, a blue folder with papers on the seat, a newspaper on the floor underneath the Driver’s seat with a water stain. Also; two 1 liter bottles of water and an aluminum can without a label also underneath the seat. There was the faintest smell, sweet and burnt, of marijuana, as if it had been long saturated in the folds of leather and weave of the upholstery.

Driver was using a hands-free headset for his cellphone. The radio was tuned to KQED but the volume turned all the way down. From the moment I got into his vehicle until just before we got off the bridge, he was on the phone.

“Yeah, I’m at casual car pool, I’m waiting for another person I just picked somebody up… yeah, there’s a long line behind me… it works out for everyone, I get to use the car pool lane and it saves me money. These guys also get a free ride.”

I had originally assumed he was on the phone with a colleague but later realized he was talking to a sibling.

“So, you don’t want to use the Italian restaurant in Palm Beach?...”

“Anytime there’s balloons and cakes and candles involved…”

“We’re flying into Ft. Lauderdale… it was cheaper that way… we’re renting a car…”

“I’m getting the impression that mom wants to stay home…”

“I bet he has everything planned out on a spreadsheet!...”

“I remind him everytime he’s had me drive from Sacramento to pick him up at the airport in San Francisco because it was more inexpensive for him that way…”

“So you were in New Jersey last week… saw Bon Jovi!... I saw him on the Good Morning show and he seems like a regular guy… Either that or a restraining order!... Yeah, you taped it?... He must have been excited by all those teenaged girls... So, who do you know in Napa?... That’s dedication… Stalker…”

Car Pool Log: 2006 08-08

Blue VW car, tan colored interiors. Driver was playing music from his MP3 player, wire rolling into a cassette that was in the car stereo. A mix of soft-blues and Coldplay. I was intrigued by the gelled quality of Second Passenger’s black hair, the Swiss Army sunglasses he wore. In the back, the ashtray was open and looked recently vacuumed.

A white Cadillac roamed into the car pool lane with the appearance of only one passenger, the driver.

“I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing,” Driver said.

As we drove by the car there was an Energy Efficient sticker on the gas tank lid. It looked beat-up, like a sold-off police cruiser.

“Must be a hydrogen car,” Driver said.

Car Pool Log: 2006 08-07

Silver BMW, (see CPL: 2006 07-11, 05-26). Sat front passenger seat. Driver was listening to the Margaritaville station on Sirius radio. Today’s music was Toots and the Maytals, Little Feat and Marvin Gaye. The interior of the car was meticulously clean and void of artifacts. At one point, Second Passenger sneezed and Driver said, “Bless you.” Second Passenger was also making a lot of noise shuffling and folding his newspaper, The New York Times.

I again made a point to look at the other cars around us: a blue Mazda Miada convertible with rust colored stains inside the rear window.