It’s been raining a lot in San Francisco, and it’ll continue to rain almost non-stop for a while, so one dry day on Thursday was welcome. I rode to work again, by now the usual: some 9.5 miles home to work in the morning, 3 miles to South SF BART in the afternoon as the sun sets down. Soon I will start riding both ways; soon but not yet!

Thursday’s cycling day was dedicated to Vita, not only the fourth sponsor to support my participation in AIDS LifeCycle, but also one of my biggest supporters in all my endeavors. In case you are just joining the readership, AIDS LifeCycle is a 545 mile bike ride from SF to LA that takes place June 2-8, 2019. In a previous post, I tell more about this endeavor and the thank you rides.

Since this ride was for Vita, I about the value of surrounding ourselves with the people who can be our role models, better yet, when it’s mutual in some way. Vita is not only smart and beautiful, but also also helpful, caring, reliable, and stable presence in my life. Now that I started riding substantial distances somewhat regularly, I feel I am living more up to Vita’s standards, since she runs and does weights regularly (and never tells others to exercise or what to do in general, as far as I can tell!).

Thursday was a foggy day. I chose as the focus of my pictures the stretch of the route when I am “almost there”, with maybe 2.5-3 more miles to go give or take. Sierra Point Parkway crosses the Shoreline Drive and that’s where the larger Brisbane/ South San Francisco industrial campus begins.

Right at that corner I usually have a reactive thought: “This could have been the end of my commute,” because one of the companies I most recently interviewed at is right there and yet I have miles to go still. The interview went well, they were willing to make an offer (I think), and I do feel strongly about shorter commute. I even had a slightly better initial impression at this company, the one that I didn’t go to work at, not yet anyway.

I decided not to wait for the offer though and to go to another place that I liked, because the people at my current work acted more consistently like they wanted to have me. With my history of getting attached to the people who are ambivalent about whether they want me around and trying to prove myself, I did not care about working in such environment. Speaking about the people we surround ourselves with.

So that reactive thought is just that. Not a regret, but more like a reminder that there are choices, and trade off, and need to remember why we make choices.

Back to the bike ride. The route then goes through parking lots, hotel back alleys, and then merges into SF Bay Trail. Here are a few pictures taken within yards from one another. I really like this bit, because you sort of need to find it.

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See how there is a tiny bike ramp in a far corner of this parking lot. How can you tell this is a far corner? The little red car looks almost OK from this angle, but is totally messed up on the driver’s side. Flat tire, huge dent on the corner. Looks like somebody just left the car there, because it doesn’t bother anyone. That being a far corner. And then there is a short unpaved section. You need to know you are on the right path and not be deterred by it!

After the bridge, the view of the Oyster Point Channel off San Francisco Bay opens up. It’s all quiet again for a few seconds.

Next, another set of buildings. This area here built up in the last couple of years, I think, and grows up rapidly. Looks quite nice for being part of an industrial complex in a township that doesn’t seem to cater to pedestrians or bicyclists much.

The few crossroads I need to go through next (not shown) are just sad. Every time I get there, I think: “Come on people, how about a pedestrian/bike bridge just over these 6 lanes of traffic crossing the other 4 lanes of traffic and taking forever.” Especially with the area growing so rapidly and some anemic efforts to reduce traffic congestion happening.

But this little oasis is nice. And it amuses me again that as I take this picture, behind me is the South SF of the company I worked at on the East Coast, one of these buildings is a current location of another company I interviewed at at some point, and across that nasty intersection is another company I worked at.

For now, I have another mile or so to go. It will be interesting to see how this all develops and maybe it will be friendly to us bipedal or bicycled commuters one day.