HWY17

[Drunk Monk]

my iPhone automatically caps 'Dead'

[Drunk Monk]

This sux in Stacy's car

An hour of stop & go in a stick shift 

Clutch foot cramps

Shoot me now

[Greg]

So, many questions.... Foremost, who's busy using the KFM Commuter Helicopter instead of you.

Followed quickly by, who in the US still drives stick?

[cranefly]

Lady Cranefly has a stick.
The beginnings of a pattern?
Or just noise...

[Drunk Monk]

Stacy's Civic is stripped down - stick, no AC and NO STEREO.  srsly.  It was all we could afford at the time.  Turns out martial publishing ain't as lucrative as I imagined.

Took me 3 hours today.  It would've been faster to drive to SF and cross the Bay Bridge to get to work.  I'm looking at 84 or 92 to go home later today.

2017 is bringing up all sorts of new levels of hell for me.

[Greg]

Unless of course, 84 is still closed like it was on Saturday.

You're the one who wanted to end the drought and now look what has happened.

[Drunk Monk]

I took 92 through half moon bay. And there was traffic because I wasn't the only re-router. I left at 2:39 and it took me 2 hrs 20 min. But it was a much more pleasant drive.

I'm proud that after 2 hours of stop & go uphill, I only stalled out once. I'm a huge Dante fan and always thought that there would be this level of HELL for me where I was at a Bob Marley concert but had to wait through Steven Seagal's opening hours act. And he just keeps playing and playing.... but sitting in Scotts Valley with a stick shift in stop & go uphill might just be worse.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Maybe go have a nice dinner then go home later in less traffic...?

[Drunk Monk]

I hit it early this morning. I was waking up every half hour, stressing the storm and the commute, still aching from Wednesday's 3 hour uphill stick shift PTSD, so I was on the road by 5am. Driving HWY17 in the driving rain is always a white knuckler, but I cleared it at around 40-50 mph. The slide area is clear! But they still have the lane closed because they are monitoring the slide area prudently. As I drove by, I saw mudballs the size of coconuts coming down.  There was an additional reduction to one lane NB after Laurel curve but I couldn't see why in the dark downpour. This is our submission deadline week so I have to be in the office. I'll stay at my mom's this week, unless the storm abates and HWY17 NB opens again.

Now I'm at the Starbucks near my office, nursing a cup for the next hour and a half until someone shows up to open the door. They've been saying they'll get me a key for the past 15 years - a lot more lately but I'm still keyless. I hate Starbucks. What's more, I gotta take my coffee with cream now or it triggers some odd acid reflex reaction hurls me into coughing fits later and I hate coffee with cream. HWY17 continues to spank me in 2017. I've must have been a bad kitty. Very, very bad.

Happy Prez Day! Hope the rest of you are off work.

P.S. tg has been eerily silent through this latest HWY17 ordeal. Whazzup tg?

[Greg]

What do you mean you don't have a key to your own office? What the hell? I thought you were the man?

Sorry, to hear about your travails. If it helps, Scapino is now a member of the coffee club and he sucks it down like he used to suck down Coca-Cola.

[Drunk Monk]

I actually rejected a key for years prior to living in the Cruz. I had keys to AFS (which resulted in a drunken trashing of the place after a KQED beer fest once) and one to Lam Kwoon (which was right across the street of our decks&ducks apt at the time and led to some late night digerido sessions). I think I denied myself a key because I didn't want work to take over my free hours like it did at Lam Kwoon. That's always tricky when your job overlaps your pass time. But now with my commute, I wouldn't waste time at Starbucks.

I can't blame Scapino for that Starbucks cards - twins and LA - 'nuf said. He's the man.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

For Prez Day, I decided I'm not going into the shop this morning. Slept in until almost 9am. Glorious! Still going to M-Team and then to Berkeley, but in this weather, I'll borrow Miss B's car. Rain + Wind + Bay Bridge = No motorcycle if I have a choice.

[Drunk Monk]

A downed redwood at summit. A new slide sb near Lexington. And I'm trapped. Trapped in s'vale. 

I am planning on staying at my moms until Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the whim of the storm and the wrath of 17.

[Greg]

Have you done something to offend the Gods? I mean recently.

[Drunk Monk]

i'm told many commuters are carrying chainsaws now to cut up downed trees.  the redwood that fell yesterday was chopped up by commuters and removed before traffic workers could get there.  

i knew that lexington area was going to go.  apparently some big boulders came down and that's what's closing the road.  i'm hoping it opens by tomorrow afternoon, but they are saying friday morning.    

clearly the gods hate me.  they must be jealous.