A Perfect Commute Day

I'm a fan of starting the day off with a smile and this quote on my coffee cup did the trick this morning.

Today has been the perfect commute day. The train I'm on has several miles to go before it reaches my station and my commute isn't officially done, but I'm going to be bold and call it perfect anyway.

The morning started off cold and foggy, just the way I like my mornings. I reached the train station with several minutes to spare and the train arrived on time. I took particular joy in the fact that I could hear the horn long before I could see the front lamp beams cutting through the fog.

The train wasn't crowded. The Bellarmine boys weren't there to be loud and boisterous. I took advantage of the quiet time to finish going through my Cinequest program guide and marking the movies I wanted to see.

By the time the train pulled into the station in downtown San Jose, the fog had gone, but the air was still chilly and the ground was wet. I made the mile plus trek to work on foot just to hear and see the sights and sounds of the city. I also walked so I could have an excuse to stop in at Starbucks for a grande cinnamon dolce latte, which is back in season.

I passed a few people along the way to the office. There were the two usual gentlemen smoking outside of The Caravan, one of two downtown bars I'm aware of that open at six.

Two elderly Japanese tourists stopped me in the middle of the street to ask directions to the nearest light rail station. Thankfully, the closest station was within sight. Their English was limited, but not as limited as my Japanese. Had the directions been more complicated than "It's right there, across the street," I would have felt obligated to walk them to it.

A block away from work, I came across a man in a business suit standing on the corner, smoking a cigarette. As I passed by, he suddenly yelled, "[Bleep] you! [Bleep] you! Get the [bleep] away from me. Get your filthy Catholic poison away from me." I didn't have any Catholic poison on me, but I heeded his words and got away from him as fast as I could.

Even with all of that, I still managed to get to work early, which meant I could leave early.

The afternoon walk back to the station was less eventful, but just as good. It was sunny and rather warm, but not too warm, which is just how I like my afternoons.

I took my time walking and even stopped in front of the HP Pavilion to admire the giant tennis balls hanging from the ceiling in the lobby. The SAP Open is currently going on there. By the way, the tennis balls were perhaps four feet in diameter and I wondered just how high one would bounce if somebody dropped it from one of the nearby high rises.

I reached the train station with plenty of time to spare. Once again, the train arrived on time and it wasn't crowded.

I'm sitting on the sunny side of the car and splitting my time between writing and staring out at the passing farms and open fields. The open space between San Jose and Morgan Hill is my favorite part of the journey. It's a wonderful buffer between work and home.

And as the train approaches the station, so ends my perfect commute day. I hope to enjoy another one soon.

Happy Friday, everybody. Also, Happy Chinese New Year. And look for today's edition of The Daily Brick later tonight.