Back to the rain (or SFO to YVR October 29)

Every time I leave the hotel and walk the streets in the financial district I notice the same two things.  1)  San Francisco drivers have caught up with Vancouver drivers in regard to their fascination with honking at each other.  This doesn't make cars move any faster but maybe it makes the honking retards feel better (HINT to RETARDS: it doesn't make people having to listen to it feel better)
2)  San Francisco streets and sidewalks are quite clean.  Presumably the result of being cleaned ALL THE TIME.  With BROOMS.  Yes, you read right !  I have yet to see a single person down here use the annoying ego-enhancing blowers that Vancouverites are so bloody fond of (HINT to RETARDS using these blowers in Vancouver: see HINT above).

After returning the bike to Blazing Saddles just before 11 and getting my 20% discount for having reserved the bike online, I walk back to the hotel.  The weather is really too warm for long pants and a thin hoodie, so I take the hoodie off (wish I could do the same with my pants ;-).

How much longer will those two little buildings last?

At the hotel I empty the dregs of my bottle of Chardonnay first into a glass and then into me, before quickly packing everything (How much can you stuff into a single backpack?) and checking out at 10 to noon.

I have ample time so I interrupt my BART journey to the airport by getting off at Glen Park Station in the hope of finding a nice restaurant where I can enjoy a well-cooked lunch with a nice glass of wine.  There actually is such a restaurant (French) in this neighbourhood, but it is closed at lunch time.  Ah well, I tried.

I hope back onto another Bart train and ride it all the way to the terminal station of this line at San Francisco Airport.  Here I find a Sushi restaurant in a fancy food court and order some Nigiri and white wine (Some things are much more civilized in the US than Canada, even though one pays a hefty price for it).

I'm done eating at  1:30 pm.  Still 2.5 hours until my plane takes off. Hate airports !  I promise myself to take an earlier flight back next time.  I decide to occupy my time by going through security.  But that doesn't take that long either. 15 minutes later I have laced up my shoes again (Taking one's shoes off is MANDATORY in US security checks for anyone between the ages of 12 and 75). Duty free!  I buy a carton of Gauloises, my favourite brand, for even less than a carton of Camel or other US cigarettes would have cost me.    Still way too much time to kill.  I find the very thin Lindt chocolate wavers that Grandma likes so much.  I feel like running out of the store when I see the price (US$ 15 for 200 g) but buy 2 boxes after all because Grandma REALLY likes them (almost as much as I like stinky fish fried rice ;-).

Still time to kill. And the guy on the waiting bench next to me keeps frantically digging through his bag while his ringing cell phone emits strange noises.  The ringing eventually stops but not his frantic digging.  Gotta get outta there !

I walk past a kind of candy&book store and freeze in my tracks.  Didn't Neil Young just publish another book?  I was going to buy it used when back in Canada, but if I pay the indubitably outrageous extra cost now, I could use the book to bridge the remaining time !

How could I not ? ;-)

I double-fold the Canadian Immigration card just because it says Do Not Fold.  (If I had something to hide, would I do that?  Reverse psychology to not get searched. Ooops! when I finally remember that I actively intend to defraud Candadian Customs on the duty payable on 4 packs of cigarettes ! Ah Well). A newish and still enthusiastic customs agent fills in United where I left airline and flight number blank (I just can't be bothered anymore to find out my flight number just for the stupid form). He then asks me to read the 2 questions on this worn out piece of paper and answer both verbally. I look at the questions and shout OH YEAH, in the meaning of "Oh Great, now it has come here".  Since the two questions have something to do with Ebola, and I quickly realize that Oh yeah could be interpreted in an affirmative sense, I QUICKLY add "I mean NO".  Not in the mood to be stuffed into an isolation chamber!