October 2006
New Office
I know, it's been a while since I posted. It's been pretty hectic lately, one bit of good news is that I've finally switched offices back to San Francisco. My company announced about 6 months ago that they would be opening a branch office in SF for us folks that had to drive all the way over to Palo Alto. As much as I enjoyed the trip, an hour a day on the freeway at 85mph (135kph) in my stalwart but battered little car wasn't doing much to prolong my life-span. The new commute is one that I'm familiar with...
Several years ago in my last job, I regularly made the trip from my little island, across the San Francisco bay to the Ferry Building. The trip takes me past the Chinese, Korean and German freighters loading and unloading their cargo containers in Oakland one of the worlds busiest ports. On friday I drove out to the Alameda ferry terminal and waited on the pier for one of the two high speed catamaran ferries to arrive. While I waited I looked into the green waters of the bay for the little silver fish I sometimes see popping an inch or so out of the water in pursuit of unseen insects. But rather than the little quicksilver acrobats, I saw a ghostly form emerge from the green depths. Just the hint of an outline cast against the water catching my eye, a 3 foot wide stingray approached the shoreline, never breaking the metered cadence of its flapping wings, it wheeled itself about more gracefully than any bird could hope to, it disappeared back into the cloaking darkness below me with nary a ripple or sound to betray its fleeting presence.
The older Encinal approached the dock, running a casual 10 minutes late, but nevertheless getting me safely across the bay. There is something relaxed about taking the ferry. Water travel is not very fast and the whole jaunt is correspondingly informal and unpunctual. I'm rarely in a hurry though, and I wasn't even sure what the address was for the new office. VMware still hasn't bothered to update our website with the new office location, and even though I knew the general area, I was happy to receive a text message on my phone from my office-mate with the address. As I mentioned, I had previously worked in the area for Pulse 3D, although the old Fire-station we worked out of was mostly memorable for its lack of air conditioning and the occasional overwhelming stench when liquids managed to leach their way from the adjacent alley.
Good old VMware is not one to particularly spare expense though, so the several months that I waited to be allowed to relocate was spent remodeling the 13th floor (yes, I'm not superstitious thankfully) of the rather sharp looking Tower. Nestled in a rather dense thicket of high rises, she doesn't offer much of a view of anything, but me and my office-mate scored a rather nice little corner office looking out over Market street. We have already made use of the ping-pong table, although the pool table in Palo Alto will be missed.
Although missing some of the more extravagant creature comforts of the Palo Alto office, they still bring in catered food and the lack of fresh cream deliveries is more than offset by the phalanx of Peet's and Starbuck's surrounding us. It's nice to be back in the city, although I already miss the tropical Palo Alto weather.
Posted by Bakafish at 7:40 PM | Comments (1)
