Up all night packing for our imminent Fare The Well trip to Chicago and and prepping for SFJAZZ ordering
4:20 AM drive to West Oakland BART
4:40 AM on the BART train to SF, surprisingly crowded for this time of day!
5:00 AM get to Starbucks Fox Plaza exactly when they open. Customer number one for July first orders: one egg, sausage and cheddar sandwich and a tall dark roast, yum! A half dozen other early workers straggle in as I wait for my sandwich. Once my order ready, I'm hoofing it again, off to SFJAZZ!
5:12 AM landfall! First in line! I set up my little chair and commence to perch at the entrance on Franklin for the next quarter of a day.
5:30 AM Done with breakfast. Still sipping coffee. birds in the trees around me are singing a greeting to the dawn. Happily, it doesn't feel like the fog is going to blow through Hayes Valley today, though the wind is whipping and I can see a thick grey bank flowing east a few blocks to the north, up Franklin.
5:35 AM Jim Mullins drives up and waves before heading around the corner to park in the alley. Nice to have a buddy to visit with. helps to pass the time!
7:05 AM waiting for the sun to climb over the buildings and warm us up. It's not cold today, but it's easy to get stiff while sitting around waiting for the appointed hour to arrive….
8:45 AM still sitting in the shade, but the sun has continued edging its way higher, and the corner of Franklin with Fell is now fully lit. Starting to feel warmer too. Good for that!
9:30 AM finally, a bit of sunshine on my toes. Turns out that I'm sitting in the shade of a scraggly maple, so I'll be spared the full strength of the Sun for awhile yet. Some good luck there!
10 AM Two more folks in line. Our numbers are growing! As is the heat from the sunshine. Time to strip off an outer layer and put on sunglasses!
10:30 AM up to a dozen or so here in line on a fine summer's day. Wish they'd open the lobby so I could offload the early morning coffee…
10:48 AM onto the signup sheet and into the lobby, yay! Looks like about twenty folks here now, all frothing at the mouth and raring to order. Little do they know that they'll be waiting a bit longer, bwah hah hah hah…
10:59 AM up at the desk and ready. On your marks, get set, go!
I run through the order list as fast as possible. Eventually we're done, and the order is printed, whereupon I sign away for the huge bill, then go sit and carefully check that the tickets match the order requests. Yup! All good, more or less.
12:10 PM out the door and on the way to BART, whew! Mission accomplished.