Earlier start today, arriving at the Chase Center by 7:45 only to find out they didn't need me until 9 or so. Oh well. When I finally met up with everyone, they had taken the original E450 off the floor and put the CLA 250+ on. They really wanted to show the prototype car. But the problem was that the screens would shut off at any given time, so with that issue, we had to decide which car we were going to use.
I did contribute a little, finally, confirming that we could do a Teams call from the E450, just like the one we have at EC One. Then there was a bunch of sitting around. I'll just FF through the details as there aren't many.
A woman named Teresa, but introduced herself at T, was awesome. I think she was the floor manager or something. I just loved her energy and vibe, don't know how else to say it. She would be awesome to work for. But she commanded a group of dudes to move the cars. That exercise was cool to watch. Very precision, with the dudes working in lockstep with each other.
I got to watch Collin deliver his bit again from the floor. I shot a video of it and Judson came up behind and took a photo of the rear end of the car for the "IGNITE" license plate.
Around 3, I decided it was time to go. I decided to take a Waymo into SF to check out Amoeba Music in the Mission District. I had been there before with the Forest Ray dudes, but I wasn't using a record player. Getting the Waymo was easy enough. It came to Chase, I jumped in and off we went. It drove competently and almost aggressively. I was able to wire in my Spotify and listen to music, which was nifty. Also, no awkward silences and probably the best part, no tip afterwards! Def recommend, will do again.
Got to Amoeba and looked around and as usual, I forgot what I wanted to look at. They had some Rush, only one Aimee Mann (Lost in Space, which I bought), one Juliana (Made in China, which I didn't), one Hold Steady (Open Door Policy, which I didn't) and so many more. I looked in Styx and they had 3 copies of "Paradise Theater" so I examined all of them and bought the most expensive one ($12.99) as it was in the best condition.
And then perusing through a "not yet filed' box, I came across "Chipmunk Punk" by the Chipmunks, and of course, I had to grab that because we had that growing up. When I took it to the counter the attendants were all excited and laughing about it. I bought a packing cardboard, wrapped it up and walked up and down Haight street. So many thrift shops and I didn't stop in any. I don't need anything, so it was just to get some steps and look around. I grabbed another Waymo from the corner of Haight and Asbury, and headed back to the hotel.
I got back around 5:30 or so and then walked down to the waterfront to have dinner at the Boudin Bistro. I got a crab and corn bisque bread bowl and a ribeye steak sammie. Pretty good food. Headed back to the hotel and got packed because Collin said to show up around 7am. Got everything ready and I was in bed and reading by 9:30. Crazy.
More pix, probably in reverse order.
 |
| Waymo picked me up at the nearby Ben & Jerry's |
 |
| Cool van |
 |
| Cool corner |
 |
| Outside Chase Center |
