PurpAnd

Last weekend I went for a sunrise run along the water in the Marina. I stopped and shot photos of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Palace of Fine Arts along the way.

This weekend (and maybe others depending on how well this goes) I am opening it up for you to decide where I run to on my Saturday morning run. Check out the poll at the bottom of the post and pick the location you would most like to see captured in my photos.

Links to info about the spots are found here:
AT&T Park
Union Square
Lombard Street - The Crookedest Street in the World
Fisherman’s Wharf
Twin Peaks
Baker Beach

I ride the bus to/from work each day. It’s about 25 mins each way and is generally not very crowded because I usually leave for work before 7 and come home before rush hour starts in the afternoon. A couple of days ago the bus stopped at a red light and I looked up from my game of Risk on the iPhone (my commuter activity) and out the windows to see another bus heading the opposite direction. The bus was probably half-full and was letting people on at the bus stop. There were several passengers seated along the window line and at first I paid them no mind, but then I glanced back at them and not a one looked happy. I thought to myself, ‘look at those saps, they look miserable.’ Then I realized, that’s probably how I look too.

I realized that how I feel on the bus does in fact reflect the looks these people had on their faces. My energy gets sucked away by riding the bus, but I suspect it’s not entirely due to the bus ride. Maybe also from what the bus ride leads to - a long day at work.

Riding the bus is fine, but it’s certainly not the mode of travel I prefer. (Read here for more on my reasons not to like public transit). I enjoy the freedom of sitting in my car, listening to loud music, and the comfort of knowing that I won’t have to avoid anyone who may feature a less than desirable smell. For this freedom, I would gladly pay the extra gas and insurance money to have my own vehicle.

I sympathize with those who ride the bus each and everyday and have for maybe 30 years. I’ve done it now for just over two and I really don’t like it. But I have few options or alternatives. Parking in downtown San Francisco is ridiculous ($30/day in my building or $350/month), and that’s assuming I have my own car, which I don’t (my wife and I share a car). I could ride a bicycle to work, if I felt like dodging cars and riding up and down steep hills. I could walk if I felt like hiking for an hour and showing up to work all sweaty. I could take a taxi, but that wouldn’t solve the cost problem ($15/way in and out of downtown).

It seems I just need to learn to appreciate the bus for what it provides me (and I’ve come up with some reasons to be thankful for public transit). For now, the bus is and will remain ‘my friend,’ but there will come a time when I will no longer need a bus pass and that will be an unforgettable day.

Feeling refreshed and energized, I got up early today to go for a run at sunrise. Put in 7 miles (Jaaaaaam). I posted the pictures on my Twitter page and you can view them starting here.

If I could hire a skywriter to paint TGIF on the sky, I would. That’s how glad I am that it is Friday.

I’ll leave work today around 2:30 for an appointment. And after running a mental calculation of the number of hours I’ve worked since last Sunday, I came up with 65. That’s the most I’ve worked in a long time. Some of you may say, ‘ha! 65 ain’t nothin.’ Well, to that I say, ‘whatever, 65 is a lot to me.’

I feel like it’s a lot. I am so ready for Saturday that I may have it twice this weekend. No Sunday, just two Saturdays.

To throw some numbers at you, I finished four assignments this week and was responsbile for valuing $107 million in real estate. If you break that down by hours worked, I was valuing $1.6 million dollars worth of real estate every hour (ok, this stat doesn’t really mean anything, but still kinda cool). I wish I were paid based on the values of the properties. In fact, that’s one of the most frequently asked questions about appraisal work - do you get paid based on how much the property is worth? No, and it’s too bad. If I were paid 1/100 of 1% of the value of the properties I valued, I would have made $165 per hour this week.

Compare that to a broker, who if sold these properties, would likely have made a 1.5% sales commission (after splits with the house), or $1.6 million. Sheesh.

Anyways, I’m spent. I’m ready to crash and just veg out for a change. If I’m lucky, Back to the Future will be on TNT and beer will magically appear in my fridge. Mmm.