(The phrase "transportational device" comes from a student paper that I read about 20 years ago, just when I was starting grad school and had a gig as a TA for a film course. You'll understand why it stayed with me when I tell you that the whole sentence was, "Hitchcock's films are infested with transportational devices." I'm sure the young woman who wrote it has gone on to become literate in the last couple of decades . . . )

Anyhow. At this early hour (7 am, SF time), I have news to report on the transportational device front. I've discovered that I can, indeed, still rent a car and put it on my expense report, so I'm probably going to do that, if only to facilitate getting myself from this 'burb to Palo Alto on Wednesday. (Of course, if it's only a matter of that, my first inclination, still, is to take public transport because I find it to be a lot less hassle. My primary reason for wanting a car is so I can rent a bike . . . )

My other thought is that I should try to get my bike fixed. I've discovered several Dahon dealers in the Bay area (why am I not surprised??), including two in Berkeley and one right next to Golden Gate Park. I've also learned that the BART site (BART stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit) will give me directions from my arrival station to my destination. Is that cool, or what??

So I've determined that both Berkeley bike shops are within walking distance of the BART station. At the moment, my thought is that I'll call them when they open (not for a few hours yet), and find out if either one can fix the bike while I wait. (Yesterday I saw on the web that a couple of Berkeley bike stores advertise this service.) So if they can, then I'll BART to Berkeley and kill time, oh, I dunno, somehow while the bike is being fixed.

I'm exceedingly happy about this plan! I've never really been to Berkeley. EB and I stopped there once, briefly, when we were in town in 1991 or so but we didn't get a chance to walk around much. So in addition to solving the transportational device problem, this plan could mean that I also get a chance to see something new. What could be better??

Stay tuned for updates . . .