tiredThe waiting room at the Reno station was packed. Lisa observed the crowded waiting room and observed wryly, "I guess nobody rides the train anymore." Amtrak #5, the westbound California Zephyr, was ten minutes early into Reno this morning, which meant that after getting settled into my coach seat I was able to get into the final seating for breakfast. I like breakfast in the diner, accentuated by the scenery as we headed west from Reno up to Truckee. And as a bonus, the young couple sitting across from me were fans, and knew Mo Starkey's daughter, so when I mentioned the Hugo Award while explaining why I'd been on the train to Chicago last month, they said, "Oh, cool, we know someone who won one of those just recently."
I had two seats to myself, which gave me plenty of room to work. I had to pull the curtain on some of the best scenery in the world and spend most of the train trip to Emeryville head-down on Day Jobbe, but the spacious seats meant I had enough room to do so. On a typical airline coach seat, I probably wouldn't even be able to get my laptop computer's screen open, especially if the person in front of me reclines.
At Emeryville, I had enough time to get an early dinner from the Public Market, and then it was back to work for another hour or so riding down to San Jose.
Tomorrow I'll work from home first thing before taking the train back to Fremont to collect my van from my gem of a mechanic who didn't mind having thing sit around for most of two weeks.