Liberated Oakland

One of the great joys of my lifestyle and job these last few years has been being able to see my good friends on a regular basis.

I've been extremely lucky in life to have met some awesome people.

To wit, Coop, who greeted me in Oakland, pulling up to the curb in his MINI alongside the construction pit next to the BART station, as he had said in his text. It was seamless. We went from there to a raucous pub in downtown Oakland where we had three pints of beer each, and lunch, and then left the car took off a long walking tour of the city just like the old days.

It was California beautiful. We had both taken the rest of the day off. We walked up along Lake Merritt and took pictures. I marveled at the architecture of Oakland, and how it tells a history of the city at a glance.

I told Coop about my adventures in Menlo Park, and how I had missed out on being able to use Uber, but had a good time anyway. Immediately he downloaded the Uber app on his phone and configured an account. He punched up our current location and used it to find a car, one of which was almost right to where we were standing, by the Whole Foods. The car was there within minutes, although we didn't recognize it as first because it looked like the other cars. He read the description again, then saw the car across the street. He waved to the driver, who waved back to us.

By his accent, our driver was an African visa worker, maybe now a citizen. He said he used to work at Mega Search Engine in Silicon Valley. He made more money doing it this way, and could live in the manner of life that he pleased. We all felt like kings of the day.

Then at quitting time we went and found Molly at her office.