Sunday

It’s about a 15 minute walk from my hotel to the San Bruno Caltrain station. The fare to “San Francisco” is two dollars, although I’m not sure where I’ll be when I get off. I’m about 15 minutes early. While it’s not too far to walk I’m wondering if I’ll bother tomorrow, I have a meeting at 7 AM near the Moscone center and I can have a car pick me up.

Cool, a double-decker commuter train. Top deck for that low-flying view. Clouds are pouring in over the hills from the west on a strong wind. The ride ends up at the San Francisco Caltrain station,  I walk up Fourth and stop at Moscone North to register for the show, figuring that the lines would be very long tomorrow.

The customer welcome reception is going on at Yerba Buena, and since I’ve eaten very little I swing through to grab a bite and some water. Huge crowds, a jazz combo playing. I walk to the end of Mission street where Oracle is having a dinner for attendees from my company. It was a pleasant, low-key dinner. About 10 or 12 folks from my company about half of whom I know and 5 or 6 Oracle folks. One fellow tells me that due to the large scale of the event – 40,000 attendees – Oracle employees aren’t allowed to attend most of the party events. Hopefully they’ll make their own fun somehow, or go home and rest.

I cabbed back to my hotel in the ‘burbs to find that I had screwed up the hotel’s directions to the train and gone in the opposite direction from the BART. So I’ll give it a try tomorrow as the cab cost over $40.