I think we general experience good karma, but this weekend was a dramatic departure from the norm.
Steve was here from Atlanta. His locked AT&T iPhone 6 had arrived on Friday. We decided to take it back to the Apple Store because we were switching to T-Mobile. Off we went to the T-Mobile store in the Marina district.
Because of the holiday weekend Blue Angels‘ air show, the always-bad traffic was beyond insane. I’m guessing it took us 20+ minutes to find a place to park. The parking deck was full with no attendant; so, you had to drive to the top (in a line of cars ahead of you doing the same thing) to find out there was no parking place and then try to make a u-turn in a cramped area so you could drive back down. Horrible, truly horrible design!
We parked at a 30 minute only parking meter directly across from the T-Mobile store. I had to feed the meter 3 times and keep checking to make sure the meter maid didn’t mark the tires. We were lucky. Steve, though, was fritzing! He doesn’t deal well with crowds, retail in general, and stress in particular.
Finally done with the changing of the contract, we were off to the Apple Store in Mill Valley. (We couldn’t deal anymore with meter maid stress, the crowds, and the general loudness of the people and the jets buzzing our heads at near supersonic speeds; so, we didn’t go to the Apple store a couple of blocks from the T-Mobile store.) The driving all around us tended to be dangerous, extremely dangerous! People almost clipping our bumpers as they cut in front of us and other cars at extreme rates of speed in both cars and motor cycles.
Just before we got to the exit for the Apple Store, we hit stopped traffic: a horrible accident. One car, on one side of the road was completely burnt out. Another car, an SUV, was on the other side of the road on its roof with all of the windows blown out of it and the air bags all deployed. And, finally, a third car was cattywampus and decimated in the middle of the road. Apparently, someone’s reckless driving caught up with them. Amazingly, no one standing around seemed to be really hurt!!!
When we finally got to the Apple Store, Steve returned his phone. I was talking with the salesman, asking him how long the back order was for an unlocked iPhone 6 Plus with 128GB. (The T-Mobile store said it would be sometime in late November before I would get my phone! Steve would have his in less than a week.) He said, “Let me take this phone back to the back and check on something.” I jokingly told Steve he was coming out with a phone for me.
Much to my shock and utter delight, he was!
They had a new iPhone 6 Plus with 128GB in stock—literally, the only phone they had in the store (save for the one Steve had just returned)! Because it was a Verizon phone, he could take the Verizon card out and place my T-Mobile card in it, and tah dah! I had a phone!
Steve was beside himself! We had gone from him having one and me having to wait to both of us having to wait (me longer than him) to me having one and him having to wait—all in the space of a few hours. He will remain bitter for years: until we get new phones!
At any rate, the bad road karma continued all weekend. I have never seen so much careless, dangerous driving in the space of 2 days.
People, get a grip! Slow down and stop carelessly switching lanes at absurd speeds.
Additionally, a friend witnessed a drowning at Rodeo beach this weekend. I’m telling you: this was a bad karma weekend!