A Ferry Ride Away

Let me start by sharing a snippet from today’s Contra Costa Times:

Storm winds and rain have downed trees and power lines — and sometimes downed trees on top of power lines — throughout the morning, keeping tens of thousands of Bay Area residents in the dark as PG&E has called in reinforcements to tackle a rapidly growing backlog of outages.

The roads are soaked and in some parts underwater, though commuters appeared to be faring better on area highways on their second full work day in the rain. Elsewhere, the storm blew off a roof and knocked a tree into a home.

This morning I took the ferry. I had a meeting so I had to dress nicely. When I exited my house I thought that the winds had calmed to a light whisper and that I would make it on the ferry without throwing up. My bf’s mother had given me a set of Sea Bands. Sea Bands look like sweat bands for your wrists. They have a little white circle that pushes on pressure points on your wrists. Think 1988 basketball players and you will get the picture. I took these in my backpack, wrapped my computer in plastic, put on my long raincoat (thanks mom!) and headed into the unknown.

I arrived at the ferry as the winds began to whip. I got on the ferry and as we moved away from shore an announcement came on over the loud speaker, “please stay seated as we are in for a choppy ride,” the captain said. I reached in my bag and pulled out my Sea Bands and placed them on my wrists and closed my eyes and prayed. We started to bounce over waves. Just as I thought that I was doing OK, another announcement came on the loud speaker, “You thought that was choppy? As we head by Alcatraz it is going to get worse. Stay seated.” My knuckles whitened as I clenched the chair. I then heard a thud and looked up. On one of the larger waves a woman had flown out of her seat hit a table with her knees, and fell to the ground. People rushed to help her. The problem was that the ferry was going up and down and they could not get her footing to get her up. Instead, the two men that had offered to help her stood with her until the ferry docked.

By the time I got off the ferry I was relieved. I had not thrown up. I had avoided hitting a table after falling off my seat. I was golden. I did, however, have a mile walk to the office in torrential rain. I made it to work, soaked through, nauseous and cold, but in one piece. I had folded my pants over so that the bottoms would not get wet. Inside the fold of my pants was an inch of rain. I also came in to find an email saying that my meeting was canceled. I did not realize until an hour into my work day that my Sea Bands were still on my wrists. Nothing says success like Sea Bands in the work place.

I found out later that the ferries after my voyage were canceled. This information did not put my mom at ease as I continued to receive emails says, “take the train,” and “safe ride home” throughout the day followed by a couple of texts.

I took the train home. No Sea Bands needed.