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witness

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I took a different route home from work tonight. I decided not to try highway 1 and instead took city streets. I was going to take Water Street, but decided Soquel Avenue would be quicker. As I came down Capitola Road toward 30th Avenue, I noticed a woman and a man crossing the street. Beside the fact that they were 30 feet outside of a nearby crosswalk, there was something weird about the way they were moving. I got a sense she was trying to avoid him. Maybe he was chasing her? She crossed over to my side of the street and he was still in my lane, but several hundred feet in front of me. He was easily going to get to the sidewalk before I drove by.

Then the woman darted back across the street to the opposite side of the road. The man seemed to hesitate in the middle of the road for a second and then turn around and start back after her. There was a strange look about both of them that kept me watching them. I couldn’t figure out what they were doing or why they were so erratic in their movements.

I watched him closely as he started to make his way back to the side of the road where they started. He seemed to hesitate before making one last quick move toward the sidewalk where the woman was standing–now with a cell phone to her ear. And then I watched as he was struck and flung into the air by a black car that had just left the green light at the nearby intersection. The sound was awful. I heard it through my closed windows. I watched the victim’s body spin–end over end–and crash to the pavement. I can still see it when I close my eyes. I wish I couldn’t.

I pulled over and was on my phone dialing 911 within 10 seconds. I waited for all of the traffic to pass before getting out of the van to make my way to the scene. I gave all of the information I could to the 911 operator. As I walked up to the man, now on his back on the sidewalk, I assumed he had likely been killed by the impact with the car.

He was breathing, but it was labored and heavy. He was unconscious, and his body was clearly fighting to keep itself going. He was being attended to by an off-duty firefighter who happened to drive by. It was hard to watch. A few seconds before, this man was the crazy guy in the street. Now I might be witnessing his last moments of life. I asked the firefighter if there was anything I could do, but he said paramedics were on the way and it was best to keep my distance. In the small crowd that had gathered near the victim, I recognized the woman who had been in the road with him. I tried to speak to her, but she did not speak english and began crying when my first question (“Was he chasing you?”) was translated to her by another family member. I didn’t feel right bothering her anymore. The family member who translated my question said she was the victim’s wife. I stepped back a few feet and stood there quietly. Why they were in the road didn’t matter any more.

Another woman approached me and asked if I saw the incident. I told her I did and that I had called 911 immediately. “So you saw everything?” she asked. It was the way she asked that made me feel somewhat strange. “So you saw that he came out of nowhere? We didn’t even see him.” She was the passenger in the car that struck the man. I told her I saw the man dart across the street erratically and that I saw their car strike him. She asked me to stay and talk with the CHP officer, which I had planned to do anyway.

After giving my statement to the CHP officer, I learned that I was the only witness who saw the whole incident. Others may have witnessed the incident, but no one else stopped to give their accounts. I hope someone else will come forward to describe what they saw.

I was on the scene for another few minutes before being excused by the CHP officer who took my statement. I shook the hand of the man who was driving the car that struck the victim and told him I hoped he was ok. He thanked me for stopping and giving my statement. Then, with tears in his eyes, he wished me a Merry Christmas.

I walked by the family of the victim and told them I hoped he would be ok. I didn’t know what else to say. We had all watched the same scene. It didn’t look good. I can still see it. I wish I couldn’t.

Be careful. Be kind to your neighbors. Drive safe.

One memory in particular

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Anna and Rob in 1980

Anna and Rob in 1980

My memories of my mom are obviously few, since she died when I was just 6 years old. Many of them are things that we all take for granted: her picking me up from school, organizing and flawlessly (in my mind) executing birthday parties and swimming lessons. Those memories are precious and permanently etched on my soul.

There are also a batch of memories that are somewhat painful, but nonetheless important to me now that I am (mostly) an adult and can comprehend the emotions that lie beneath those moments.

In the final months of her life, my mom was counseled by a pastor from the Lutheran church my family attended. His name was Barry. The clearest memory I have of Barry is what he said as he led my mom’s funeral. The second clearest memory I have of Barry is a sunny afternoon in our house a few months earlier. He sat in a chair across from my mom as she sat on a couch that is still sitting in about the same spot to this day.

I don’t remember any of the words spoken between the two of them that day. I only remember that my mom was upset and crying. It seems obvious that she would be upset; she knew she only had weeks left to live. That memory stayed with me, though, because throughout her illness, she was stoic and guarded when my brother and I were around. That memory is one of the few I have where my mom cried so openly.

About 14 years ago, I found myself wanting to know what Barry and my mom talked about that day. I only remembered his first name, and I had no memory of his face. I decided to go to the church and see if Barry was still there (we stopped going to church after my mom died, so it had been more than a decade since I had been there). Barry had left that church a few years earlier, but a nice lady at the church gave me the last contact number they had for him.

I was fortunate enough to speak with Barry for a few minutes on a Sunday (of all days). I told him about my memory of that sunny afternoon in our living room. I told him how significant it was for me to see my mom so upset. He did not remember the specifics of that day, but he offered his thoughts on what might have been upsetting to her at the time.

He told me that the one thing my mom worried about most in her final weeks of life was how my brother and I would do without her (my dad has told Dave and I a similar story). She worried for us as only our mother could. She wondered what it would be like for two boys to grow up without a mother. In some ways, it was probably the most painful thing she endured during her illness. It caused her to seek guidance and counsel from outside her family. Would her children be ok without her?

–

Dear Mom,

We turned out ok. Dad did well. He fed us well and didn’t give us junk food. He made a lot of sacrifices and made sure we were well taken care of while he was at work. He clothed us and tried hard to put up with me when I got a bad attitude in my teens. And he kept the house just as you left it like a good husband (seriously, you should see it).

Carolyn and Roger did an amazing job of after-school parenting. They exposed us to cultures from all over the world and they took us camping a bunch of times. They fed us well too and made sure we got plenty of exercise.

I can’t possibly imagine how painful it was to let go and know you weren’t going to see us grow up. Now that I’m grown up, part of me wishes I could go back and comfort you because I couldn’t back then.

Dave and I are not angels. And we’re both still trying to figure out where we fit in this world. But I think that is normal. We had a solid foundation to stand up on and two beautiful families still watch over us in your absence.

We turned out ok. You did well in the short time you had.

Happy Mother’s Day,
Rob

Cowell’s Beach(?)

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Cowell's Beach
If you have ever lived in Santa Cruz, California, chances are you tried surfing. If you did, chances are you went to Cowell’s Beach near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and Municipal Wharf. You probably had a fun time getting from the water to the staircase that leads to West Cliff Drive, where most surfers gather before and after going out. On big surf days, it can be just plain hairy getting to the steps without falling over on a submerged rock, slipping on seaweed/algae that is growing on a submerged rock, or bumping into your fellow surfers as they try to get to the steps with you.

Every now and then however, the ocean makes the trip to the Cowell’s staircase quite easy. A small beach has formed at the base of the staircase in the past, but this is the biggest one I’ve ever seen. It is probably 50 yards from the staircase on the right to the water. Crazy!

As for the waves? Not bad, but the new beach has created a strong rip current going parallel to the beach from the staircase to the wharf. You have to go out pretty far to avoid it, but its worth it.

Water temperature? Don’t ask.

Click on the image for a bigger pic.

Rob’s Powerbook Odyssey: vol. 1

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This morning I will take my 3rd Powerbook to FedEx/Kinkos so it can make its journey back to Apple. It is a tough goodbye for me. For the past month and a half, I’ve enjoyed mobile computing, an extremely well-designed laptop, and severe frustration.

It all started over Thanksgiving, when the intel hype began. Every Mac rumor site and even bits of mainstream media were lapping up the notion that Apple was going to drop intel-based systems in January at Macworld. Of course, they were right. Apple released the MacBook Pro and intel-based iMac on Tuesday.

Back in November I read an outstanding review of the 15in Powerbook G4 by John Gruber over at Daring Fireball. And then another great article from my favorite TUAW blogger David Chartier. My rationale for considering a new Powerbook on the eve of intel was the same: I use most of Apple’s pro applications and Adobe’s Creative Suite and no way do I want to run them under ‘Rosetta,’ Apple’s PowerPC emulation layer that allows the intel machines to run PowerPC applications. Emulation = slower.

I’m happily up to date with all of my pro-level applications and the thought of having to pay for intel-ready upgrades (on a student budget?) was just out of the question. The solution, in my mind, was to get a nice Powerbook now and then think about another one in a couple of years when it was time to upgrade to new software. I’m not the kind of person who can buy a new system every year. So I need something that can hang with me for a couple of years at least.

So, over Thanksgiving weekend, I ordered a Powerbook from the Apple Store. I added a 100GB, 7200 RPM hard drive, and bought a gigabyte of RAM from Other World Computing. Life is good.

It takes an extra week or so to get a ‘built to order’ Powerbook from Shanghai, China, so before I got my Powerbook, I went to Apple’s support site to see what others thought of the awesome looking thing.

BAM!

The discussion forum specific to the Powerbook display is full of disgruntled graphic designers angry because of the appearance of faint horizontal bands on the display. There are angry stories of Apple Care not acknowledging the problem and sending replacement models with the same issue. And a few folks who’ve given up all together after several Powerbooks and just got a refund. I’m left wondering whether I’m getting a dud or not. It was freaky. Like making out with a pretty girl when you’re 19 and she sticks her tongue down your throat and nearly chokes you. Yeah, that bad.

When my Powerbook finally arrived I was guardedly excited. If you have never opened up a brand new Apple product it is like Disneyland, your tenth birthday and every Christmas present all in one. Nobody beats Apple’s packaging. Period.

I turned on my brand new piece of silver heaven to find that I, too, had the line problem.

I inspected it from different angles, and it appeared that it wasn’t all that bad for me (apparently the degree to which the lines showed varied from display to display). I felt like I could live with it. So I tried.

A few days later I installed and opened Photoshop. Houston, we have a problem.

I happened to be using an image with dark areas on it and staring close at the screen. It was all over, I had a lined Powerbook and it had to go back. I called AppleCare and to their credit, it was a pleasant experience. My problem was immediately ‘elevated’ and I sent my old Powerbook in to receive a brand new one a week later. It was delivered 5 days after I took the first one to Fedex. Right on, Apple.

While I was without a Powerbook, I followed the “lines” progress on the Apple Support Discussions site. Others were getting replacements that had the lines. A fevered discussion would break out whenever anyone posted that they believed they had a line-less Powerbook. This was always followed by intense, FBI-level interrogation of the line-less Powerbook owner until it became clear that said Powerbook owner either had very bad vision, or just hadn’t seen the lines yet.

I made a pilgrimage to my local Apple Store to see if I could find a line-less 15in Powerbook only to discover what most on the Apple Support Forums were coming to realize, all of the 15in Powerbooks had lines. End of story.

Unfazed, I was determined that I would get the first line-less Powerbook. Both of my two Powerbooks had come hot off the factory line. If Apple was going to make a line-less Powerbook, it was coming to me! When my second Powerbook arrived, I was ready to make history.

BAM…lines are there. Crap!
The second Powerbook not only had lines, but a dark band going across the lower third of the screen. After 3 days, the battery would no longer charge to 100%. It was obvious this Powerbook had other issues. It’s a funny thing: when you pay $2000 for a computer every 4 years, your expectations for the device skyrocket! I wasn’t mad, but I was determined that I needed to get a good one. This Powerbook didn’t cut it. Another effortless call to AppleCare was in order.

Did I say effortless?

Coming up next: Rob’s second call to AppleCare and Christmas with the FedEx package tracking site. Stay tuned…