Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Hi, Welcome to San Francisco. My name is Stan and I'll be your angel today.


I was coming back on Haight St from the hardware store and in the bus stop at Clayton Street I saw two young women pulling a spare tire and a jack out of the car from beneath a surfeit of luggage.

My first thought was, "They're young, modern, probably have it under control. They might be insulted if I offer to help..."

But then I thought, "Ah, what the hell... I'll just check."

I went back and asked if they had it under control and they told me, with lovely Aussie accents, that it was a 'car hire' that they were about to call the company because they didn't have a jack handle.

Looking at the jack I could see that the handle was there, attached to the jack by pressure and by loosening the jack I was able to get it free.


(I don't think I've changed a tire in more than 20 years but it's not like it has changed)

Changing the front left tire had me sitting in the traffic lane at the beginning of the bus stop and so I appreciated their standing next to me as living traffic cones and preventing my getting squashed by one of the many MUNI buses that honked at me.


Of course, while I worked quite a number of my neighbors passed by, many remarking that it was 'such a Stan thing to do'.


So how's this for your first impression of San Francisco:


You leave Boston this morning where there's 2 feet of snow.

You arrive at SFO where it's about 75F and very sunny, rent a 'car hire', declining the fee for the road side service, drive into the City to check out the fabled Haight Ashbury, and almost immediately you get a flat tire.

Bummer, right?

But then a random stranger stops by, changes your tire, and sends you down to Oak Street and off to Sacramento.



I love the idea that I may have passed along a little of the San Francisco magic that makes me love this town.

2 Comments:

Blogger zannie said...

Go Stan!

I love helping tourists, actually. It was the one nice thing about my brief stint working in the Marina.

7:31 PM  
Blogger C.K.M said...

great story Stan! so perhaps Angels are part of the San Francisco experience!

7:35 PM  

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