A (brief) visit

This trip to San Francisco today was one of those occasions where just about everything threatens to go awry and yet, one stumbles to home plate anyway.

The whole mess began when I submitted my travel request form to my boss. Instead of going up channels as usual it got diverted to some one else and I pretty soon found myself lost in a bureaucratic maze. I got all that cleared out in time to book one of the last available seats on the flights I wanted -- only to have those lost by another SNAFU that left me possibly waitlisted. Nevertheless, I had seats on both flights even before I left for the airport this morning.

As I noted yesterday, it was not looking possible for there to be anything but a short visit. But even that became impossible when my plane was late taking off, even later landing, and I arrived in downtown San Francisco just before noon. After waiting past 12:15 with nobody there, I called the filmmaker. Nope, our meeting time was still 12:45; some wires had gotten crossed. Not enough time, so I left a message for Archbishop Provence.

Our business suddenly wound up, to my surprise, at 4 PM. I realized there was time for a visit if I took taxis both ways. I decided I'm only two miles away, spend the money! So I called, and took a cab. Hmm, rather a bit less than I expected to pay.

Unfortunately exhaustion from the activity of the afternoon crept up on me, so it was less of a visit than it could have been, but at least I got a tour of St. Thomas. Amazing how much they fit into the space they have, and the Nave reminds me much of the church my grandfather built in Mexico. But the one topic we were going to discuss... went forgotten. Still, I learned a lot more about a sister church.

All too soon it was quarter to five and I was getting in a cab to return to the BART (train) station to return to the airport and then home -- but I had paid my visit!