On With The Weekend!

A lot of hospitals that I work with have automated delivery systems. Sometimes its the good old bank air chute tube thing, sometimes its these automatic delivery carts that run the hall ways on tracks - today, in Silicone Valley I saw something that I've seen one other time, but I've never seen it before and laughed so hard. The hospital I was at today was in El Camino and on the business cards that I got, the title under the hospital was "THE hospital of Silicone Valley".... thats a lot to live up to, huh?

So, in the basement they have these transport robots that run without tracks but based on motion and sensors. They might have a garbage bin or a case cart or something else on wheels that would typically be pushed by an employee, but since its Silicone Valley, they decide to forgo that paycheck and give it to a robot that takes about 3 times as long to deliver the cart. Literally, the thing moved SOOOOO slow -- I think a turtle would have moved faster. These little robots were called "Tug". They all had labels on their rears that said "Tug 1" "Tug 2", etc. In the front they had their sensors so, we were goofing off and stood in front of one to see if it would stop. It did stop about a foot from us and then the little "eyes" in front shifted back and forth and back and forth and after about 3 or 4 minutes, it finally turned a little to go around the "obstacle" in its way.

Needless to say, by that time we had moved and it could have gone on with the route it was originally taking. We laughed about that one. But the one we absolutely died over was that, as we were standing in the hallway waiting for our appointment, "Tug 2" moves farther down the hallway to the supply department and slowly moves about 3 feet past the door, stops, eyes shift, turn left facing wall and with its robot voice starts saying "PLEASE OPEN DOOR FOR TUG" "PLEASE OPEN DOOR FOR TUG" and on and on it keeps on talking to the wall. Someone in the department finally opens the door but now Tug 2 is behind the door so she's standing there looking at us like "where is the thing" and we're like "its behind the door". And by the time, I swear Tug 2 was saying "PLEASE OPEN DOOR FOR TUG" but it was like with this pleading voice, like it was a whiny nerdy tug. The woman from the department comes out and my rep is trying to help move the thing over and they finally get it shifted but its still not pointed enough in front of the door and its still whining. They finally got it in, but we were laughing that Tug 2 was the "blonde tug" :)

So much for the up and coming technology of the Silicone Valley! So - the week in San Francisco was pretty good. I worked with 2 new reps and we met some good new accounts. I had some good time as well to get some work done and actually do some stuff downtown.

I did bikram at two different studios. The first one I didn't really like, the second one was pretty enjoyable - very hot and very clean and a great instructor. I love going to cities where you can do public transportation and walk places. The first studio I went to for Bikram was about 4 blocks from the Bart station, but it was in the Mission district which is not always the best so the neighborhood I was walking through was a little uncomfortable. The second studio I went to was actually about 30+ blocks from the Bart and took me about 15 minutes to walk, but I loved the area and I loved the walk. Part of it took me through some of Chinatown and through downtown-downtown area and Embarcedero. Loved it! I stopped for some sushi and I even found a cupcake place that actually had pretty fantastic cupcakes!

I'm actually getting back late tonight and then tomorrow morning I have to go downtown for a 4 hour in-service. And I may be going to fundraiser in the evening downtown as well. We'll see if it happens or not. Either way, its going to be a long weekend....