»Because they were squirrels

While waiting on the Palo Alto platform for the 20h21 northbound Caltrain, a tattooed youngish man rolled up on a tricked-out downhill bike. We were talking about how or why the train was late ("possibly because they're testing new electronic switches," offered a cheerful German riding a bike-boom Fuji). The very shaved-scalp young man wandered around the platform. "That's your bike?" he asked. "That's sick!" and I felt a swelling of pride.
On the train he and the German talked triathalon ("You swam Escape from Alcatraz in 40 minutes? That's sick!"), and I saw jimg climb on board at the San Mateo stop. He had been counting on the train running a few minutes late. We rode back to the Lower Haight together.

Today was a good day and a bad day for trains. Caltrain has enjoyed successful tests of its new "Baby Bullet" high-speed Peninsula rail service; but the long-rumoured high-speed rail from North to South is stuck on the siding.