Negative Toll at the Bay Bridge

I had lunch with V today and we discussed the idea of reducing traffic congestion in the Bay Area.

If only we can get more people to work different shifts, we thought aloud.

The simplest incentive, of course, is money, which works everywhere in our society. Thus the idea of a "negative toll" at the Bay Bridge during certain late night hours: one can collect four dollars when entering the toll booth between 11 PM and 3 AM. The amount is large enough, $20 a week, to be interesting to a person's budget for a daily journey, but not worth the gas money if one doesn't need to drive across the bridge for work.

Will this work?

Yang and I were sick over the weekend. It's so cold and windy in the Bay Area yesterday and today. I could barely go up today, took naps after breakfast and lunch. I'm still tired. But tomorrow will be a long day.

The kids are doing fine on the other hand; No flu symptom at all.

From Seattle to Beijing

A friend of mine, G, from Microsoft days visited me yesterday. He stopped in the Bay Area on his way to China. It’s been six years since I saw him last time. G didn’t change much. His family is moving to Beijing in a few months. G and his wife, Y, both work for Microsoft. Their job responsibility includes a lot of coordination with Microsoft’s international offices, especially the Beijing office.

They have a tough work schedule. G told me that he and Y both work two shifts: first the regular 9-5 shift, then after dinner, they go back to office to work until midnight. This must be very tough on their young boy. So they are making a change to move to China. They won’t have to travel to China or have late night conference call anymore.

It looks Microsoft treats relocated workers quite well. They need to take a bit of pay cut, but will receive some allowance on housing, which is actually more expensive in Beijing than Seattle.

I’m eager to see how their move works out. There is possibility that Yang and I make the same move, eventually.

Birthday

Mom is coming to my house tomorrow from San Jose to celebrate my birthday. It has been a few weeks since she stayed in my house. Oliver is coming with her. Yang, Victor and I miss Oliver badly. It will be a lot of fun tomorrow.

Garden update

Our vegetable garden is doing well this year. Tomatoes are ripe.

Lots of peaches too.