We were alerted at work earlier today that there was a man on the Bay Bridge who was threatening to jump. That was at 2 p.m. At 4, when I usually get off work, he was still there, and traffic was backed up for miles, and complicating traffic on all of the other bridges as people tried to get around the jam.

I was heartily glad at that point that I had a good excuse to stick around in the East bay, as I'd made some appointments to see apartments (yes, I'm really looking now). So I talked a co-worker who would have been sitting in the hours of traffic to come apartment-looking with me. And we did, and the apartments were dismal - the sort that you know as soon as you walk through the door that there's no way in hell that you would spend the night there. I had to drive him back to his car at the office, and we got stuck in traffic just going half a mile on the freeway, but it was moving somewhat. So we decided to put it off even longer, thinking maybe if we had dinner, then the trip home would be relatively painless.

It wasn't.

It still took me an hour and a half to get home, and the first hour and fifteen minutes of that was spent just getting to the first half of the eastern span. After that, it only took me 15 minutes (if that) to get through the City and to my apartment.

I feel sorry for the guy - suicide attempts, as I'm sure you know, are cries for help. And he was crying really really loudly. Every time I felt irritable at him, I tried to imagine how lost in pain he would have to be to do something like that. I can't imagine it. I hope there weren't too many people who yelled at him to jump after sitting in their cars for a few hours trying to get home.