At the Capitol Avenue intersection, the light turned red.

I stopped smoothly and looked up at the high steel arches of the bridge spanning the river ahead.

My silver Toyota ran smooth and quiet.

On the rear bumper, the clean white California license plate sat securely in its stainless frame, stamped with the new blue validation sticker for the coming year.

I pulled into the private surface lot behind the six-story brick engineering building on Ninth Street.

The morning sun fell across the row of reserved spaces near the side glass entrance.