The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 72

0-12 Sunday, November 15, 1998 A lection of the Su Fnncuco Sunday Eumiim ud Chronicle SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER FED EX from D-l t. niteu ill Cars are double- and triple-parked, helter skelter, hazard lights flashing, a block in every direction, in driveways, on curbs and even on sidewalks. With engines running and even with children left strapped in car seats, 'desperate motorists abandon the cars and run toward the FedEx door as if their lives depended on it. "They still be running when the door is locked," said Washington, waving off motorists before they could even think of parking in the driveways needed for the FedEx trucks. "Sometimes they run faster when the door's locked." Washington can't understand it, being such a stickler for time herself.

In her 48 years, she's never had to FedEx anything. "It's amazing how people live, down to the second," she said in a Southern drawl revealing her Louisiana roots. "I guess some people like that thrill. It's a challenge to them." And if it's a challenge they want, shell give it to them. Three minutes! Three minutes! Three minutes! A man pulled up in a pickup.

He had 29 tubes of blueprints. "You better hustle it," she told him, clapping her hands rhythmically to hasten his pace, as he grabbed an armful and ran inside. She loves her job. "Some people think I'm pretty cruel," she said, shaking her head at a latecomer who gave her a baleful, but wasted, look. "I've got a heart.

Sure I'm sympathetic. "But I can't let them in." For those who have been somehow deprived of The FedEx Experience, it goes like this: For packages headed to points East for next-day delivery, they've got to be dropped off at the Harrison Street office by 5:40 p.m. The doors are then closed and the gates locked so that all the packages can be processed, loaded on trucks and sent to the airport. Then, about 6 p.m., the doors are reopened for West Coast deliveries and pickups. The last chance to send anything anywhere is 8 p.m.

Four minutes. You got four minutes. The holiday season is always the busiest, and a threatened FedEx pilot strike in December would be sure to add to the havoc. But it's hard to imagine it any more frantic than it now gets during the weekday rush from 5 to 5:40 p.m. FedEx doesn't give out statistics on the number of shipments from any office, a spokesman for the Memphis-based company said.

But the cars outside the office tell the story. Procrastinators' nightmare to. But no San Francisco procrastinators worth their delaying tactics are strangers to the bespectacled petite woman in the navy-blue uniform who waits, arms flailing, foot tapping, whistle blowing, outside the FedEx office on Harrison Street between Seventh and Eighth streets. Five minutes, she shouts in the middle of traffic, holding up five fingers in the air and tapping her watch to rush-hour evening commuters. You've got five long minutes.

Five minutes and counting. Monday through Friday, this is the absolute last FedEx office in town to drop off a letter or package bound for overnight delivery to the East Coast or Midwest. Blow the deadline of 5:40 p.m. and that ain't 5:41, buddy and it's a race to the San Francisco or Oakland airports, where the FedEx offices close just a half hour or so later. Officially, Washington is the security guard outside the Harrison Street office, but she is more, much more.

Just ask her. She is the gatekeeper, timekeeper, traffic cop and street ambassador of that FedEx. EXAMMERPAUL CHNN Diane Washington has been working outside of the FedEx office for less than a year. "You came at the last minute she chided as he raced back in with more. "If you're not done, I'm not going to wait for you." He glared at her.

She glared back. "People say, 'Oh, you like that authority, that she told an onlooker. "I don't have no power." She eyed the blueprint man, almost panting now on his fifth round trip. "Move it, move it." Two minutes. TWOOOOOOO.

Luckily, he did make it, earning her congratulations and a "sweetie." But she hadn't been bluffing. No shouting, no tears, no excuses, no pleas for mercy have ever made Washington unlock her padlock and reopen the metal gates once it turns 5:40 p.m. She's even been offered money bribes. "Everyone's human. A lot of time you can't be on time," she.

said. "But uh-uh." Washington is so protective of FedEx one would think she's been with the company forever and her son was chairman of the board. But technically, she's not even an employee. As her uniform says, she works for Action Security, a private security firm. But the FedEx assignment is her first job since rejoining the work force after years as a homemaker and mother.

She's only been at FedEx since If You're Serious About Sound, And Serious About Savings, This Sale Is For You. paid if this payroll didn't go out. The building that wouldn't get built without these blueprints. The years of litigation tossed away because of a few measly minutes. One woman even told her that the box in her arms was a heart monitor for her daughter.

Well, that one got her. "A lady can cry at the drop of a hat," she concluded. But with a child's health at stake, she wasn't going to take any chances. She didn't break her vow not to unlock the gate. Yet she made sure the package got on its way on time.

But warning: She's already fulfilled her Be-Nice-To-Mother-With-Daughter-on-Heart-Monitor quota. Of course, procrastinators being the perfectionist overachievers that they are, they don't always accept Washington's cheerful "sorry, too late." They try slipping past her to a driveway, hoping to sweet-talk or beg an arriving courier to slip their package in with his pickups. Washington always tracks down these desperadoes. She even turned down a lady who claimed to be there at the behest of Mayor Brown. "I told her Tm sorry.

He's just like everybody else. When you're late, you're late. No exception to the But the excuses that get her the most are the time-challengers. The ones who claim they thought the deadline was 6 p.m. Or the ones who swear it's always been 5:45.

One minute. One minute. Just ONE minute. And worst of all are the ones who pull out their own watches and say she's got the wrong time. They can flash their Rolexes, their Swiss timepieces and their beeping digital watch contraptions at her all they want.

Her watch is a Jemez Quartz, $9.95 at Kmart. It's got Arabic numerals and a second hand and everything. And it keeps the only time that matters. "This is FedEx time," she said, tapping the face. This is it! This is it! After the doors and gate are locked, another crowd forms.

Washington tells them that the doors will reopen for West Coast deliveries about 6 p.m. Now, she's not as fastidious about the time. "I always say 6-ish," she said. "Six whatever or 6 what have you. Don't quote me on the 6." Meanwhile, a few more East Coast hopefuls arrive.

On some nights, if they're lucky and have an extra $20 to spare, a motorcycle courier who shows up will offer to personally deliver the package to the FedEx office at the airport before those doors close at 6:15 p.m. The ride takes 11 to 14 minutes, he tells the curious and the desperate. This appealed to James Propp, 36, a graphics designer who makes the pilgrimage to FedEx several times a week. "What's my drop-dead time for you?" he asked the courier. Washington grinned.

What a world. "You could," she said, "write a book right out here." Every Speaker Is On Sale-Many At Our Lowest Prices Ever! CSW New Ensemble9 II Stereo Speaker System With Subwoofer Stereo Review said our original Ensemble II "performs so far beyond its price and size class that it can be compared only with much larger speakers at substantially higher prices. Avail- able in charcoal or white. "Thousands of Ensemble II A systems sold at the regular price of $499.99 f'A Sale Price: $349.99 LOWEST PRICE EVER! Save $150 a I WW After February. But she's already heard all kinds of sob stories from frantic latecomers.

She's heard the one about the folks who would be fired if they didn't send the package. The thousands of people who wouldn't get i. Murdered woman was a man CSW SoundWorks Amplified Multimedia Speaker System Connect it to anything with a headphone jack for rich, beautiful sound. PC Magazine, says we make "the only speakers you'll ever need." Available in black or computer beige. Reg.

$149.99 $50 Mad-In Rebate No arrests, but cops learn more about Chanel Chandler Harman Kardon 5 CD Carousel Digital output, remote, disc exchange. Sounds great! FL8300. Reg. $299.99 Sale Price: $199.99 LOWEST PRICE EVER! Save $100 By Kimi Yoshino SCRPPS-MCCtATCHY NEWS SERVICE CJt ft- hitf 5KW 1S 4 i- ft fmr.rtr-ri-.T" 1 j)J Harman Kardon Dolby Digital (AC-3) Receiver Features Dolby Digital 55 watts 5. 2-year warranty.

AVR55. Ong $999.99 Sale Price: $599.99 CSVJCenterStage LOWEST PRICE EVER! Save 400 tions, too," Clovis police spokeswoman Micheline Golden said. After interviewing numerous people, police know more about Chandler's life but have yet to make an arrest. "The impression we have is that she pretty much lived the life of a normal, single 22-year-old woman," said Golden. "This is someone who led a very quiet lifestyle." Quiet maybe, but far from routine.

Chandler was born Charles William Roe into a conservative Montana family. "It was a fairly nice childhood," said Chandler's aunt, Carta Coro-nado. "He was just a normal kid." By the time he hit his teens, however, it grew clear that Roe wanted to be a woman. He dropped out of high school and moved from Montana. He headed to San Francisco and a new life as Chanel Chandler.

Roe changed his name to Chanel Chandler, using it on rental and job applications. Every piece of identification that Clovis police discovered inside Chandler's apartment contained the new name. After moving, Chandler underwent breast implant surgery, but Center Channel Speaker Our very best center channel speaker. This widetow profile speaker sounds great with widely-dispersed natural sound. A best seller.

Reg. $349.99 Sale Price: $249.99 LOWEST PRICE EVER! never had his male sex organs removed. Friends and relatives say Chandler even married a man in Sacramento, although officials found no record of a marriage. That man, whom Chandler lived with in Citrus Heights, declined to be interviewed. "She was straight.

It's kind of weird," Coronado said. "She always dated men." During the years in California, Chandler closely guarded the "secret" "Not telling people, that was important," Coronado said. "Even people that were very close to her, I don't think they had any idea." Even Chandler's roommate, a woman with whom he worked, was unaware of Chandler's true gender, police said. On Sept. 20, the morning Chandler was killed, the roommate was away from home.

Police know that Chandler was dropped off near the Clovis apartment about 2 a.m. The man who took him home has been questioned and cleared by police, Golden said. Chandler may have walked to a nearby market before returning home. Sometime during the night, someone killed Chandler police won't say how then set the apartment on fire. Save $100 CSW Powered Subwoofer Terrific bass.

10" woofer. 70 FRESNO Chanel Chandler slipped into a skimpy black mini-dress with silver and gold stripes. The 22-year-old set out for a September night of dancing, partying at a Fresno club until 2 a.m. It was not an atypical night out for a single woman, Clovis police said. Five hours later, Chandler was dead.

The body was found in a burning Clovis apartment that was shared with a woman. Police believe the blaze was set to make the slaying look like another type of crime. It was nearly a week before police revealed Chandler's name and the case's biggest twist: Chanel Chandler was really a man. Whether that led to Chandler's death is a mystery, police said. "In a situation like this, that's the first motive you jump on, obviously, but you don't want to let that keep you from exploring other op UA 1 watt amp.

Reg. $349.99 Sale Price: $299.99 Save $50 -s, J- 1 Cambridge SoundWorks is the country's largest CSW The Surround II 5.1 Speakers Trie ideal rearside speaker for many surround systems. Uses advanced Multi-Pole sound technology. Charcoal or white. Reg.

Sale Price: LOWEST PRICE EVER! Save $100 factory-direct audio company. We manufacture speakers and music systems designed by Audio Hall Of Fame member Henry Kloss (founder of Acoustic Research, KLH and Advent). We sell them direct to you, with no expensive middlemen. Audio magazine says we may have "the best value in the mum 2 Listen to IC EI A RiE qlDIOIRBS A MjOlA I TT, EPflGrS KBLX www.HIFI.com TP I IS I C9 4 i 'lE AiL RSiA (TP. if arm 102.9FM A A EHl MOP Woodlawn Memorial Park Property Owners If you have not had contact with Woodlawn in the last 12 months, please contact our Records Research Department (650)756-5023 Monday-Friday 10am-3pm I.V etnHTt f'tIh CAES ffw I 0 F'N A A A TiEBt We're giving away trips EVERY DAY! Listen to KBLX 102.9 WIN! Pi I I BEAD Hi fTB Stow Hours: Mon-Sat 10an8pm Sun: Noorv6pm.

Hours may vary by store. A C.E vMc'a r. t.f7" 't oundwo: 0H' I El LA A O'T If RT MGMB Top Rated To You From Our Factories. cE4 1 S3 1 Vn i A i 3 1 cD' GRAND FACfebOFEVE 5 EDS UAH I 55 A TEC Ms AT FM San Fransco (2) Soutft San Ftarosco Berkeley Concord Corte Mattel Mupdas Palo Alto Pteasanton 1-800-FORMn 1-800-367-4434) Fa qudM custores tu CSW veales and selected system A I iO.D.E REE.