Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Scenes From The Road

I’m sitting in the Newark airport at the moment on my way back home.  I spent the past few days in Providence, RI.  The business was fruitful, but it was also one of the more colorful trips I’ve taken in a while.  I ran into an unusually large number of characters.  Here’s a rundown:

- My cabbie from the airport to the hotel must have watched the Daytona race, because he sure drove like it. 

- We took the airport shuttle to dinner.  There was a drunk (or poorly medicated) woman who revealed the sordid mob history of the restaurant we were going to (Camille’s).  When she got out with the guy half her age at a theater, we all had a chuckle. 

- Our shuttle driver then proceeded to tell us that the woman “watched too much TV” and gave us his own version of the place’s history.  He is apparently related to everyone in town in some fashion or another. 

- This morning the cabbie insisted that he would have hit it big with his crime novel.  He had Grisham’s agent, but then Grisham hit it big and our poor cabbie was dumped in the trash heap.  He had a second chance and asked the publisher for a collaborator.  After a heated argument with the collaborator, the publisher “totally took his side” and he was dropped again. 

- Now I’m waiting for my plane and some guy just finished a very loud conversation on his cell phone.  Then he pulled out a guitar and started playing as if we all wanted to sit here and listen to him practice. 

I did get to see the sunrise behind Manhattan as our plane came into the airport soundbound down the right bank of the Hudson.  That was pretty cool.

(12) Comments
Posted by Owen at 0806 hrs
Off-Duty

  1. Not sure where to post this but I find the Toyota vs Vibe recall pretty interesting.  Toyota becomes the demon who is threatening lives, however, the Vibe which is owned by the government - GMC - has the same engine along with the same gas pedal problem…..no one has heard of the Vibe issue.  Just a little bit of a conflict - wait unitl gov’t control expands to owning Heart Monitors, Prescription Drugs, etc.  Do you trust the gov’t to give a straight answer ?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 17, 2010 at 1016 hrs


  2. Kraig -

    I don’t know if I should encourage this off-topic discussion, but the GM (GMC is a truck brand) that the US government has invested in doesn’t own Pontiac. Pontiac is still part of the bankruptcy of old GM that is being liquidated. The Vibe was basically a Toyota, so it’s no surprise that it would have similar problems. Since there were relatively few Vibes sold compared to the number of Toyotas with the problem, it’s no surprise that the focus has been on Toyota, not the Vibe.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 17, 2010 at 1100 hrs


  3. Owen - have they recovered from the big storms? I have to head to DC in a couple of days.
    Ah yes, stories from the road.

    Posted by Charlie Hillman on February 17, 2010 at 1238 hrs


  4. I used to travel a lot for business and I’m glad I don’t anymore. I do have a lot of stories though…

    It’s just amazing what people do in airports, on planes and at trade shows.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 17, 2010 at 1244 hrs


  5. You make it sound so glamorous.

    I am on the edge of my seat.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 17, 2010 at 1308 hrs


  6. Charlie,

    Yeah, it’s pretty well dug out.  No delays for me.

    Posted by Owen on February 17, 2010 at 1313 hrs


  7. Charlie, flying into DC area airports is no problem, but if you need to get around DC, it is far from being dug out.  Today is the first day of normal school hours and a couple of districts are still closed.  It all depends where you have to go in the area.  In DC proper, sidewalks have not been cleared and travel lanes are restricted/limited.  Some neighborhood streets in DC as well as in parts of VA and MD still have not seen a snow plow.  You will want to call your hotel or work/friends to find out if you can get to where you want to go…

    Laker

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 17, 2010 at 1412 hrs


  8. Thanks Laker. I have meetings downtown, but usually stay with relatives in Virginia and take the Metro in. I’ll be sure to check with them on conditions - still have a few days here.

    Posted by Charlie Hillman on February 17, 2010 at 1752 hrs


  9. The joys of travel. I used to fly to SFO from the east coast all the time. Finally I talked to our travel department and got them to pay expenses on staying over a Saturday as long as it didn’t add up to more than flying back on a Friday; basically, they’d pay my expenses up to $750 (this being a monster company they didn’t bother with reservations in advance).

    Not a bad idea, but after they approved this policy they made sure that my manager checked my first expense report. He came into my office and said, “You spent $10 on lodging in Mountainview? How the h*ll did you do that?!”

    I replied, “Who said anything about staying in Mountainview? I was up camping in the Sierras and that’s what the Forest Service charged to go into the National Forest.”

    So by spending about $60 on gas, food, and camping fees the company saved about 10 times that and got a very happy employee. I guess it worked out for all of us. But I’ll tell you that hauling a full scale camping backpack complete with sleeping bag, tent, water bottles, etc. through the airport while wearing a suit got a lot of stares!

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 17, 2010 at 1828 hrs


  10. thanks you.

    Posted by you tube on February 17, 2010 at 2311 hrs


  11. Nice, nerdbert. Sounds like a great weekend. I had my company pay for a weekend in Boston once because it saved air fare, but the hotel room was a bit more.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 18, 2010 at 0819 hrs


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    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 19, 2010 at 0531 hrs


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