I have been such a slacker, not writing for almost a month. Since the last posting I have been fortunate enough to spend about five nights in my own bed. It has been interesting traveling to Knoxville through the winter, especially having just completed the novel 'Flesh and Bone' by Jefferson Bass that is set in Knoxville with a plot around the infamous Body Farm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Farm). You can read more here: http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/10/31/body.farm/index.html.
This evening it would be a little eery to go searching for the exact location as it is snowing a heavy wet snow. The news channels are all lit up with the snowstorm news, many school districts are announcing closures for tomorrow, reporters are interviewing
third shift' workers wondering how they will drive home in the white stuff, and there were several large planes grounded at the airport-rerouted from Atlanta and full of people sitting on the tarmac. The city of Knoxville has been "pre" spraying the roads with a wet salt mixture for three days now just to prepare for this storm.
I can hardly wait for morning to see the carnage that everyone seems to be expecting. It is almost like the frenzy that would come with huricane preparations but its barely 32 degrees and the snow is melting as it lands. The weather guy just told school administrators to wait until the morning before deciding on closures... good advice I would say.
Earlier this week I was in Kalamazoo, Michigan on the presidential primary day. Apparently John McCain had visited Kalamazoo on the same day but none of the others did. With all of the media frenzy on this topic you would think that everyone in Michigan would be talking about it. I never heard one person mention it although I wondered if McCain was staying at the same hotel. Back to the winter topic, it was cold and snowing there with several inches of accumulation during the day. No one even gave it a second mention but that is understandable, it was a minor storm compared to the several others I've witnessed there this winter already.
Back in New Jersey it has not snowed enough to matter although jackets are required most days. Over the last month I have seen 78 degrees for a high and 11 degrees for a low here in Knoxville. The San Francisco Bay Area was in the 60's, with palm trees and other blooming plants giving no indication that it was the last week of December.
Wherever you might be, be warm, be safe, and keep the rubber side down!
Wednesday, January 16
Tuesday, December 18
Winter travel
It has been a while since my last post. This may lead you to think that I have not been traveling so let me set the record straight. Between November 1st and December 31st I will have spent six days in Orlando at a conference followed by four trips to Knoxville for 14 days, two trips to Kalamazoo for three days, one in Cherry Hill NJ (burbs of Philly), and a week in San Francisco for vacation. So out of 60 or so days I will be spending about 25 of them away from home.
I have experienced all the winter time horror stories you read about in the news from cancelled flights to sketchy landings, deicing delays, short connections, and reroutes.
We have recently started using Carlson Wagonlit travel and they have performed superbly for me. My agent, Susan E., has saved us several thousand dollars by booking creative itineraries and finding good options to meet my needs. Many thanks go to her for saving me the stress and hassle of trying to figure things out solo...
I'll try to find something interesting to write about in the coming days... my January and February travel will probably be just as intense so there should be plenty of opportunities!
Be safe and have a happy holiday season!
I have experienced all the winter time horror stories you read about in the news from cancelled flights to sketchy landings, deicing delays, short connections, and reroutes.
We have recently started using Carlson Wagonlit travel and they have performed superbly for me. My agent, Susan E., has saved us several thousand dollars by booking creative itineraries and finding good options to meet my needs. Many thanks go to her for saving me the stress and hassle of trying to figure things out solo...
I'll try to find something interesting to write about in the coming days... my January and February travel will probably be just as intense so there should be plenty of opportunities!
Be safe and have a happy holiday season!
Saturday, October 20
Interesting people...
This week I encountered several interesting people on the road. Back in Kalamazoo, I have now earned "G3" status at the Radisson. I don't know what G3 means but it includes free hotel room upgrades, so I took advantage of the offer this week. My room was on the 9th floor, a.k.a. 'the concierge floor'. The amenities seemed to be the same as all the other rooms but on the floor, which requires you to swipe your room key for access, a hotel room has been converted into a cozy living/dining room slash bar.
Morning breakfast is available, drinks during happy hour, and a desert bar after that - all free. Free is a relative term here, since the rooms usually cost almost $50 per night more but for G3's it is free. If its free, its me...
Sitting at the bar, the only other people in the room was a table of three women talking about their business issues, and the bartender. I asked for a margarita and moments later started sipping as a few more people came in. Another guy came and sat next to me at the bar and we started chatting. He lives in Chicago and just took on a new job in town as the billing/collections manager for a Kalamazoo hospital where they are doing a really good job. He said the secret is to go after every dollar that is owed - no matter how long it takes. He replaced "Gus", who was well known to the bartender as an 'interesting' person - no further explanation was given and apparently none was needed.
We chatted with the bartender, who informed us she was nineteen, single, and pregnant. To many people the single, nineteen, and pregnant part would probably be an eyeraiser for sure but not for me. The fact that she was a bartender in this select location was a surprise to me. What exactly were her qualifications to be a bartender? Is it even legal? No wonder she asked me if I liked the drink and seemed extraordinarily pleased that I said it was good... not wanting to destroy my chances with any future drinks she might make (or to make her cry), I didn't tell her it was waaay too strong - less than 50% tequila would be better.
Moments later we were joined by a man who the hospital accountant had met the night before. This guy supposedly is a major league basebal umpire, in town with coworkers for meetings. He said his boss lives in Kalamazoo so they meet there two weeks of every October as well as a week in the Spring. He didn't have a lot of opinions to share about the current news of Joe Torres retirement but I did learn he was the umpire for the worlds longest game. I'll have to look that one up: http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/long185.html
Although I couldn't find his picture on the MLB website, I did find a story that corraborates at least part of his claim - that someone lives in Kalamazoo: http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070828&content_id=2174931&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
After a little while a lady sat at the bar opposite of me and joined the conversation. She works for some kind of financial services company and was proud to tell us about her son who is in the top ten of a Wall Street Journal contest where kids get to invest fake money. She let the cat out of the bag about the extra assistance he recieved from her although he refused to sell his Disney stock as she instructed.
The next evening the area came under a Tornado Warning. It's the end of October - Tornados? This caused the hotel to evacuate everyone to the basement at 11pm. Their staff was on the verge of freaking out with someone 'taking charge' and ordering everyone downstairs. The 9th floor bartender this evening was different girl who looked just as young, who was stressing out about locking up the bar and getting downstairs quickly. I held the elevator for her since she left her purse in the bar in her haste.
Thinking twice about it I decided to go down, my room was on the top floor with nothing else above. After grabbing my laptop and moving my suitcase away from the window I joined a throng of people moving like cattle in a feedlot to the basement. There I met a man who claimed to be in town for a job interview. He said he was a surgical oncologist specializing in breast surgery from the northside of Chicago, a professor of surgery, and all around rich guy. He's been operating for 29 years and is married to a family doc.
He said he was in town to interview for the CEO position at Michigan State. Wow, Michigan State is in Kalamazoo? I don't think so... however Western Michigan University is. He had an early morning interview at the hospital for a clinical position that would allow him to practice occasionally even though that could compromise his chances as Michigan State. We had about an hour to talk before the all clear signal was given and I returned to my room, I think he was following 21 year old Michigan club girls... dirty old man.
On my flight home I sat in front of two nannys who did not know each other. One was the young quiet and rather meek type nanny, probably very smart, shy and of the nerd clique. The other a little older, 20 years of experience, several nanny and housestaff schools, and 20 years of experience. She came complete with a British accent, I had to look to see if she was from Nanny 911... nope. She bragged all during the flight about all the rich people she worked for and all the places she had been. Commenting on how some nannys don't get paid enough but the smart ones do and can spend a few months off between jobs traveling the world- like her. She claimed to be just returning from Arizona were she and a couple friends were volunteering to help a new sextuplet family http://www.maschemiracles.com/ who just had a NBC television special on http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&from=truveo&vid=0e811775-0382-4987-a736-1b07e80f2d91, and this week were in Hollywood to film a Christmas special 'Deal or No Deal' show. Anyways, they found out the nerdy one knew the loud one. The job she has had for the last two years in Oklahoma working for an attorney and doctor couple, was one the loud one had applied for but was never invited to interview. The nerdy one knew her because of her prolific portfolio, obviously something that had been discussed in the househould after its submission.
This week does not include any photographs. The countryside in Michigan is very pretty now, with all the trees changing colors, although it was still very warm and humid. There is about two hours less sunlight each day there than in New Jersey, something quite noticeable since it is in the same time zone.
Take care, be safe, keep the rubber side down, and thanks for coming along!
Morning breakfast is available, drinks during happy hour, and a desert bar after that - all free. Free is a relative term here, since the rooms usually cost almost $50 per night more but for G3's it is free. If its free, its me...
Sitting at the bar, the only other people in the room was a table of three women talking about their business issues, and the bartender. I asked for a margarita and moments later started sipping as a few more people came in. Another guy came and sat next to me at the bar and we started chatting. He lives in Chicago and just took on a new job in town as the billing/collections manager for a Kalamazoo hospital where they are doing a really good job. He said the secret is to go after every dollar that is owed - no matter how long it takes. He replaced "Gus", who was well known to the bartender as an 'interesting' person - no further explanation was given and apparently none was needed.
We chatted with the bartender, who informed us she was nineteen, single, and pregnant. To many people the single, nineteen, and pregnant part would probably be an eyeraiser for sure but not for me. The fact that she was a bartender in this select location was a surprise to me. What exactly were her qualifications to be a bartender? Is it even legal? No wonder she asked me if I liked the drink and seemed extraordinarily pleased that I said it was good... not wanting to destroy my chances with any future drinks she might make (or to make her cry), I didn't tell her it was waaay too strong - less than 50% tequila would be better.
Moments later we were joined by a man who the hospital accountant had met the night before. This guy supposedly is a major league basebal umpire, in town with coworkers for meetings. He said his boss lives in Kalamazoo so they meet there two weeks of every October as well as a week in the Spring. He didn't have a lot of opinions to share about the current news of Joe Torres retirement but I did learn he was the umpire for the worlds longest game. I'll have to look that one up: http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/long185.html
Although I couldn't find his picture on the MLB website, I did find a story that corraborates at least part of his claim - that someone lives in Kalamazoo: http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070828&content_id=2174931&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
After a little while a lady sat at the bar opposite of me and joined the conversation. She works for some kind of financial services company and was proud to tell us about her son who is in the top ten of a Wall Street Journal contest where kids get to invest fake money. She let the cat out of the bag about the extra assistance he recieved from her although he refused to sell his Disney stock as she instructed.
The next evening the area came under a Tornado Warning. It's the end of October - Tornados? This caused the hotel to evacuate everyone to the basement at 11pm. Their staff was on the verge of freaking out with someone 'taking charge' and ordering everyone downstairs. The 9th floor bartender this evening was different girl who looked just as young, who was stressing out about locking up the bar and getting downstairs quickly. I held the elevator for her since she left her purse in the bar in her haste.
Thinking twice about it I decided to go down, my room was on the top floor with nothing else above. After grabbing my laptop and moving my suitcase away from the window I joined a throng of people moving like cattle in a feedlot to the basement. There I met a man who claimed to be in town for a job interview. He said he was a surgical oncologist specializing in breast surgery from the northside of Chicago, a professor of surgery, and all around rich guy. He's been operating for 29 years and is married to a family doc.
He said he was in town to interview for the CEO position at Michigan State. Wow, Michigan State is in Kalamazoo? I don't think so... however Western Michigan University is. He had an early morning interview at the hospital for a clinical position that would allow him to practice occasionally even though that could compromise his chances as Michigan State. We had about an hour to talk before the all clear signal was given and I returned to my room, I think he was following 21 year old Michigan club girls... dirty old man.
On my flight home I sat in front of two nannys who did not know each other. One was the young quiet and rather meek type nanny, probably very smart, shy and of the nerd clique. The other a little older, 20 years of experience, several nanny and housestaff schools, and 20 years of experience. She came complete with a British accent, I had to look to see if she was from Nanny 911... nope. She bragged all during the flight about all the rich people she worked for and all the places she had been. Commenting on how some nannys don't get paid enough but the smart ones do and can spend a few months off between jobs traveling the world- like her. She claimed to be just returning from Arizona were she and a couple friends were volunteering to help a new sextuplet family http://www.maschemiracles.com/ who just had a NBC television special on http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&from=truveo&vid=0e811775-0382-4987-a736-1b07e80f2d91, and this week were in Hollywood to film a Christmas special 'Deal or No Deal' show. Anyways, they found out the nerdy one knew the loud one. The job she has had for the last two years in Oklahoma working for an attorney and doctor couple, was one the loud one had applied for but was never invited to interview. The nerdy one knew her because of her prolific portfolio, obviously something that had been discussed in the househould after its submission.
This week does not include any photographs. The countryside in Michigan is very pretty now, with all the trees changing colors, although it was still very warm and humid. There is about two hours less sunlight each day there than in New Jersey, something quite noticeable since it is in the same time zone.
Take care, be safe, keep the rubber side down, and thanks for coming along!
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