On the road (part 2) ...
Still in Wichita on this incredibly snake-bit business trip. Flew in yesterday, everyone bailed out of here because of the freezing rain after lunch, telecommuted the rest of the afternoon from Residence Inn (Free High Speed Wireless! Yes!).
The kind folks at the Residence Inn put me on a ground floor so I wouldn't have to go up ice-coated steps. Mid-evening a herd of elephants moved in above me. They must have been Oklahoma Sooners...The OU - USC game was on and everytime OU screwed up they would stomp the floor. With the humiliating defeat OU suffered last night, the elephants had much to stomp about.
About midnight, as I sat in bed working on the novel, I learned the elephants were in heat, and noisily amorous.
I got up around 6:30, showered and dressed, then grabbed breakfast at the RI Hospitality area. By the time I finished eating it was around 7:30. Since all of my Wichita cohorts live on the westside of town, and the office we work out of is on the southeast corner of town, I did a quick poll via Yahoo Messenger to see who was in the office.
Nobody.
Everyone was telecommuting. Some had lost power for most of the night, all had lots of tree damage, with limbs and branches breaking from the weight of the quarter inch plus coating of ice now covering everything. So I worked again from my room: answered email, got on conference calls, and instant messaged like crazy. At 9:00 this morning the temperature was around 18 degrees.
I met the guy I was supposedly up here to meet with for lunch. I had emailed him earlier and set up a time, then 30 minutes before I was supposed to meet him I went out to the car and discovered there was a quarter inch of ice on the windows. The rent-a-car people had thrown in this shitty yellow plastic scraper for the windows which was barely up to the task. Or maybe it was me who was barely up to the task. My ice-scraping skills have atrophied somewhat since my salad days in Chicago. Not to mention my driving-on-ice-covered-with-snow skills. The good news is that I did NOT crash into anyone going there or coming back. The better news is that this IS a rental car we are talking about.
After lunch (at PF Chang -- the first time I have EVER been in a PF Chang when it was not crowded) I crept home on the snowy ice; leftovers by my side. Back at the RI, I joined a phone conference with the development team for 3 hours. This after lots of hot tea at lunch, if you catch my drift.
Midway through the call, the sound of a trombone, playing scales and harmonics, came from the elephants' room above me. Soon it was joined by a second trombone, answering with its own set of scales and harmonics. Maybe it was the elephants' mating call, I don't know.
I finally logged off the network around 5:30, when the RI does its "Social Hour" (read: Free Food and Cheap Liquor). Not being particularly proud, I polished off the box wine (an unassuming yet nondescript red) and grabbed a plate of hot noodles and salad, to supplement the leftover Mu Shi Pork from PF Chang.
So now, having eaten, drunk my box wine, and watched as much crappy cable as I can bear, I'm going to get in bed, write and listen to the wind howl outside. It's 12 degrees outside and I'm By God flying back to Texas tomorrow!
HoooHaah!
The kind folks at the Residence Inn put me on a ground floor so I wouldn't have to go up ice-coated steps. Mid-evening a herd of elephants moved in above me. They must have been Oklahoma Sooners...The OU - USC game was on and everytime OU screwed up they would stomp the floor. With the humiliating defeat OU suffered last night, the elephants had much to stomp about.
About midnight, as I sat in bed working on the novel, I learned the elephants were in heat, and noisily amorous.
I got up around 6:30, showered and dressed, then grabbed breakfast at the RI Hospitality area. By the time I finished eating it was around 7:30. Since all of my Wichita cohorts live on the westside of town, and the office we work out of is on the southeast corner of town, I did a quick poll via Yahoo Messenger to see who was in the office.
Nobody.
Everyone was telecommuting. Some had lost power for most of the night, all had lots of tree damage, with limbs and branches breaking from the weight of the quarter inch plus coating of ice now covering everything. So I worked again from my room: answered email, got on conference calls, and instant messaged like crazy. At 9:00 this morning the temperature was around 18 degrees.
I met the guy I was supposedly up here to meet with for lunch. I had emailed him earlier and set up a time, then 30 minutes before I was supposed to meet him I went out to the car and discovered there was a quarter inch of ice on the windows. The rent-a-car people had thrown in this shitty yellow plastic scraper for the windows which was barely up to the task. Or maybe it was me who was barely up to the task. My ice-scraping skills have atrophied somewhat since my salad days in Chicago. Not to mention my driving-on-ice-covered-with-snow skills. The good news is that I did NOT crash into anyone going there or coming back. The better news is that this IS a rental car we are talking about.
After lunch (at PF Chang -- the first time I have EVER been in a PF Chang when it was not crowded) I crept home on the snowy ice; leftovers by my side. Back at the RI, I joined a phone conference with the development team for 3 hours. This after lots of hot tea at lunch, if you catch my drift.
Midway through the call, the sound of a trombone, playing scales and harmonics, came from the elephants' room above me. Soon it was joined by a second trombone, answering with its own set of scales and harmonics. Maybe it was the elephants' mating call, I don't know.
I finally logged off the network around 5:30, when the RI does its "Social Hour" (read: Free Food and Cheap Liquor). Not being particularly proud, I polished off the box wine (an unassuming yet nondescript red) and grabbed a plate of hot noodles and salad, to supplement the leftover Mu Shi Pork from PF Chang.
So now, having eaten, drunk my box wine, and watched as much crappy cable as I can bear, I'm going to get in bed, write and listen to the wind howl outside. It's 12 degrees outside and I'm By God flying back to Texas tomorrow!
HoooHaah!
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