Baby, it is cold outside!!!

Dateline - Gainesville, GA - I got home just in time for the ice storm.

Just a quick pic to let you know what the Southeast and my house look like after the beginning of last night’s ice storm. I say the beginning because it is running through Sunday.

That’s my “airporter” vehicle that you see lathered in ice. We have three vehicles and the two that I drive are outside. The airporter used to be garaged until last September when it got replaced when we bought a new one. I hope it starts on Monday.

This weather isn’t fit for man nor beast. But men like me will drive their wives to the airport so they can have a week off (Julie has more “vacation days” than I do and I work) in Sedona.

Count me in for the...Winter Blast

Dateline - Still hanging in Charleston, SC (and my arms are tired)

I reently signed up for something that I think is going to be fun. It is called the Burn It - The Winter 2004 Edition. The idea is that you burn a CD of your music that you love for whatever reason. Then you send that CD off to five different people. They in turn send one to you. And it is done just by bloggers.

How cool is that? What is even cooler IMHO is that one of the folks that I am sending a CD to is a favorite blogger of mine. I am psyched.

Note to self: YOU DON"T KNOW JACK! (At least I don't anyhow!) See if you do by taking this quiz regarding pop culture of the 80's (I must have been partying that decade) Take the quiz and tell me how you did.

Weird, weird, weird...

Dateline Charleston, SC - It has been kind of a weird day. I started out in Detroit, Mi.

When I checked in at Delta, they indicated they couldn't give me my seat assignment. Which I thought was weird, because the night before I checked on the internet and knew I had been upgraded and assigned 3C. I was going from Detroit to Atlanta and then on to Charleston. Besides being weird, I thought it was just laziness on the agent's part.

I go through security and as I get to the desk, they just give me one boarding pass for my seat in first. They are in a hurry and I don't think much about it. Halfway to Atlanta, it dawns on me I only received a single boarding pass and tell the flight attendant that I am going to Charleston and am not sure how much time I have or what gate I should be going to. She tells me they haven't received the gate assignments yet.

As we land, it turns out that this flight's final destination was in fact Charleston.

I've been to Charleston as recently as last week and have always stayed at the same hotel. I get my rental and arrive at the hotel only to find that the travel agent made my reservation across town. They kindly change it, but I found that weird.

As you can see, I have focused on the absurd things of the day, because today I am bored. I did spend a couple of hours at the client in Detroit in the morning. Other than that, the most productive thing I did today was take a nap.

TTFN

Doesn't this look cold to you?

Dateline - Detroit, MI This is the courtyard of the hotel that I am staying at. Way too cold for this kid. :)

Maybe next year...

Dateline - Detroit, MI - Can't these customers buy in the summer????? I land here in Detroit to find out A.) the Falcons got spanked by the Eagles and B.) these folks are just uncovering from about a foot of snow.

The Falcons issue doesn't bother me like it does some in the South. When I moved here a little over 10 years ago, I knew immediately that these folks take their sports seriously. The Braves had just one 10 games in a row and when the streak was broken, they wanted to fire the manager.

Maybe because I grew up in California, but sports was just entertainment. I played all the sports when I was a kid. And I used to be up to the minute on stats. But it doesn't hold the same interest anymore.

The real "downside" to the Falcons losing is that I have to send some barbeque up to my friend Brett in Philly as my side of the bet. The other downside is that I have to hear it from him whenever we talk for the next year. Oh well.

I am going to be here in Detroit alot over the next month. I have become something of a "fireman" of sorts here at the company. When there is an issue, I seemingly get sent to "cool the flames".

While the customers may be hot under the collar, the only places I have gone lately are truly cold. Syracuse last week where the temp when I left was 5 degress and snowing, here in Detroit and I have another customer in Rochestor, NY that I am taking on.

Ow well, no rest for the wicked.

I am kicking myself for missing out on a big payday real estate wise. I saw a house that was in great shape that was going for about $30,000 less than market. I should have put an offer on it right away. Instead, I was lining up some 100% financing and in the interim, the deal was done.

Note to self: be more aggressive if you truly want to get off of the road this year.

TTFN