This week has had its' moments...

Dateline - Syracuse, NY - It's Friday morning and I am tired. It has been a week with ups and downs, enough of each to wear me down.

I started out Monday by getting up at 4:30 to catch a 7:12 flight to Detroit only to arrive and find it cancelled. The folks at Northwest airlines were less than helpful and somehow, I found a way to finagle my way there my mid day by flying Delta (thank you Delta!).

The next couple of days were kind of long, but amazingly was the best implementation that I have experienced while working for this company. As is often the case when you leave a customer, reality starts setting in about noon on the day you are leaving that you aren't going to around there too much longer. Customers' start to experience anxiety and suddenly their confidence evaporates into thin air.

That's just the way it is and I accept that. What I don't accept is for the salesman to second guess me every step of the way even though the customer told him that in fact I was doing a great job. (That is a big part of what has wore me down this week.)

On Wednesday evening, I flew here to Syracuse. Due to Northwest's incompetence on Monday, I was all but strip searched at the airport in Detroit. And it was actually colder in Syracuse than it was in Detroit (I am really disliking winter this year!)


Thursday's time with the customer was great except for that same salesperson that questioned me in Detroit querying me about why I left there for this customer. This has got to stop or else I am changing employment.

I think that part of the reason I am so tired this week is the fact that I know when I get home on Friday that Julie will still be in Salt Lake City tending to her Mom. That will be 2 weeks since I saw her. Yes, we do talk several times a day, but I want to be with her. There may be light at the end of the tunnel as she is talking about coming home on Saturday.

Next week is going to be busy, 1 day in Florida and then I am back in the cold environs of Rochestor. Oh fun!

TTFN

This being alone part sucks....

Dateline - Gainesville, GA - Just because the dateline is the same doesn't mean I haven't travelled this week. Let me explain...

Last weekend, while I was busy putting the final touches/mailing out my Winter Blast CD, Julie's sister called and said she was needed back in Salt Lake City to care for her Mom for a couple of weeks. Seems she broke a bone in her back, although she isn't sure how. The doctor's put her in a nursing home to supervise her recovery over the next few weeks it would take to recover. Julie's Mother has short term memory loss and on the first night woke up alone in the nursing home and wondered what she did to deserve being put in there. She really was freaking, which is both sad and frightening at the same time.

So the family decided that someone would be with her mom 24/7. We scheduled a flight out for Julie and as luck would have it, she would fly out Tuesday morning when I was going to go to Rochester, NY to meet a client.

Tuesday morning came and we got up early (not an easy thing for Julie) and it was foggy. As we drove down to the airport, Julie asked, "Do they ever cancel flights in Atlanta because of fog?"

"Delay flights," I reassured her, "but never cancel them". So we roll up into the airport , check through security and I get to MY gate only to find that the flight was cancelled. They could get me out on a 3 PM flight, but since I was only going there for a day before going on to Detroit for the rest of the week, I rescheduled the Rochester meet.

Of course, upon my arrival in Detroit, it snowed (it has snowed each of the last 3 times I have come.) At this point, I am getting used to it (but still not liking it!)

Since I had a co-worker with me, we spent 1 night gambling (good for him - up $360, bad for me - down $120) and another night had dinner with a person who used to work at one of my customers that has become a dear friend. I had dinner with her and her husband and really enjoyed catching up. We are trying to get together one more time with another friend next week when I am back.

I got home late on Friday and was greeted by our cats, A.J. and Freeway. I had really missed them almost as much as I missed Julie.

Freeway's eye has been weeping a bit for the past week. I called the vet on Saturday and made an appointment. Do animals sense when they are going to the vet???? Freeway must, because as soon as I picked him up, he wanted nothing to do with me. That is VERY unusual for him, since he is basically my kitty and is the most loving cat in the whole world. Bottom line, he bolted out of my arms into the back yard and didn't come home for an hour. I called the vet, explained the situation and am now waiting for Julie to review his condition when she gets back.

But this kind of sucks being alone this weekend. I mean I actually have some free time and don't have her here with me to share it.

On the other hand, it has given me a few moments to think about things. I have an opportunity to expand my pool business by partnering up with another person who actually builds pools (my company which is a part time business just services them). And I have been giving alot of thought to just going ahead and buying a condo on the beach to rent out down in St. Augustine. I can't do both though. What to do, what to do??

Enough for now. I will try to get back to this more regularly in the future.

TTFN