Taking Inventory

It's that time of the year again. I'm taking inventory of all of those pesky frequent flyer and points accounts. All road warriors go through this around this time of year. You see, as a freqent traveler, we all need to actually go through our accounts to see where we stand in all of those frequent-use programs. I've discovered that I actually did cut back this year. I'm going to give up on one of the programs, and I'm about 15,000 miles short on two airline programs to keep my status going. That means that I need to fly at least 30,000 miles within the next couple of months. In the last few years, I would probably say that it would be no sweat. However, this time around, I am attempting to slow down, and it would be a bit of a stretch to come up with that amount of travel in a short two months.

So, the race is on. I'm traveling to Houston and Detroit this week, with all of the appropriate connecting flights. I have a San Francisco trip next week. After that, I've got a quick trip back to Detroit and Minneapolis. Then, I'm ending the month in Toronto for good measure. That should take care of the first airline, and maybe a little bit of the other one. Now, as for December, I've got a quick trip to Las Vegas and Norfolk, VA, so far. I might squeeze in a short weekend in the northeast to make up the difference, if any. After all, I'm so close that it would still be worth it to make up the difference for another year.

Whew. So much for semi-retirement from all of this. Maybe next year. . . Later.

A New York Minute

This has not been a good week for transportation. I wasn't supposed to get a car in New York, but I did, because my colleague had a plane delayed due to the weather in the northeast. Apparently, the 18 inches of snow made things run a little slower in Boston and New York. At least I didn't have to drive much in New York, since my friend Denise was able to drive around in the snow and ice for me. I do not mix well with snow, as I have mentioned earlier. I had trouble with the car rental people, as someone gave away my car, and I had someone else's name on my receipt. It took a while to get that fixed, and it took the hotel an hour to send a shuttle to pick me up at the airport on Long Island. Of course, I was waiting in the freezing cold weather, because they said that it would be there any minute. I returned my rental car the night before I had to leave, since I had one of those quadruple connections at 6am, before the car rental place opened. The hotel only offered shuttle service between 6am and 10pm. Since the hotel was relatively new, the taxi driver in the morning couldn't find it, and when he finally showed up it was 40 minutes before the plane was taking off. Then the real fun began. I flew into Boston, and had to switch terminals, but at least I wasn't traveling alone from Boston to San Francisco. Unfortuneately, from Boston, we had to connect in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Usually, I wouldn't mind a connection in Las Vegas, but we only got 10 minutes there, so what's the point of that? We got to San Francisco eventually, and had to deal with the fact that car rentals are really, really, really far away from the terminals, and it was really confusing to get there with the relatively new train system. It's off to Minnesota for me next week, despite my better judgement. I wanna go home!! Later.

Let It Snow . . . NOT!

A light snow was falling earlier this week in Youngstown, OH, and Kansas City, MO. I typically don't like to drive in snow, but these days, I really don't have much of a choice. I'm on my way to New York on Monday, and I've heard that they are expecting 18 inches of snow with no relief in sight until Tuesday. Not a good thing when you have to do the Los Angeles-Boston-New York-Boston-Los Angeles-Las Vegas-San Francisco-Los Angeles run within a four day span. Of course, at least I'm hitting major cities for the most part. My days in Hawaii and California (excuse me, Cah-LEE-forn-yah -- the new approved state pronounciation from our governator) have not really prepared me for any type of cold weather. In fact, driving in snow, looking at snow, being snowed on, or being within a 100-mile radius of snow, are things that I really try to avoid as much as possible. Get me back to my tropical island in the Pacific. . . Later.

The Pavement Pounds Back

I was just in Las Vegas on business. By the way, that is one of the most tortuous places to be on business. It is meant to be a vacation town, and there are way too many temptations there. But, I digress... I returned home without quite returning home. What do I mean by that, you ask? Well, it was time for a local trip. What a concept! I had to pound the pavement in Los Angeles, traveling to a site that was *gasp* just a few miles from my house. For some reason, the work day just seemed incomplete without the obligatory strip search and magnetic wand treatment. I used my own car, which was an unusual experience as well. It's a great car, and really fun to drive. I never realized it before. It's much better than all of the car rentals lately. For some weird reason, I'm a little more tired than usual. Maybe it's the local area that is the life-draining experience. Or maybe it's some of the other stuff going on at work. In any event, I'm back for another round of this tomorrow. Later.

Miracles Of Modern Medicine

Traveling while ill is one of the worst possible things you can do. However, when hundreds of people are depending upon you to deliver various presentations at a conference, you just can't ignore it. So, I caught yet another cold from a combination of various sick people around me, and being trapped in a sealed large Tylenol-shaped tube for over eight hours. Even my trusty sidekick, Demo Duck, couldn't help me get through this week. I found several miracle drugs, including Advil, DayQuil. and Claratin, but I probably cancelled a few of them out by taking all of them at the same time. Oh, well. Maybe Demo Duck can quack through my presentation tomorrow. Time for more drugs. Then, I need to get out of Philly tomorrow. Another meeting awaits in lovely Las Vegas on Sunday. If I have to get on another plane, I think my head will explode, so maybe I'll get lucky, and someone will shoot me before then. Later.