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RWPT - What not to do when you're coming home from an onsite visit

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I have a great story about my travels I would like to share with you.  So I travel for Microsoft, I spend an average of 3 business weeks a month on the road.  When you travel a lot one thing I have found that is important is to have a good routine.  Here is an example from a few weeks ago where I started a new routine of never using the trunk of a rental car. 

So I am walking toward the parking lot of my hotel and I am getting ready to go to my rental car so I can make my flight in 2 hours to go home and see my family.  I start using the keyless entry on the keychain to honk the horn of the car so I can find it.  I start to hear honking so I pop my trunk open and I walk to my car and put my bags in the trunk and I walk to the door and try to use the key to open the car.  The car wouldn't open.  I try to push the button on the keys to open the car and it still doesn't open.  I finally use the button on the keys to honk the horn and the car next to the one I had locked my bags in the trunk in started honking.  Of course neither the hotel or the rental car company could/would/should help me break in to someone else's car.   Luckily, I noticed that inside the car of the person who forgot to close the trunk of the identically colored Pontiac G6 that got my bags that the directions to the hotel were in German.  I let my friends at the hotel know and they told me that there were frequently German people visiting the hotel as Siemens was across the street.  They called Siemens and I guess a pretty loud e-mail was sent to the site.  Two hours later a German man with an identical Pontiac G6 rental came out to help.  Of course it was not the same Pontiac G6 that my bags were locked in.    Luckily for me, he knew another German man who had rented said Pontiac G6.  I missed my flight but I had my bags. 

I am certainly glad I get to make these mistakes so you guys don't have to.  Now, I argue that the whole ordeal is 96% my fault for locking my stuff in someone else's trunk and 4% the other man's fault for leaving his trunk open...  Of course my wife was expecting me to be home at 2:00pm so I could be with the kids so she could be at a meeting at 7:00 and my flight didn't arrive until 8:00 so she'll argue that it was 100% my fault for not paying attention.  She's probably right. 

The best part was sending this in an e-mail to my colleagues and getting their stories back. 

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Shawn, this is NOT a story I am going to try to top.  However, it will be great fodder for my lovely bride.  She joined me recently on a trip & has since expressed several times now that she sees me in action in strange hotels in strange cities, that she doesn't understand how I make it from place-to-place--& is very worried.  Your story will help convince her that we geeks are just like that, & one way or another, we'll be just fine.  Eventually...