Back on the home front...

It sure is great to be home. Yesterday was one of those harrowing experiences that field engineers everywhere can relate to: when you are in front of the customer and your product fails to work. Inevitably, this occurs when you think you're on the way to do something "routine" and then the whole thing turns out to be anything but routine. Yesterday was one of those days.

I have to be honest. In my 10+ years of doing this type of work, yesterday's experience wouldn't rate in the top 3, but it was agonizing nonetheless. I've been in far worse situations. Sometimes the customer is incredibly impatient and putting pressure on you to get the thing working. Even worse, when you've got a sales guy with you, looking over your shoulder and putting his 2 cents in as if that's helping the war effort at all. I spent 12 hours at this customer site, but it wasn't the worst 12 hours I've ever spent with a customer. This customer was actually in a pretty good mood. Either that or we ought to give him the Academy Award right now. He usually knocks off at 430pm, and we were nowhere near finished at that time. His wife was calling him at 630 to see if she could keep his dinner warm, and he still hung in there. What a trooper! When 10pm rolled around, he still had a smile on his face like a grandparent that came to your game and watched you strike out 4 times and make 3 errors in the field, saying , " that's okay, Sport. You looked good out there."

Today I had to meet with another client that naturally wanted to know how it went with the previous client since their adopting of our system is contingent upon that one. I guess that's the way it is in these little towns in Northwestern Ohio. If I didn't know better, I would've thought I was in rural Indiana on homecoming night with all of the signs hanging from the streetlights lauding the local high school ball team. I was waiting to see Jimmy Chitwood shooting baskets in his backyard as we turned the corner past a little group of houses. I peeked into a barbershop as we passed by, half expecting Gene Hackman to be gettin' the business from the local boosters about wanting their team to win more, or there boy's playing time to increase.

It was snowing and I was still smarting from yesterday so I was quite eager for this meeting to finish up so that I could hit the home trail. Once at the Dayton International Airport, I checked in and then high-tailed it into a place called Max & Erma's where I sucked down a vanilla shake and ended up taking something called a Garbage Burger (hey...it had guacamole, pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, monterey jack cheese, bacon, mayo and ketchup...AND was listed under signature items...how could I pass it up?) in a to-go box to gate B-16 where I was the last person to get on the plane. Finally, I got the exit row seat. As I bit into this monstrosity of a burger, I thought about all of the crap I'd consumed in the last couple of days in some less than stellar eating establishments. I shrugged and kept right on devouring this comfort food figuring that there's no use in stopping now. I'll get back on the right track when I get home.

The second flight was almost as miserable as Monday's being in a cramped aisle seat for about 4 hours, but at least they showed a decent movie this time. It was called Stardust and was kind of fantasy type love story, on par with the Princess Bride. Once home, I negotiated my way through the last half of rush-hour traffic on the Bay Bridge and then went over to hang out with my kids for a little while before they went to sleep. As usual, they were full of funny stories, and I left there in a pretty good mood, but starvin' like Marvin' as I had not eaten in more than 8 hours. I picked up a grilled chicken salad with mixed greens, apples, caramelized walnuts and gorgonzola cheese topped with a balsamic vinaigrette and headed home. I watched the end of the Suns whoopin' the Lakers and then laughed at/with Ernie, Kenny, and Charles on TNT's NBA postgame show.

My couch. My TV. Ah, there's no place like home.