Dobrindts dot com...again

You know what I love? Getting home from a business trip during the evening when two thirds of my kids are sleeping, but my daughter is still awake in her bed. And when I go upstairs to put my bag in my room and change, she hears me and says "Dad! your home!". And I sit on the edge of her bed while she tells me about the project she did at school and planting flowers in the yard with Patti and teaching her younger brother how to write his name and playing in the sand box with her friends and taking a bath with the baby. And I listen to her and ask questions and she answers in between hugging me to tell me how happy she is I am home.

That is what I love.

Posted by David at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The other day I did something that I have never had to do in my years of taking the Delta Shuttle between Boston and LaGuardia. Quick story.

Last Wednesday I left a location in Westchester, NY, about 30 miles north of NYC around 3:30. It was dark and stormy out, with severe weather and thunder, lightening, all that stuff. During the hot and humid summer months, when weather roles in, the Delta Shuttle, and I guess all flights in the NY airports, get out of whack. So when I left the building for a split second I thought about just heading across Connecticut to Boston in the rental car. It was a gamble. If I left in the car, I had 3 to 4 hours of driving. If I went to the airport, I could fly but I didn't know what was going to happen with the weather. I gambled, and lost.

I got to the airport around 4:30 and could only get on an 8:30 flight, which was delayed to at least 9. The 4:30 and 5:30 flights, usually full, were cancelled. I am platinum and was put on the standby for the 6:30, but I was number 38 with more paying passengers from the earlier flights to be added and basically no open seats. Net net - no way on getting on an earlier flight.

So I stood there contemplating what to do. I could go to Hertz and get in a car and drive to Boston. Or I could wait it out. What to do. For anyone who has been in the Marine Air terminal at LaGuardia, where the Shuttle departs from, they know how bad it is to wait out delays. The terminal is old but more importantly it is not designed for long waits. It is designed for people who will wait for no more than one hour to catch the next hourly shuttle. But this particular time it was packed with passengers going to DC, Boston and Chicago, all destinations whose flights were being cancelled or delayed. It was a bad situation made worse because the terminal is not designed for long waits. If you know the new Delta Terminal A in Logan, you can understand what I am talking about. Huge contrast between the two. LaGuardia Marine Terminal does not have restaurants, bars, coffee shops, stores, huge sitting areas with TVs, etc. It has one tiny snack counter and very few seats. It doesn't even have a Crown Room. I usually don't care because I usually am not waiting, but once I came to the realization that I would have to wait for hours in what is basically a bus depot, I made the decision to drive.

So I got on the road at 6 in Queens, and walked in my door in Boston 15 minutes before 10. It was a nice drive with little traffic but torrential rain for most of it. I passed the time by talking to my parents and listening to the radio. The following morning I learned that the flight I was on left after 11PM and got in around midnight. So good move I guess.

Thought I'd share.

Posted by David at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I went to Reno last week. The first time I've visited the great city of Reno. Nice trip. Couple of comments.

- The city itself was fine, any typical town with streets and buildings and traffic and people, but the surrounding area was beautiful. Huge mountains rising out of flat land.

- You can gamble in Reno, so casinos and slot machines at the airport and in convenience stores and everything else I hate about Vegas.

- One night we went to Lake Tahoe, 30 miles and about a 45 minute drive. I have never been to Lake Tahoe and found it breathtakingly beautiful. The drive from Reno - flat terrain - to Lake Tahoe which is surrounded by mountains, was worth the trip alone. It was through a mountain pass that is nothing like the topography we have in New England. The northeast has beautiful mountain ranges, especially in upstate NY, but it was just different there.

- We had dinner at a great restaurant called the Lone Eagle Grill right on the lake. Very nice. I ate bison. A colleague ate elk.

- To get an understanding about how much snow the mountains get, there were wood posts on the side of the road to mark the edges that were over 10 feet tall. There was still snow in parts along the road.

- The thing I couldn't figure out about Tahoe was if you don't have a place right on the lake, what is there to do in the summer?

I wouldn't mind going back, especially since San Fran is less than a 4 hour drive away. Spend some time in Lake Tahoe, give to the local economy at the casinos in Reno, and head to Napa.

Overall good trip and another city to put on my list of travel locations.

Posted by David at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This past Wednesday I had a long flight from Boston to Salt Lake. I was eventually going on to Reno, more on that later. I settled into my first class seat around 4:30, had a diet coke and read the paper, waiting to head off to Utah. The plane was equipped with TVs on the seat in front and I was pretty excited when I saw in the paper that ESPN was going to carry the Yankee game and that the TVs got ESPN. After take off, I was going to order a drink, eat some dinner, and when 7PM came around, watch the Yankee game and finish The Wal-Mart Effect.

So at 6:55 I turned on the TV, which was working on the default channel, NBC. I quickly checked FoxNews and CNN to see if everything was well on terra earth. Well, guess what one channel did not work. Uh huh, ESPN. The only channel out of 18 that did not work was the one channel I wanted to watch. Oh, don't get me wrong, learning about magnets on The Discovery Channel was equally as great, but I was looking forward to basically sitting in a lazy boy for the next 3 hours with someone bringing me free drinks every 30 minutes with the Yankees on in the background.

Oh well, life goes on.

Posted by David at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Static Electricity

You know when you go to touch something metal, like a door knob, and you get a shock that hurts a little? That's called static electricity. Or when pull a sweatshirt off over your head, walk across a carpeted room to greet your little kids, go to kiss them and you both get what feels like a knife in the face. Static Electricity. I don't care how it's created, all I know is it hurts.

So early this morning I got up in my hotel, in Reno, more on that later, and decided at 5AM to go for a run. I like to run in the mornings because I feel more refreshed and my legs feel stronger. Plus my body is still on the best time zone in the US, east coast time, so I was pretty awake by 4AM.

I walked down to the fitness room, turned the TV on, get on the treadmill, and started the sucker up. I walk for about a minute then reached down to increase the speed to run, and...WHACK!!! HUGE static electricity shock. Giant shock. It hurt like hell.

So I figure, ok, it's like getting a shot at the doctor, its over. I got it out of the way. No more static electricity on Dave. My electricity has been transferred to the treadmill.

I ran for about a minute and reached down to turn the pace higher, and WHACK!! Just as bad as the first time. This is like shock treatment for runners. Cruel and unusually punishment for wanting to lose weight.

I run for 10 more seconds and WHACK!!! Mother (expletive deleted), it happened again. What the crab juice is going on here?

I go to turn it off a few seconds later and WHACK!!! I actually screamed out in pain a little. No joke, it was like that experiment years ago when an unsuspecting person thought they were giving electrical shock to someone on the other side of a wall who answered questions wrong. Only this time it was not an actor pretending to get shocked, I was going through actual treatment. It was like reverse shock treatment to stop smoking. I take a step on the treadmill and WHACK!!! No more running for Dave. I keep running, I get hurt.

So I said to myself, Dave, you are up, you are here, go for a run. Then I remembered a trick my father told me when I was a kid. If you hold a car key out and touch the key to something metal, it will absorb the charge, you will actually see the light from the shock, but you will not get hurt.

So I walked down, touched the doorknob to the fitness center, WHACK, and walked down the hall to the elevator. I was almost crying from the cruel punishment the Hampton Inn and Suites in Reno was giving me for running. Shame on me, just get a donut from the breakfast nook and forget running. I bet the donuts don't hurt.

I went to me my room, got the keys to my rental car, and went back to the fitness room. I turned the machine on, started to run, and decided to check it out. As soon as I grabbed the rubber part of the keys, WHACK!! Hurt like hell. And the same thing kept happening. For some reason, the power of evil in the room was stronger than the key trick and it didn't help. Static electricity and the Hilton Corp, you have won. I gave up. But I told myself I would be back.

Walking back to the elevator in shame, I saw a night manager behind the desk. I asked him about it and he said "Oh, yeah, we have had that problem for a long time. We have had people come out and they say it is because of the moisture in the air. They said there is nothing to do about it. We changed the belts on the treadmills and everything."

So basically, he said that unless you are some sick masochist who is a runner, then head outside and take your chances with traffic.

I have to admit that in all my years of staying in hotels, this was the first time static electricity has kept me from working out. Usually Iits "I'm too tired".

Thought I'd share.

Posted by David at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This past Monday, April 30, Delta emerged from bankrutcy. Read it here. It was a good move for me because I am a big fan of Delta. I take the shuttle a couple of times a week and almost solely fly Delta to other destinations. I like the airline.

So I was on the 6AM shuttle Monday morning heading to NY and I didn't recognize anything special. Maybe it was because of the blurry state my mind was in at that time. I stayed over Monday night and Tuesday, when I strolled into the Marine Air Terminal around 7PM I noticed the changes. There were vases on the ticket counter, balloons, and a general celebratory feel to the building. It was kind of fun. The flight was normal.

This past Thursday I flew down again early in the morning and when I was flying home at 6:30, instead of the normal soda, water or free beer/wine they give out, they made an announcement that to celebrate emerging from bankruptcy, they were giving out glasses of champagne. So the flight attendants, after handing out the delicious and surprisingly satisfying snack pack, walked around opening bottles of champagne and handing out plastic champagne glasses. I took water, I'm not a fan of champagne, too many bubbles and too sweet.

So the gesture was nice, and like I said I am a fan of Delta, but lets put things in to perspective. I live in the business world, I read the popular business journals, watch the right business shows, stay in tune to the world that I live in. And bankruptcy protection, a viable and common option for struggling companies, is not a good thing. Going into bankruptcy is NOT something to celebrate, and coming out of it should feel like walking out of prison. Delta, through some internal issues and some market factors out of their control, lost their ability to manage the airline. So they sought protection under a legal shield and business partners they owed money to got cents on the dollar, and people who owned stock got zip. Large institutional investors who bought tens of thousands of shares were left with worthless electronic certificates, and individuals who inherited a couple of thousand bucks and decided to buy a few shares were left with nothing.

Delta came out of this stronger, but many others were left with little or nothing. If I screwed Chase out of money for my mortgage, decided to default on my student loans, ran up credit and didn't pay it, and borrowed money from friends and skipped town, not sure I would have a party to celebrate my return.

But that's just me.

Posted by David at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

am a terrible speller. Well, not terrible I guess, but not good. I blame spell check for it. But when I write on a flip chart or a white board, and I misspell some words, I wonder if it really matters. People reading it might think "Hey, that guy is a bad speller" but does it make me less charming, witty and intelligent. Of course not. It just makes me a bad speller. So if people understand the meaning of the word, does it really matter? My answer as you can guess is no, it doesn't. But a couple of rules.

- Proper names. Bad spelling doesn't apply to names, such as someone's first or last name, the name of a location, or geographic area. It wouldn't be right if someone wrote Bob Hoap instead of Bob Hope, or Massachusets instead of Massachusetts, or Japanize instead of Japanese. You get the point. They will still understand what you are trying to write, but it's a sign of respect.

- Grammar matters. This has nothing to do with spelling and I actually think proper grammar is a sign of intelligence. At least academic intelligence. Saying that things are going good, and not things are going well, is a minor infraction, but important.

- Definition of the Word. Here is where it is highly critical to spell a word correctly. If you are going 'two' the store makes no sense. Same with going 'too' the store. But if you are going 'to' the store, then we are good. Same applies to write=right, new=knew, weight=wait, you get the idea. In my inconsistent logic, this is one rule that cannot be compromised.

I also think that grades 1-12 should continue to focus on correct spelling. I remember taking spelling tests and all that nonsense, and still think it is important to teach kids the right way. But in the real world, I think the importance should be less on how a word is spelled and more on how a person performs in a given task, or how they interact with others. I mean really, does it matter that tommorrow is Saterday, or is it more important to know that tomorrow is Saturday.

That's just me. I like this idea because it covers up my own failings with proper English. I'll continue to use spell check and not purposely misspell words, but when I write something on a piece of paper with an actual pen, and it is spelled wrong, I won't lose sleep over it. Not that I ever did, I guess, lose sleep over spelling a word wrong, but next time I'll feel better because I voiced my opinion on why spelling doesn't matter.

Next up, why watching the Ultimate Fighting Challenge is not a redneck activity and should be on the same level as watching American Experience on PBS.

Posted by David at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today's is Emily's birthday - she is 5. It also happens to be my birthday - I am older than 5. I was able to fly home from a crazy week and spend the day local, which allowed me to take Emily to school and pick her up, kind of a nice treat. We are having a low key evening and the partying starts on Saturday. Patti is having a craft party or something for the kids for her birthday on Saturday. Last couple of years we've done a BHP (big honking party) which 20+ kids and equal amount of adults, a jumpy castle thing, burgers and beer and stuff but we needed to be low key this year. More for our sanity than anything else. Emily brought brownies to school and came home with empty champagne bottles and a big hangover. Pre-school is much different than what I remember.

So that's birthday 2007. Fun, as always.

Posted by David at 01:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)