My Friends in Florida

Like a kid with a new toy, now that I have changed the Television font, I want to post to it.

This post is plucked from the idea pool that developed while I was in Florida. My buddy Chris requested this one.

As many of you know, my trip to lovely Florida was divided into two parts. Part one was a conference. It was fun. I stayed at a very nice hotel in the middle of "The Happiest Place On Earth"(THPOE). Very, very nice. Clean....bright, cheerful.

Then, over the weekend, I had to move to a more reasonably priced hotel. This second part of the trip (another 5 days) was much more work for me. Added to that, the hotel was not quite the same. Oh, it was quite close THPOE....but at the same time it was a world away.

I'm sure this hotel was quite nice....in 1979. The carpet was dark orange and brown....the furniture had wicker arms.....the room door wouldn't close by itself....the window drapes were closer to shower curtains than drapes....and the air conditioner was unable to "keep up".

However, there was a very redeeming quality to the hotel. Outside, they had a pretty good size pond. In the pond were lots of turtles, some odd looking ducks, and a bunch of monster carp. To get to and from the car, we had to walk across a bridge that went over the pond. So, every morning, before we would leave for work, I would stand on the bridge and watch the turtles and carp. We grew to be quite close.

On the bridge were three little vending machines. These machines were the kind that typically had gumballs or small rubber balls in them. However, these machines had animal food pellets in them.....and my friends were well aware of their presence.

Now, I'm not overly cheap by nature. I have been known to spend money. However, for some odd reason, I couldn't make myself pay 25 cents to get a handful of food for the marine animals. I did learn that if I shook the machines a bit when I turned the handle, several pellets would fall out. I am not saying......I'm just saying, if you know what I mean.

By the end of the week, my friends were recognizing my heavy footsteps on the little bridge, and were coming over to "visit" with their cheap, new buddy.

This is the stuff memories are made from....a true Kodak moment.

Cue "The Times of Your Life", Mr. Anka.

Good morning, yesterday
You wake up and time has slipped away
And suddenly it's hard to find
The memories you left behind
Remember, do you remember?

What I Did On My Summer Vacation - Part I

Sunday, I depart on an extended trip for work (11 days).


The first week will be spent at an unnamed vendor conference that usually draws 12,000+ nerds. This year it is in sunny Florida. This portion of the trip should be pretty cool. Learn a lot, grab some cool freebies, get some free food and drink. All that is good. The coolest thing is two of my buddies are going along (J-Girl and Kirby).


The second part of the trip is participating in a multi-day meeting in one of our offices near the conference. This portion of the trip will be real work, requiring me to be a negotiator as well as a visionary. Not two of my stronger qualities. Fortunately for me, Kirby and Pete will be along.


So, my promise to you, my faithful reader. I promise to take copious notes of any "interesting" happening and blog about it. To help me keep this promise, I have purchased a cheap ($1.99) journal from Borders. I will try to write things down soon after they happen to help me remember. I am hoping to come home with lots of good material.


Also, when I was at Borders buying the journal, I went through the discounted books section and found a book I enjoyed as a high schooler. Many years ago the book got trashed during one of my moves. So, for $7.00 I bought a new copy of "The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes" which I plan to read on the trip. It is just chuck full of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories. By the time I get back home, I will be deducing like crazy.











BTW: Mrs. WHW isn't overly thrilled with my absence.....I guess she will really miss me.