Cause and Effect
It’s amazing how one simple thing can change the course of your entire day.
Take today, for example. I had the perfect schedule: attend morning meetings, catch an afternoon flight, arrive in San Jose at 3:30, check email, freshen up, and head off to a business dinner at 5:30. The timing couldn’t have been more genious. I could do it all.
That was until the plane headed to San Jose was delayed. It set off a chain reaction that threw off my entire day.
The flight originated in Guatamala, and it departed about an hour late. By the time everyone deplaned at DFW, it was 45 minutes past the original boarding time. Because it was a “customs” flight, the airline staff could not clean the plane until it had gone through a security check. This is “airline speak” for further delays.
And even though we were already running late, we couldn’t depart until they fixed cushions on two empty seats. C’mon, no one was even sitting there….was it really that important? By the time we finally took off, they were running about 2 hours behind. That’s when my perfect day ended.
I landed in San Jose at 5:15 pm, which gave me 15 minutes to grab my luggage, take a shuttle to the rent car area and drive to the Cisco campus in Milpitas (ha). We all know that didn’t happen. Instead, I told the gang I would be late and would meet them at the restaurant in Palo Alto.
It was 6 pm by the time I rolled out of the rent car facility in my Saturn Vue. Everything was moving along smoothly until I hit the California traffic on Hwy 101. Yep, had I been able to leave earlier, traffic would not have been quite as bad. It’s now 6:35, and I’m entering downtown Palo Alto. It’s a charming area, but it’s charm was lost on me as I was hungry, tired, and unable to find a parking place.
6:45 – locate a parking space
6:55 – walk to restaurant (Tamirine Vietnamese Restaurant)
7:00 – sit down at the table (45 minutes late)
7:30 – eat…finally!
9:15 – check into hotel
9:20 – go back to registration because my key doesn’t work
9:30 – enter my room and start working on my day job.
Cause and effect — ain’t it grand?
Pics from today are below:
Downtown Palo Alto
The newly renovated Sheraton San Jose – my home for three nights, four days
