Out of office

On the road again. It's the end of our fiscal year. Several key projects are hanging. Got to finish up a supplier review for my boss. Trying to negotiate a contract with our calibration house. Need to write up reviews for my buyers. Planning for a trip to Kerrville in two weeks for my nephew's graduation. Trying to plan a trip to Austin in May to help junior move out of apartment. So what am I doing now? I am packing for another supplier road trip this week. Will be off the reservation until Friday in Philly on supplier audit. I've said it before - I love to travel, but these audits are a regular PITA for me. Oh, sure, it's great to break away from the office and travel to different cities/states, but these are not vacations for me. Lots of prep work, coordination. I am the defacto leader of this trip which makes me the bus driver/chaperone/cruise director for this gig. If it were just me, I can handle the logistics of travel (flight, car rental, finding hotel) but I have the VP of operations and one of my buyers going with me this time. The former (VP) is an old hand at this and knows everything; the latter (buyer) has never done this before and looks to me as mentor. Of course, I am still expected to achieve all of my tasks even though I am on the road. The expression that comes to mind is: “That’s what they pay you the big bucks for”…

I know it will work out fine, but I tend to fret/worry over these trips up until we take off. Once we are on the plane, things are pretty much locked down so I figure there is not much I can do about the situation.

As an aside, weather has turned out fantastic for the weekend. Was pouring down early Saturday, but it did not last and the rain pushed out by 0900 and a clear, sunny day set in. I was able to mow the yard by noon and loaded up the mutts to take them to the local dog park. I’ve been dying to take Claire to the park ever since the vet cleared her from her treatment and yesterday was the first opportunity. Grayson has been to these parks so he knows the score. As soon as we got out of the truck, he was chomping at the bit to get inside to play/run free. Once inside the gate, I let him off leash and he was off like a kid at a playground. Claire on the other hand did not quite know what to make of all of this open space and lots of dogs running free. I let her off the leash and initially she hung right beside me. I tried to get her to run with the other dogs and explore, but she was somewhat intimidated. Not sure if it was the open spaces or the plethora of butt sniffing, ball chasing, wet dogs that made her skeptical. One big fuzzy German Shepherd tried to get a little “friendly” with Claire and she “politely” declined his offer. Eventually, Claire opened up a bit and tried to explore the area, but I never got her to go into the water. Grayson, on the other hand was all over the park, splashing in the water, running to play with other dogs, meeting other people. It must have been Golden Retriever day at the park yesterday because there were at least 5-6 other Goldens there at the same time. More than once I lost Grayson for a while. Just when I thought I had spotted him, I then noted the dog was not wearing the same collar. One observation I noted was that Grayson is more of “dog’s dog”. He likes to seek out other dogs to sniff/play with. Claire is more of a “people dog”. She preferred to seek out other people (when not parked next to me) for petting/attention. Of course, she’s good at getting lots of loving.

Afterwards, I took both dogs outside the park to give them a bath. A lot of the new parks have a dog wash area to hose them off from playing in the mud and ponds. In the end, both dogs had a blast and were thoroughly worn out on the drive home.