“You’re alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.” – Barbara Hall, A Summons to New Orleans, 2000
Saturday, December 03, 2005
There is a Lesson Here Somewhere
The other day I was returning from a business trip to the Bay Area and had some extra time in the San Francisco Airport. So, I decided to eat dinner in a seafood restaurant that is just behind security in Terminal 3. I can’t remember the name, but you can’t miss it. They have excellent food—a rarity for airport restaurants.
I was seated, given a menu, offered a drink, and had the daily specials described to me by a competent and helpful Indian waiter. He was helpful without being pushy, polite, and didn’t bother to bother me with his name. In summary, he provided good service. I ordered, he brought my glass of wine and I settled in to read a few pages of my paperback novel while waiting for my food.
After a minute, the same waiter seated a distinguished-looking British man next to me and went through the same routine with him. The man ordered, after hearing the specials, and then said to the waiter, “Thank you for your excellent service. You really are a great waiter and provide great service.”
I was a bit surprised. Sure, the guy was a good waiter, but did he really warrant that kind of praise? Especially before the food or drink was even delivered?
The British man left his table to go to the restroom. The waiter immediately came to his table, adjusted the condiments on the table, noticed that the table was slightly unlevel, used a piece of cardboard from his order ticket book to level the table, and refolded the man’s napkin. Throughout the meal, the British man got extraordinary service. Now, the service was really good to start with, but his service was even better. His water glass was always full, his wine glass topped up. An empty plate disappeared without fuss. The service was kind of invisible, but very present at the same time.
I observed all this smiling to myself, knowing there was a lesson here somewhere. Perhaps it was that people will rise to perform at the level of your expectations. Perhaps it was that reward is a better motivator than punishment. Perhaps it was just that nice people get better service. I don’t know for sure what the lesson is, but I will be sure, in the future, to compliment an obviously competent waiter or waitress early in the meal instead of at the end!
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • The Business World • by Rick on 12/03/2005 at 10:24 AM
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Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Happy Birthday, Dad!
On Friday, after Thanksgiving, Lynne and I loaded up the Suburban and took off for Las Cruces, New Mexico to help celebrate my father’s 80th birthday. His birthday is officially on November 30th, but Mom planned a “fiesta” celebration for him on Saturday. And, she did a great job. About 40 or so people showed up for food and drink, an Indian flautist and a mariachi band.
It takes about 12-13 hours to drive straight through. It is an easy trip though—725 miles straight down I25.
The trip was worth it. It was great to see my parents, my sister and many other family members that I had not seen since my sister’s wedding 8 years ago.
We came back, again in a single day, on Monday the 28th.
Posted under: Rick's Family • by Rick on 11/29/2005 at 02:09 PM
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Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Detecting a Stroke
The other day my cousin sent me an email with the following contents that I’m passing along:
STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a BBQ a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening.
Ingrid’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6pm, Ingrid passed away). She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ - had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke perhaps Ingrid would be with us today.
It only takes a minute to read this:
Recognizing a Stroke
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke…totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed an getting to the patient within 3 hours which is tough.RECOGNIZING A STROKE
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms
of a stroke.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
1. Ask the individual to SMILE.
2. Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
3. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE , Coherently,
(i.e. . .It is sunny out today)
If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions. They presented their conclusions at the American Stroke Association’s annual meeting last February.
Widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage.
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 11/22/2005 at 04:46 PM
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Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Road Warrior Stories
If you hang out around people that travel a lot you will hear a lot of “road warrior” stories—missed planes, no hotel reservation, long layovers, lemon rental cars, etc.
I have a new road warrior story to add to my collection.
I was in Germany last week. On Friday, I was scheduled to fly home. I had a flight from Stuttgart to Frankfurt, a little over an hour layover, then a direct Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Denver. I really like this non-stop flight between Denver and Frankfurt. It only takes about 10 hours, the service with Lufthansa is good, and there is internet on the plane!
In Stuttgart, I went to the Lufthansa check-in counter to check my bags and check in for the flights. The lady there looked me up on the computer to find my eTicket and claimed that while I was confirmed on the flight from Stuttgart to Frankfurt, I was not on any Lufthansa flight back to the US. Upon further searching, she claimed I was on a United flight to Chicago with a subsequent connection to Denver. (I had been booked that way at one time, but changed to the direct flight many weeks earlier.)
I pulled out my printed itinerary and showed it to her. I clearly showed I was on the direct Lufthansa flight. But, she trumped me with her computer screen which clearly showed me on the United flights. I finally stopped arguing with her and let her check me and my luggage on the United flights. However, she could not give me my boarding passes—I’d have to get those at the gate in Frankfurt.
Upon arriving in Frankfurt, I ran to the United gate. I had a little trouble with security since I did not have a ticket or boarding pass or even a printed itinerary that showed I was on the United flight. But, the luggage receipt was enough to finally convince them to let me proceed to the gate. Once there, United could not find me on their system. I was not ticketed on the United flights! They did some research and discovered that I was, in reality, booked on the non-stop Lufthansa flight!
By now it was too late to try to move between terminals. So I begged United to let me on their flight. They put me on standby, and after a brief wait confirmed me on the flight to Chicago (where I was still on standby for the flight to Denver). I got a really bad seat, but the flight was good and I arrived in Chicago safe and sound. I managed to get on the connecting flight to Denver and arrived there about 4 hours later than I had planned. Luckily, I was able to contact Lynne and have her pick me up at the later arrival time.
The following week, I was telling this story to a colleague who had been on the same trip, but who caught the direct Lufthansa flight. It turns out they had engine trouble, had to change out the plane in Frankfurt, and left about 4 hours late! I actually got home earlier than he did. Must have been fate.
Posted under: The Business World • by Rick on 11/15/2005 at 11:28 AM
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Sunday, October 23, 2005
Internet and TV at the Cabin
Since we have a pretty good chance of living out one of our dreams soon—a dream of living full-time at the cabin—we’ve started taking small steps toward making the cabin our full-time home instead of a weekend retreat.
We’ve started the design of a garage that we can use to house our vehicles, but also to provide extra storage and a place to put a refrigerator, clothes dryer, etc. But, that will need to wait until next Spring before we do excavation or construction.
However, we decided to go ahead and install satellite Internet and TV. I worked with a great small company based in Loveland called Satellite Solutions to order a DirecWay Satellite Internet system. While they were up here to install it, I also had them put in a DirecTV dish. We have DirecTV at home in Fort Collins, so we can just bring a receiver up here when we come up for the weekend and get TV at no additional charge.
Both work great. In fact, I’m posting this article from the cabin on Sunday afternoon (it is half-time in the football game).
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 10/23/2005 at 02:46 PM
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