I was sitting in a rental on the Denver airport cell phone lot, waiting for my business partner to call so I could meet him at passenger pick-up. We had been awarded a large commercial job on a little historic town about eighteen miles outside of Denver and we had a dinner meeting in six hours to button up any last minute questions that the project owners may have. We also had a project overview presentation scheduled in their Denver office at ten in the morning, to brief the subcontractors.
I was looking over the incoming flights on the electronic display board, thinking about how much I really disliked Colorado. This state's building codes and regulations are systematically restrictive beyond common sense and there is always radical ecological agencies climbing all over construction projects worried about living organisms of no value and too small to see.
I guessed it was for those reasons that at first considered this project to be a "no bid." But I formed this company a little over two years ago and since we were doing quite well, I thought that the exposure we would receive from this high profile job might be good for the future growth, so bit the bullet.
When I saw on the board that his flight was on time and on the ground, I started the engine and thought to myself that I would much rather be working on a high-rise on a beach somewhere in south Florida.
Forty five minutes later, still no call and I got pissed thinking that they lost his bags. After thirty more minutes, my cell rings, it was him and I answer it, "What the hell dude, did they lose your luggage?"
He responded, "No, I'm in the hospital, I haven't even left yet. They think I had a mild heart attack, Tammy was at work and they wouldn't give me my phone, so I couldn't call anyone until now."
I asked, "Jesus! are you all right?"
He answered, "yah, but they want to hold me overnight for observation and they don't want me to fly for a couple of weeks" and before I could respond he said, "listen ... listen, Tammy is on a plane and she will be in Denver in about three hours, she has our presentation with her and she's damn good at things like that...Where are you now?"
Rattled and set back over all of this, I answered, "in the damn cell lot waiting on you!"
He said, "go get some lunch and I'll text you her flight number, I got to go, a mean nurse is giving me the evil eye about my phone" and he ended the call.
Tammy is my partner's wife and after the initial shock and panic of this latest disaster wore off, I remembered that I had heard somewhere that she was quite good at all of the technical crap involved with marketing and making detailed technical presentations like ours, because that is mainly what she does in her field.
Though I've only seen here a few times, I remembered that she was petite, about five one or two, very slender, athletic and I remember her being really cute. I thought that this could be a real plus for our company when she walks in and talks in front of those mature, hardened, crusty old construction type supervisors, foreman and crew chiefs. But I sure hoped that since this was Colorado, they wouldn't come off more like The Village People
After grabbing a quick sandwich, I was back on the cell lot and that electronic display showed that she would arrive early. An hour later when it indicated "at the gate," my phone rang and she said, "Peter, I have my bags and I'm headed for the passenger pick-up area now."
I said, "I'll be there in two minutes, I'll honk when I see you, I'm driving a black SUV."
When I recognized her, I tapped the horn and pulled over. I got out and helped her load her bags in next to mine and we put the laptop backpack between us and we were off.
I asked, "how's Darrold doing?"
She said, "he'll live, there's always something, their telling him now that it was just indigestion and anxiety, but they want to keep him another night for tests and to make sure. Have you been here in Colorado long?"
"A couple of hours before he called me. I flew in from another project that we have in New Mexico and I went to the cell phone lot right after I picked up this rental from the airport Avis." I answered and we drove to the motel.
The parking lots were literally pounded full of cars and I was already tired and a little pissed, so I pulled in at the main motel entrance and had a valet unload our bags. I handed him the keys and a twenty and told him "park it."
But, the real fun didn't start until I got to the service desk and found out that there was one of those "save the planet" echo conventions in town and the place was beyond full and it took us a while to fight our way to that desk.
The desk clerk, who spoke more Spanish than English, informed me that the motel made a screw up in our reservations and now only one room was available, and I lit him up!
After the twenty minutes of his nervous phone calling proved that there were no available rooms in over a fifty mile radios and ten minutes of a no win argument, I made him personally take our bags up to the room and let us in.
Tammy looked around at the tiny room with only one queen bed and in the bathroom door with the vanity sink directly outside of it and said, "wow, you boys really are frugal in your travel arrangements."
I said, "well, most of the time we only use our rooms for sleep. The rest of the time we're wining and dining and generating new business and we mostly end up at a bar where the client wants to stay until closing. I'll call down and have them send up a rollaway bed for me while you freshen up for our dinner meeting, that is, if you want to."
When she asked, "how much time do we have before we have to be there?"
I looked at my watch and answered, "with everything that's been happening up until know, less than two hours and with all of this convention traffic, I think we should probably leave in a half hour, what do you think?"
She said, "That'll work, I'll take my shower after we get back" and when she went into the bathroom, I made the call to my new buddy the desk clerk.
When she stepped back out ready to go, she looked in the vanity mirror to check her hair and saw in the reflection that I was still on the phone. When I hung up I sarcastically said, "well this just keeps getting better."
When she asked, "why, what's up?" I told her that there wasn't a spare rollaway to be had, anywhere.
Then I said, " but no worries, I'll grab a pillow, use the spread and sleep on the floor."
Tammy asked, "so you haven't read the independent hotel/motel health reports lately, you know the ones about the germs, bacteria and parasites found in the carpeting and the dried sperm found on the bedspreads in most major motels/hotels and other places of lodging ... have you?"
Surprised I asked, "you're serious right?"
She answered, "yes, and we can't have you down sick too, we'll have to make the best of it, after all we're two responsible adults ... right?"
I answered, "well I am" and we left for dinner.
