Techno Follies
Still in Arizona. Went to a dinner hosted by one of my clients at his condo. Upon arriving, I felt a little sheepish when I audibly locked my car (it honked when I used the key remote), since it was a posh and aggressively gated community. But, hey, ANYONE might be delighted with my 3-year-old laptop and growing bag of dirty clothes. Why make it easy?
It was kind of interesting seeing people sort themselves out. I’m here because two firms are being acquired and merged, and there are some cultural differences. On the patio where the hors d’oeuvres were served, it was all-LDS, and the beverages were Martinelli’s and iced tea. After a while, I noticed the absence of certain of the guests, and ultimately discovered a group in a corner of the kitchen gathered around a couple bottles of expensive Cabernet.
The dinner was in Phoenix, and I needed to work in Phoenix the next day, but my hotel is in Tucson, prepaid for several nights through Expedia. Still, I didn’t want to drive the 100 miles to Tucson, sleep, then drive back, so I decided to take a room in Phoenix. I didn’t want to just walk up to the desk at a hotel and pay their highest off-the-street-at-10pm sucker rate, so I hatched the brilliant idea of pulling into the parking lot of a hotel I was passing that advertised free wireless internet. Sitting in the car, I opened my laptop, connected to their signal and perused the deals at Cheaprooms.com. Finding one to my liking, I purchased a reservation, closed up my laptop and drove out of the parking lot, feeling pretty smug and techno-hip.
When I got to the hotel, however, they acknowledged the reservation but said they were full, and that Cheaprooms shouldn’t have shown any availability. By now it was nearly 11, and I was feeling a little deflated and, well, silly. I finally drove up to an old Ramada whose price was not that much more for the night, and contented myself with dialup access to finish the evening.
