Earlier today I was engaged in casual conversation with someone I’ve never really visited with before. We have been in the same meetings on several occasions. Consequently, remembering his name was not a problem, but until today I knew nothing about his family, his interests, or the kinds of things that fill his day. In the course of our conversation, we talked about many things. If you think my thoughts are random, you should have tried to follow our conversation. We even talked briefly about television. I shared with him that at our house, if it isn’t on HGTV, we don’t see it. He is a sports enthusiast, so his TV viewing is generally tied to a game. One of his sons is a Ducky Dynasty fan, so that too is on his radar screen. I guess that is the reason that DISH provides more channels than I can count.
It has been awhile since I’ve seen “Divine Design” with Candice Olson on HGTV, but it is generally worth watching. She does a good job at conceptualizing and remodeling something dated into something that looks new. Her introductory comment on each segment is “Good design is knowing the rules and knowing when to break them.”
Consequently, if it works for Candice, maybe it will work for me. Without breeching any confidence, I am going to tell you something about my day at work. I’ve mentioned before that I’m frugal. I’m frugal at home and I’m frugal at work. When I travel for personal reasons or for business reasons, I use Priceline to negotiate hotel reservations. Consequently I generally stay at a 4-star hotel for a fraction of the actual cost. I don't spend money unnecessarily.
At today’s meeting in Houston, an attorney from another agency was flying from Dallas to join our meeting. Initially, I had offered to pick him up at the airport. After all, it would be enormously expensive to make a long commute by taxi. Subsequently, my schedule changed due to the need for an earlier meeting and I had to cancel my offer to provide transportation. Consequently the man took a taxi from Hobby Airport to the meeting. It is about a forty-five minute commute if traffic is flowing at a moderate level.
When he arrived, I inquired about his delay in getting out of the taxi. It seemed to me that the taxi was parked for at least five minutes. He didn’t say the ride had been harrowing, but I gathered the experience was less than ideal. He also didn’t mention having to get a second mortgage on his home to pay the fare, but I gathered it was a very expensive ride. Apparently once he arrived, the taxi driver insisted that he also wanted to be called to provide transportation for the return trip. He said from looking at the cost, he wasn’t sure he hadn’t already paid for the return trip.
Did I mention that guilt is occasionally one of the motivating factors in my life? I felt badly that I had not been able to keep my initial commitment to provide transportation from the airport to the meeting site. He assured me that it wasn’t a problem. He was being genuine. It wasn't a problem for him. I placated some of my guilt by ensuring him that I’d take him back to Hobby following the meeting. He wasn’t going to need a taxi for the return trip. I’d never let that happen.
During the course of the day and casual conversation, we discovered we had much in common. For example his wife thinks he has a hearing impairment, although subsequent testing reflected no problem associated with his hearing. My wife thinks I simply don’t pay attention; however, I do have a hearing impairment. It really does work best if we talk face-to-face. I wouldn’t suggest that my wife is insensitive, but she frequently will try to communicate something from another room in the house. Invariably, I find myself seeking her out so I can hear. I’ve tried to ignore her attempted communication from another room and wait until she comes to me, but I always cave in and seek her out before that happens.
Before the end of the day, the man from Dallas said he enjoyed the opportunity to get to know me. Strange isn’t it, what conversation can do to forge connection? How was I to know that in short order I could potentially mess that up? Because of his gracious spirit, I did not.
As we headed for the airport, I put him on notice that most people bargain with God when they ride with me. My wife thinks I am incapable of driving unless she is in the car telling me how to drive. She also thinks I’m a horrible driver. Did I mention that I’m glad I am hearing impaired? My passenger assured me that my driving would not be a problem. Reportedly, by his own admission, his driving scares him. The commute was mostly non-eventful. There were no near misses on the freeway and the traffic was moving at moderate pace.
The 45-minute commute went by quickly. We talked of many things. At some point during our conversation, I had a slight panic attack. Forget about making a good impression! Have you ever had the awkward realization that you are not exactly sure where you are, but you suspect you’ve already passed the exit where you should have turned? That isn't so bad if you are by yourself, but it is awkward when someone else is with you. What do you do but acknowledge it? Confession is good for the soul. I was really embarrassed. He on the other hand couldn’t have been more gracious. He told me that once he and a colleague got lost traveling from Fort Worth to Dallas. I guess the potential for that happening is real if the conversation is captivating.
He offered to use his iPhone to determine if we had passed the exit. By the time he retrieved the information, I realized that we had passed the exit. We were coming up on the outer loop. The airport is between Loop 610 and the Beltway. Embarrassing? You bet! We needed to turn around.
I took the next exit and got in the left lane to negotiate the turn-around. He was continuing to look at his iPhone and was verbalizing my need to turn right. “Turn right?” I am not the sharpest Crayola in the box, but turning right wasn't going to take us to Hobby. It would, however, take us to Ellington Field, the small airport in Clear Lake. I knew he didn’t want to do that.
We eventually got reoriented and discovered I only over-shot the airport by two and a half miles. Actually, that isn’t too bad. It didn’t have the same consequences that landing a plane in the wrong location would have had. Fortunately, time was on our side. I loved his sense of humor. He said, I’ve never seen the movie “Dumb and Dumber,” but I think we are living it. We both laughed. It really was funny.
When I find myself in the midst of a plan gone awry, I call it an adventure. If nothing else, it makes a good story. I even suggested that if he wanted to figuratively embellish the story, he could always truthfully say that before we got all the way to Galveston, we discovered we passed Hobby.
I told him that our shared adventure would be captured in my posting of random thoughts. He didn't have an objection to that. Consequently, I know the rules and I know when to break them. The trip to the airport proved to be a fun experience. Shared laughter is always a good tool to cement a friendship.
Did I mention I got lost leaving Hobby on my return to Austin? It is true, but that is a story for another day.
Carpe Diem!
Don