I Don't Like Atlanta

There is a reason it’s called Hotlanta. Apologies to anyone that reads this and loves the city, but I just do not like Atlanta. I have heard that occasionally, in winter, the temperature and humidity does get below 90° and 90%, but I’ve never experienced it.

I just don’t mesh well with those numbers. I don’t mind heat- the summer before last I had to go to Phoenix for a convention and the mercury hit 116°. No worries at all. It’s the humidity that does me in.

Last week during the ICRS Convention in Atlanta the heat and humidity was ON. I had a series of meetings set up in nice air conditioned locations, though some of them required a short jaunt through the oven of downtown but I wasn’t too worried. Each trip through the heat would quickly be met with that wonderfully refreshing feeling of walking through a revolving door into blessedly mechanically and chemically cooled dry air. I figured I would be ok wearing the nice new Nautica sports jacket I bought over a snappy (albeit thick) shirt, on top of a t-shirt and jeans.

I met up with Lisa for breakfast at 8AM. Our plan was to head to the convention floor after breakfast and spend the morning walking the floor and reviewing new products and concepts. It was Lisa’s first ICRS show, and I was going to guide her through all the different companies and products so she would have a better overall feel for the market. As we headed out of the hotel we had breakfast in, Lisa and I looked around for directions to point the way to the Georgia World Congress Center. She was pretty sure if we walked out a certain door we would be there after a very short walk.

We stepped out into the morning coolness (about 90° and 90% humidity), and started our walk. She thought it was down this block, and over one more. We walked and talked. Talked and walked. The convention center wasn’t there. “I think it’s down that street and then over a block or two” she said. We kept walking. And walking. The sweat started pouring. After a long stroll downhill for two city blocks, across another two blocks, through the Olympic park, uphill 4 blocks, across 2 blocks we returned to the exact spot where we had exited the hotel some 30 minutes prior. If I could have taken a Before and After photo, it would have looked like I jumped into a swimming pool fully dressed between the two. Turns out the convention center is next door to the hotel we had breakfast in, with an outdoor walk-way between the two of about 50 paces. We had simply gone out the wrong door.

As we entered the coolness of the hotel I asked Lisa for a few minutes to compose myself. I was hot, sweaty, dripping, and a bit ticked off (not at her- at ATLANTA and for its merciless heat and humidity and all the people that seem to like living there).






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Last Minute Vacation

The annual CBA Convention (its now called the ICRS- International Christian Retail Show, but I cant help but call it what I have known it as for 15 years) starts in Atlanta today. Origianlly I planned on going late Tue night and coming home Wed afternoon, but a couple more clients of mine have asked me to be there. Its now turned into a 4 day trip.

This morning before church Michelle and I were talking about me having to leave today, and that I really didn’t want to go. I have been crazy busy lately and haven’t seen the family much- just the six of us. Last week was with friends, the week before I was in LA. So we decided to take an impromptu family trip.

I called my hotel in Atlanta and they graciously upgraded my room to accommodate the whole family at no extra charge. We skipped church YET AGAIN, Michelle and the girls packed, and we set out for Atlanta.

I love to do things spontaneously…and while Michelle usually doesn’t, she did me proud today. She jumped in with no concerns. It will be fun. Or at the very least, not boring.






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The Departure

Our friends left for home this morning. While the girls all cried, including Michelle and Joy, the guys, of course, didn’t.

It was a snap-shot of the difference between the two genders. The guys with back-slapping and handshakes, have a good trip, did you get everythgin packed in the car effectively and efficiently? The girls with wet eyes and halting voices hugging on each other endlessly.

We miss them already as they drive away from the DigitalRich ranch and hang a right towards North Carolina.






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Friends

Our friends- Ron and Joy, and their kids S (K’s best-friend) and R, have spent the past week with us. It’s been a blast. Its like we all have had friends stay over for an extended slumber party. Great guy conversation between Ron and I, Michelle and Joy chatting like birds, K and S inseparable, and the odd-man-out boy R having to deal with having his sister S plus new reinforcement-sisters (my 4 girls) drive him to constant computer games and war board games to stay out of their way.

It was refreshing to have this other family spend a week with us. It takes about that long to break through the initial reacquaint period and the small talk to start to get to the meat of relationship. Real conversation. It was good.

They leave tomorrow- and it will be a bad scene.






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A Minor Miracle

Once a week or so I turn into pool boy. I collect various test strips, chemicals, additives, a net, a ballcap and head out to turn our pool water into a chemical soup in an effort to keep it appearing to be crystal clear. As I stepped out of the door that leads from our garage to our patio and towards the pool, I set the armful of materials on the ground. I grabbed the net first and made my way towards the pool, and as I did some movement caught my eye.

From a distance it appeared to be some sort of moth or insect climbing the retaining wall on our patio, but it seemed to be moving strangely. I walked over to see it more closely and I was shocked at what I saw.

It was an ant carrying a large grasshopper’s leg.

Now that may not seem very interesting to you, and after I explain why I did, you still may not be impressed. The ant was not one of the bigger breeds- this was a MINI ant. The ones that could stand comfortably on the head of a pin with room to spare. The grasshopper leg, if stretched out, would be about 2 inches. I estimate that to be about 16 times longer than the ant. He held it in his little ant-mouth, and was carrying it up the retaining wall. He was about half-way up the 6 foot portion of the wall and I was mesmerized watching him make his way. After watching for 4 or 5 minutes he had progressed only a short distance. At that rate, he had been at it for a couple hours and had another couple to go.

His progress was hampered by the rough surface of our bricks (we have those irregular clunky, chunky old fashioned bricks), and by the little prickly things on the legs of grasshoppers that allow them to stand sideways on walls like this when they are actually alive…and their legs are attached to their bodies. Every couple of seconds the leg would snag on the brick, the ant would pull and pull (or push and push) and once he (she?) realized the leg was stuck, would let go, scamper around the leg to find the sticking point, bite into it there, lift it back up and continue the journey.

This caused me to ask several questions- just how smart is this ant? Obviously he senses the tension when the leg catches, he pulls a few time to loosen in, and when it can’t be knows he can let go and it will not fall to the ground, finds the snag point, and re-positions himself to get the leg going again. I even saw him check out the lay of the land ahead before he continued, finding the best route for the next inch or two- how could an ant brain work like that? I also wondered if this were a special ant- a champion among his clan who was known to carry giant grasshopper legs from the great stony patio plains beyond the mystical brick mountain...or was he just an average ant?

I decided to help out. I picked the right moment, and grabbed the grasshopper leg lifting it and the ant into the air. I quickly placed it on the top of the retaining wall gently. The ant actually appeared confused. He let go of the leg, ran around the leg several times, ran to the edge of the wall and looked down, ran back to the leg, ran back to the wall, and back-and-forth another few times. He then bit into the leg, and began the journey across the peak of the brick mountain retaining wall and down the short distance on the other side to the grass forest, and home, beyond.

What a little miracle. That ant and his journey witnessed right as I am pondering all that I have to get done at work and home, and worrying I can’t get it all done. Maybe I can’t, but I certainly need to put everything I have into the important things that need to be done.






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