Travels and tales
It's me again, friends. Just have a little more to say!
I was on the road in Louisville for work yesterday, in the process of returning to Lexington and decided to jump off the interstate to get something to drink, as I had spent the better part of my work day talking (but I'm in sales, so that happens)!
As I reached the top of the ramp, my car kind of bucked and sputtered and then THREE warning lights illuminated on the instrument panel! I chugged into a gas station lot, the nearest place I could go. Pulled out the manual, and by this time I was down to just one light, the engine symbol. Remember, this car is ten years old with almost 160,000 miles. Manual says it could mean MANY things and that I would risk serious damage by driving it while the light was illuminated.
I called the dealership in Frankfort, where we bought the car (new owners now, though, but they had provided service on it a little less than a year ago). Roughly halfway to my house, they said I could drive it there safely as long as that light wasn't blinking. And they'd provide me a loaner vehicle. So that was my target destination.
When I arrived and explained what happened to my service guy, he was amazed. "This just happened?" I nodded and he kind of grinned. "Good timing," he said. I countered by saying that I was on a car trip to Alabama (more on that below) last week and decided at the last minute to rent a car. "Good choice" was his only comment.
The initial diagnosis, based on the terminal they connect to cars, was that the throttle position sensor was malfunctioning. I suppose that means that the car could not tell when I was depressing the accelerator. Anyway, it should be ready today, with a nice dealer bill to pay!
This was the conclusion of a whirlwind trip to Louisville in which I met a total of six of my new company's affiliates. In keeping with my tradition of not talking specifically about my work, I'll stop with that information, but let's just say that each was a pretty different personality.
My trip to Alabama was interesting, to say the least. I talked with my boss about that before heading there. From where I begin, there isn't an expedient way to get there by air, as I'd have to drive to another city to take a direct flight, or connect through a hub airport. I'm new enough in my job not to have a lot of time pressures, so I decided to drive and to rent a car.
Our company has a national relationship with a rental company, and they charge the same for a mid-size car as for a full-size. So I was pretty certain of a decent car, but wound up with a Ford Expedition, massive SUV. My experience with the UK Radio Network had me driving similar vehicles all over the southeast, including to Birmingham, so this was something of a homecoming for me!
I did made a side trip along my path south down I-65, into Lynnville, Tennessee, home of Colonel Littleton, maker of excellent leather goods and other interesting items. I had decided to commemorate my new position with a piece I could use in my work, so went there to see some of the choices in person.
As always, everyone there was just wonderful to visit and work with, offering choices and on-the-spot personalization of my final choice, a No. 30 Composition Journal that I highly recommend! And I finally got to meet someone from the organization with whom I've had a lot of contact over the past several years, too, so that was indeed a very nice bonus!
The trip involved shadowing my counterpart in Alabama for a couple of days and served its purpose, and was pretty uneventful overall. My only complaint is that I stayed in the same hotel where I suffered through a kidney stone attack about five years ago!
This is a little unrelated, but let me share a couple of things that have happened online. I'm an active Twitter user, more reading other people's tweets than posting my own. Two things occurred recently that are worth noting.
The first was a blatant and unnecessary attack by someone who writes humorously about Kentucky sports. He wrote something downright mean about a famous woman with Kentucky roots who commented online about her treatment as she passed through security at a major airport. She didn't name names, indicated that she spoke with management and that was that, but this sports tweeter called her an idiot and such, and it just struck me the wrong way. I commented to him that perhaps her opinion in all of this counted for more than his, since it happened to her. I received numerous positive comments, but none from this boor. That's disappointing.
The other was a person I formerly followed, who is a self-proclaimed expert on a certain subject pertaining, again, to sports. Not life and death, right? Anyway, he posted something and I asked him a question, thinking he had inside knowledge, which he routinely implies on Twitter and elsewhere. Instead of an answer to my question, I got a three part lecture about being too lazy to look thinks up and so forth. Again, others commented that he could have just answered my question, and he responded to them about "give a man a fish or teach a man to fish." Must have been having a bad day, but I certainly won't waste my time on his waste-of-time subject matter anymore.
More indications of the death of civility, I guess.
Anyway, that's the news from here. Wish me luck with that car problem!
I was on the road in Louisville for work yesterday, in the process of returning to Lexington and decided to jump off the interstate to get something to drink, as I had spent the better part of my work day talking (but I'm in sales, so that happens)!
As I reached the top of the ramp, my car kind of bucked and sputtered and then THREE warning lights illuminated on the instrument panel! I chugged into a gas station lot, the nearest place I could go. Pulled out the manual, and by this time I was down to just one light, the engine symbol. Remember, this car is ten years old with almost 160,000 miles. Manual says it could mean MANY things and that I would risk serious damage by driving it while the light was illuminated.
I called the dealership in Frankfort, where we bought the car (new owners now, though, but they had provided service on it a little less than a year ago). Roughly halfway to my house, they said I could drive it there safely as long as that light wasn't blinking. And they'd provide me a loaner vehicle. So that was my target destination.
When I arrived and explained what happened to my service guy, he was amazed. "This just happened?" I nodded and he kind of grinned. "Good timing," he said. I countered by saying that I was on a car trip to Alabama (more on that below) last week and decided at the last minute to rent a car. "Good choice" was his only comment.
The initial diagnosis, based on the terminal they connect to cars, was that the throttle position sensor was malfunctioning. I suppose that means that the car could not tell when I was depressing the accelerator. Anyway, it should be ready today, with a nice dealer bill to pay!
This was the conclusion of a whirlwind trip to Louisville in which I met a total of six of my new company's affiliates. In keeping with my tradition of not talking specifically about my work, I'll stop with that information, but let's just say that each was a pretty different personality.
My trip to Alabama was interesting, to say the least. I talked with my boss about that before heading there. From where I begin, there isn't an expedient way to get there by air, as I'd have to drive to another city to take a direct flight, or connect through a hub airport. I'm new enough in my job not to have a lot of time pressures, so I decided to drive and to rent a car.
Our company has a national relationship with a rental company, and they charge the same for a mid-size car as for a full-size. So I was pretty certain of a decent car, but wound up with a Ford Expedition, massive SUV. My experience with the UK Radio Network had me driving similar vehicles all over the southeast, including to Birmingham, so this was something of a homecoming for me!
I did made a side trip along my path south down I-65, into Lynnville, Tennessee, home of Colonel Littleton, maker of excellent leather goods and other interesting items. I had decided to commemorate my new position with a piece I could use in my work, so went there to see some of the choices in person.
As always, everyone there was just wonderful to visit and work with, offering choices and on-the-spot personalization of my final choice, a No. 30 Composition Journal that I highly recommend! And I finally got to meet someone from the organization with whom I've had a lot of contact over the past several years, too, so that was indeed a very nice bonus!
The trip involved shadowing my counterpart in Alabama for a couple of days and served its purpose, and was pretty uneventful overall. My only complaint is that I stayed in the same hotel where I suffered through a kidney stone attack about five years ago!
This is a little unrelated, but let me share a couple of things that have happened online. I'm an active Twitter user, more reading other people's tweets than posting my own. Two things occurred recently that are worth noting.
The first was a blatant and unnecessary attack by someone who writes humorously about Kentucky sports. He wrote something downright mean about a famous woman with Kentucky roots who commented online about her treatment as she passed through security at a major airport. She didn't name names, indicated that she spoke with management and that was that, but this sports tweeter called her an idiot and such, and it just struck me the wrong way. I commented to him that perhaps her opinion in all of this counted for more than his, since it happened to her. I received numerous positive comments, but none from this boor. That's disappointing.
The other was a person I formerly followed, who is a self-proclaimed expert on a certain subject pertaining, again, to sports. Not life and death, right? Anyway, he posted something and I asked him a question, thinking he had inside knowledge, which he routinely implies on Twitter and elsewhere. Instead of an answer to my question, I got a three part lecture about being too lazy to look thinks up and so forth. Again, others commented that he could have just answered my question, and he responded to them about "give a man a fish or teach a man to fish." Must have been having a bad day, but I certainly won't waste my time on his waste-of-time subject matter anymore.
More indications of the death of civility, I guess.
Anyway, that's the news from here. Wish me luck with that car problem!
Comments
Post a Comment