pressurized reunion windows and muffler-challenged dodge trips
Flashback: HP Days in Europe
After lengthy negotiation, a meeting had been scheduled. Carly, CEO and Chairman of HP would meet Joe Ackermann, CEO and Chairman of Deutsche Bank. The session was planned for Palo Alto, California. But the day before the meeting, Carly called Joe to cancel the meeting;
“I’m so sorry,” she said, “but I’m on the East Coast and my jet has broken.”
“No problem, Carly,” Joe relied. “These things happen. I’ll send my jet to pick you up.”
“I would be delighted, Joe, but security rules at HP prevent me from accepting.”
End Flashback
Our flight left from LAX. The drive from Santa Barbara in a surprisingly quick hour and ten minutes. In a first, there was no traffic on either the 101 or the 405. We dropped the rental car about a mile from our terminal. We spent the next hour and ten minutes on the shuttle bus. The flight was delayed for ‘mechanical reasons’. But, about an hour late, they boarded and everyone settled in. Then the pilot made an announcement.
“A heating element in the cockpit window was defective, so the window was replaced. That’s done, but the mechanics need to pressurize the airplane as the final test. However, that can’t be done with people on the airplane. And, by the way, you’ll have to remove your carry-ons as well. We will begin deplaning now.”
There was a lot of grumbling as everyone got off ‘de plane’.
“They must have known about the pressurization before they boarded,” I thought, caustically.
After about an hour, everyone rebounded. Fortunately I was able to regain coveted overhead compartment space. Then, the pilot made an announcement:
“They are wrapping up the paperwork and we will be on our way shortly. However, because of the delay, we lost our slot, so I’m working on a reroute.”
“They had to know about the slot problem,” I thought.
And then after about 30 minutes, the pilot had another announcement.
“I wish I had better news. Because of the delay, some members of the cabin crew have exceeded their duty hour maximum. We are waiting for replacement cabin crew.”
“They surely knew about this prospective issue,” I thought.
We finally arrived in Washington, DC 4 hours late on a 5 hour flight. Nazy’s sister, Shahrzad graciously picked us up at Dulles Airport — better know as The Dullest Airport in the world.
We had a good time in Washington. Shahrzad led us on a walk along the canal (where we spotted a deer and a fawn) ending up in Georgetown where we had lunch. After lunch, we stopped in at a nearby TJ Maxx to correct an issue associated with a packing anomaly.
“Packing anomaly?” An alert reader asks.
“Somehow Dan’s underwear didn’t make it into any suitcase.”
Our attempt to correct the undies shortfall was only partially successful. Of the three packs I bought, one was the right size, one, packaged in a “M” wrapper was ‘medium’ for pre-schoolers and the final package contained three sets of short pajama bottoms.
The next day we went to the National Portrait gallery, the Botanical Gardens and the Postal Museum where I bought some colorful stamps for paper editions of The Weekly Letter.
Shahrzad took good care of us. She arranged parties and great dinners. She even drove us to Frederik, MD for the next stop on our nostalgic trip to the East Coast. Nazy was attending the 50th reunion of her college class.
Nazy went to Hood College which was, at the time, an all-girls school. Her friends were ‘amazed’ that someone so ‘quiet and shy’ was now so outgoing and vivacious. Nazy brought her college blazer — which still fits her — for the event. And, when her class marched into the reception, they all wore red hats. As you can imagine, Nazy had plenty of hats to choose from.
Note: The blazer was found in one of our storage vaults — packed next to our chunks of the Berlin Wall, Darius’ horse riding boots (from before we realized that he is allergic to horses) and the cat’s scratching post.
Frederik is a very pretty town (we stayed at a funky bnb) and the college campus is really beautiful. I’m very proud of Nazy: the difference between Hood and her graduate school, Georgia Tech, is huge: rural vs. urban, liberal arts vs. engineering; all-girls vs. (almost) all men.
We “hobbed and sobbed” with her classmates and the (new-ish) President of the college. We toured Frederik and enjoyed a series of great meals.
Normal people would have headed home after the reunion… we headed to New England. We were flying United Airlines, so our late evening departure was delayed. As a result we had an early morning arrival in Manchester, New Hampshire.
We collected luggage and walked to the hotel shuttle pick-up location. Time passed slowly before we realized that it is necessary to phone the hotel if you want to be picked up.
The next morning, I collected a rental car, a three level upgrade Dodge Charger with muffler-less, but testosterone-enabled engine.
We came to New Hampshire to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the International Women’s Club of the Upper Valley. The IWC began in 1994 when Nazy, back from our assignment in The Netherlands, wanted to create an international social organization. It’s still going strong (more than 200 members).
Our friends had arranged a big celebration party and had simultaneously arranged for a beautiful place to stay. It was great seeing and being with friends from our time in Hanover, New Hampshire.
While Nazy was preparing her talk, I drove into downtown Hanover where I posted a couple of colorful envelopes containing letters and photographs for Tiger and Arrow.
More on our trip in the next issue of The Weekly Letter.
For last week's letter, please click here.
Nazy at Hood … as a freshman and now