I Wonder as I Wander…

I work from my home—which is in northern Minnesota, but I’m actually employed by an organization that is based in Jackson, Mississippi. Every so often, I need to go to the office in Jackson. I don’t know why, but the majority of the times that I end up there, is in the middle of the summer.

There is a perfectly good reason why I live in MN—I DO NOT like hot weather. In fact, a brisk fall day or warm (45 degrees) sunny winter day are perfect for me. Anyway, I found myself in 100 degree and high humidity a few weeks ago—and I was miserable! Bob didn’t go with me, so I didn’t feel like driving around too much by myself. The pool at the hotel is outside in the sun and it was so hot during the day that you couldn’t swim. Even at night, the temperature only cooled down to the mid 70’s.

Most of the time while I was down there, I was too busy to even notice that it was hot outside—and I was inside the office, car, restaurant, or hotel. I had a really neat car—it’s so much fun to rent cars a lot, because you get to drive different kinds. Even though I had reserved a compact—they upgraded me to a HHR. This is the Chevy Crossover. I’m not sure if I liked it—it had a lot of room and looked really big from the outside, but from the inside—it seemed small. There was a huge blind spot that made me nervous. But I made 10 trips to and from the airport—so I got to know my way around that part of town, very well.

On Saturday, we had a dedication service for a brick that was purchased by the region for my good friend Dennis. It was very nice with about 25 of his family members from MN and Alabama there. About eight of our staff were there. It was a really nice memorial. Dennis was a wonderful man who was very active—doing tai chi, running, gardening, and climbing the steps of the IDS building. Suddenly he had a massive heart attack and passed away at age 61. I still can’t believe it and I still miss him.

The rest of the week consisted of meetings and going out to dinner every evening. I was the driver for the guests because we were staying in the same hotel. So, other than seeing the hotel, the office, the airport, several restaurants, and the road in between them—it was a pretty uneventful trip.

And then, I left, but not for home—instead I went to Chicago….