Why me?-Why now?-Why not?

?

No email.



No internet.



Limited phone service.



For almost two days at the WRA Winter Convention in Lac du Flambeau, WI.



Diogenes got nothing on me.



After spending the past two days wandering around the conference with my laptop open, looking every bit the beggar I was, I made it to my email. I had been able to make a couple of phone calls during the interim, including one from the front desk at the hotel with Obeo president Glade Jones which disconnected for no reason, so everything was OK.



I was even able to hook up the WRA staff with signals on their laptops, but no signal for Steve.



Interesting what happens when you can't see what is going on. Or read. Or hear.



The bad winter weather goes to worse and your company president misses a connection from Utah on the way to a REMAX agency in Madison, WI event with one of your largest clients, the broker and 120 of his best agents. Glade sent me an email, of course. The weather was bad enough to send him home to Salt Lake City.



I also got an email from Jonathan Nicholas, Obeo sales VP, who was also on his way to Madison-to the same event. When he got there-I know he had planned to be-he wrote me an email that HIS email got stuck in a server in La-La land.



Well, you see, this is why Glade was going to Wisconsin because we hadn't heard from Jonathan, who was out there doing the national-travelling Obeo thing with our other clients.



So far, so good. I managed to get enough of a phone signal to call John Murray, our Madison photographer at the event who told me he had arrived at the event alone.



Okay.



Meanwhile, business continues as usual in the background. WAY-background. Of course , questions I could normally answer, things I would usually do remain undone. It is a darn good thing I set up an out-of-office auto reply. I wonder if it went anywhere, or if anyone read it.

Tours, photographers, later, rental cars , now, uploads, Ruth, when, refunds, Dennis, adjustments, Melynda, hotels, how, return receipts, flights, John, downloads, Kennedy, hot wings, -21 below, why.



Finally, two signal bars on the screen while I am kneeling in the lobby at a coffee table .



It's Bill Gates' world, we just work in it.


Amen.

Obeoman

steven.stearns@obeo.com