Where's spring?

My last post before the mini-Y2K (aka Daylight Savings Time). Who knows whats in store tomorrow - maybe the internet will collapse, planes go down, factores come to a standstill. If Armageddon doesnt happen, hope to see all of you someday.

Been about 2 months since my last post. Here's whats been happening:

Started playing cricket again. Its been 5 years or more since i smelt leather, green grass and seasoned willow. In those 5 years my prowess (or lack of it) hasnt got any worse. The body aches just as much as it used to. And touch wood, ball still lands in the channel. However what was different was getting 4 stitches on the webbing of my pinky. Guess not having played for a while renders one's hands softer. What was worse was the emergency care would not accept my insurance and the buffoons sent the money i shd have got to the Doc again. Am still waiting.

In case you didnt know, there are 3 busy cricket leagues in the Bay Area with at least one of them divided into some 5 leagues with 10 teams each. The top level is supposedly high quality and dangerous for weekend amateurs like me.

There were a couple of remarkables American WASPs on the other team. One braggart who kept wickets with a hockey keepers shing guards and knee caps. Apparently, he gives Leno a run for his money most games - tumbling on and over the wickets etc. However, this was an off day for him. The other one was a photographer that stood at short mid wicket, short cover and other dangerous positions while the game was on to take snaps. Am trying to get the snaps from the other team. He had a huge backpack to match his huge tele zoom lens. The backpack did'nt make up for our missing 11th player!


Another event that followed a 5 year cycle was a ski trip. This one takes the cake. You'll see why. We planned a 3 day outing, hoping to see some fresh snow fall. We stacked the car with snacks and warm clothing. Left home at 4am and hit the slopes around 9am. Wife had a tough time and kid did pretty ok for a 4 year old on her first outing. I was OK - didnt fall very often and retained some control but didnt go beyond the beginner slopes.

We wind up skiing and get to this hotel in Sparks, NV (a good 60 minute drive away). We get to the lobby and 50 minutes later to the desk. No apologies for time wasted. The lady offers us a smoking room - i refuse and insist on a non-smoking one. The lady is insistent we can get one. Well, we called 3 times the previous week to make sure we had a room. No. Now the booking was through hotwire - which immediately meant we were second class guests. Escalating to a manager makes things worse. At 7pm in the evening, the room is apprently being cleaned and they dont know when the room would be ready. The lady at hotwire admonishes me for yelling at the front desk. I tick her off and tell her shes not physically present and shouldnt be making that assertion. Escalation to hotwire manager and refund ensues. At 730pm, 16 hrs after we woke up, driving 250 mi and skiing 6 hours we have no hotel room. Believe it or not, we decided to drive back 4 hrs back to Palo Alto.

Which brings me to the delicate matter of being insistent on good customer service while on travel. But for the best institutions and organizations, the only things that gets you decent service is the threat to leave/cancel/not buy. So how do you yield that sorry weapon in a situation where time is money. You are on a slippery slope - put up with crap or go with something you didnt plan for (which in turn means more time and money). Yep, its happened before ...

Wife had a fender bender almost one year to the day she rear ended some one else. This time some lady with a non name insurance firm rear ended her. What looked like a small dent on the spare wheel ended up with a 6000$ repair bill. Shd get taken care of by the other party's insurance. My hopes of getting the car salvaged came to nought.

Great weather outside. Winter is getting over in a hurry and folks say we are heading into a 110 degree summer. Whew! Whatever happened to spring?