Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: Lucky, Under The Circumstances
Last week I had the pleasure of traveling to Utah and Arizona to go on sales calls with the sales reps in those territories. Like all my travels with sales reps, it was an enlightening learning experience. However, this blog isn’t about my sales visits, it is about the higher powers of luck. As most of my blog followers know, I am not the most religious person, but on this trip someone was watching over me and the stars aligned as best as they could under some bad circumstances.
Tuesday night, I arrived at the Salt Lake City Airport about two hours prior to my flight. I was hungry as always, so I decided to sit down at the bar of what looked to be a nicer restaurant…I am not big on fast food. This was the first bar/restaurant in the d/e terminal on the left side. The name is escaping me. I enjoyed a burger, fries and a beer and then went on my merry way to Phoenix. I arrived in Phoenix without a hiccup and one of my best friends from U of Michigan, who I hadn’t seen in years, picked me up. He took me to his lovely home in Scottsdale. I was fortunate to have had my own little room that they call the casita which means little house in Spanish. It had a bed, tv, refrigerator and a bathroom. All private for me and certainly better and cheaper (can you say free?) than any hotel that I stay at when I am on the road. I was exhausted, so after chatting with my friend and his beautiful family, I hit the hay. Something wasn’t feeling right and I ended up waking up at 330 am…the ouch begins. A couple grumbles of the stomach and bammo! Food poisoning! Yikes! Mommy! How much does it stink to be sick on the road and have no one to care for you? It happens to traveling sales reps all the time and now it hit me. No gory details, but here comes the luck under the circumstance.
It turned out that the customer we were to visit that day cancelled. One point for me. So I stayed in the casita all day, doing what I could to get this feeling to pass. My buddy’s wife brought me water, ginger ale and salt crackers. It was like having a private nurse. She is an angel. Imagine if I was in a hotel? I just can’t! Two more points for me. Now for the coup de gras, my buddy is a well respected gastroenterologist. Jackpot baby! He showed up with an IV bag at around 2 pm.
Are you kidding me? They don’t have that at the Courtyard Marriot. Nope! Not only that, but he didn’t even need a copay or have to do it for Obama (had to sneak that in). The IV was delicious and it was just what he doctor ordered. Outside of some aches and pains, I started to come back to life. Am I lucky or what? At times, it is better to be lucky than good…and this was one of those times…thanks to my good friend Dr. Lowe.
Until next time, this is (kind of) lucky Scott
