I'm back. I'm tired.

I'm back. I'm tired.

I arrived home early this afternoon all tuckered out. Great trip to Dallas - actually Cleburne. Monday and Tuesday were lonnnnnng days. I got to Dallas late in afternoon and went straight to meet my prospective customer at his plant. I spent about two hours there walking the floor and talking with some of his staff. I learned a lot about the issues they face; it really helped to have seen it when I met the rest of his team on Tuesday.

So I drove to Cleburne after grabbing a bite to eat (Steak and Shake really is the fast fat capital of the world). I did a little prep when I got to my hotel, but it as pushing 11 or 12 by my internal clock, so I crawled into bed. Problem was I had a couple hours of work to get ready for my meeting in the morning, so when I woke up at 2am I got up and did it. I fell back asleep from maybe 4-6, and then finished getting ready for the meeting to start at 8 or 8:30.

The day went really fast and really well. I ended up facilitating their team meeting to help figure out what would stop them from making good use of our software. I did demo software, but most of the time was focused on them. I've been on this tack for some time, but this was the fartherist I've pushed it with any client. What I heard was that they really liked the approach. Only time will tell if we'll win the business.

Then last night I drove back up to Dallas and contended with traffic. You know the myth that everything in Texas is BIG? Well its true. Even the miles are bigger there. Someone tells you 'just go a couple miles after the airport and you're right there', but they don't tell you that Texas miles are longer. Its like the difference between kilometers and miles.

For dinner I found the historic downtown of Grapevine Texas, which seems like I should have known what it was famous for - probably gun battles. But the fried catfish couldn't hold a candle to Miss Fanny's last winter down in Meridian. It wasn't even close. (Photo on the right is Miss Fanny's fish - I don't dress like this when I'm on a business trip.)

Then it was up early this morning to catch a 7:30 flight. Three-quarters of my flights this trip were on time, so it wasn't an awful trip.

Now I'm home for a couple of weeks.

Oh - I have to say something about the election. We're still stuck with Souder, but any day that you get rid of Rummy counts as a good day in my books. One down and two to go. It was fun to be driving around Dallas and hearing how the congressional races in Indiana were a bellweather for the rest of the country. Imagine that. That would explain why even W seemed to get it that people aren't happy with the way things are going.

If I'd have thought of it, I would have tried to find Kinky Friedmann's campaign headquarters last night in Dallas. He came in a distant 4th (of 4) for Texas Governor, which is too bad. I heard bits of his concession speech on the way home, and I wish I could have voted for him. (Actually its a good thing I didn't try to find him in Dallas, because he was in Austin.)