Thursday the 12th (as opposed to Friday the 13th)

Friday the 13th is supposed to be a bad-luck day. I had no problems today. But yesterday was a different story. From the beginning.

I had to attend an employee breakfast meeting in Monterrey. I was to review the results of 2008 and present goals for 2009. I left the house at 5:00 am to go the airport. The main street from our neighborhood to Reforma, was closed. We (me and Angel, my driver) needed to get to Reforma to get to the airport. We were able to get around this problem, and made it to the airport.

Once at the airport, things went well until it was time to board. The flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00 am. The pilot showed up at 6:40 am. No way we were going leave on time. We started boarding at 7:00 am. Once on board, we were informed the airport would be closed because of fog. The pilot didn't agree, but we couldn't leave. The estimated departure time was 9:00 am. My breakfast meeting in Monterrey was scheduled for 9:30 am. At least I could communicate with people and I let them know I wouldn't be there on time. But the employees did have a nice breakfast.

We pulled away from the gate at 8:45 am, but took off at 9:30 am. I got to Monterrey, made it to the office at 11:30 am and gave the presentation. I finished at 12:30. The receptionist called a cab to take me to the airport. The taxi arrived 35 minutes later. In good traffic it takes 35 minutes to get to the airport from the office. My flight was to leave at 2:00 pm, and I had to stop at the ticket counter and pay a change fee. The cab driver told me not to worry, we would make it. I didn't believe him. But when he had to stop for gas, I knew there was no way I would not make the flight.

I arrived at the airport at 1:50 pm. Knowing I would miss the 2:00 pm flight, I had called Claudia while I was in the cab and she booked me on a flight for 3:00 pm. I checked in at the counter, received my boarding pass, and was told that the flight was 45 minutes late. I went to the airline's club room hoping to answer emails, etc. My computer wouldn't boot!!

I traveled to Guadalajara today, Friday the 13th. No problems......

Business As Usual

A few days ago, as I was driving home, I encountered a work crew at an intersection in our neighborhood. I don't know what they were trying to do, but they had 4-inch PVC tubing stretched across the intersection in an X pattern. The tubing was about 100 feet long in each direction. Since the intersection was not closed, as vehicles passed, they would hit the tubing and move it. And given that vehicles were coming from all 4 directions, it did not take long for the tubing to be wrapped around the wheels of the a few vehicles. A few people tried to accelerate and go over the tubing. But the tubing moved and only made bad situation worse. I could see that I was not going to go anywhere. And vehicles were blocking the only way out -- I would have to back-up. So I grabbed $40 pesos, held them out the window, and shouted to one of the workers 'Oye! Amigo, me puede ayudar? (Hey pal, can you give me a hand?) He saw the pesos, walked over to my car, took the money and then went and made the vehicles behind me back-up so that I could get out.

One thing about Mexico, you can usually get what you want if you just pay the price. Business as usual.