OK Hose Head

Were to begin… 

 

Even before I left it was an adventure.  This trip was originally scheduled for the previous week and was rescheduled at the last minute to Thursday of last week.  The actual plan was unknown to me until late Tuesday afternoon so it wasn’t until then that I knew we would be traveling up Wednesday evening staying Wednesday and Thursday nights.  Which is a BIG difference from where we started, I had half expected to either travel up or back in the same day to minimize travel costs.  My coworker and I were supposed to travel together, again to minimize costs, and when last we spoke he asked when I got off of work and indicated that we would leave then.  I had previously scheduled a meeting with my financial advisor well before the trip got changed, for the afternoon of Wednesday.  When I returned from my meeting, my coworker, having changed his mind, now wishing to leave around lunch time, and not being able to locate me, left without me.

            His leaving was in actually a small blessing in disguise.  It gave me the opportunity to deal directly with a rental agency without having either a coworker there or being stuck without options.  I made the rental reservation through corporate travel and headed off to the agency.  When I arrived, as I expected, I was asked for my driver’s license.  I explained the situation and was told that unfortunately they could not accept paper IDs, but that once I had the license back I would not have any problem.  This in and of itself was a bit of a relief.  Now I knew that the answer to one question without having to expose myself too much.  Secondly that I would only have little more than one month to go also took some burden off my shoulders.  Obviously at this point my only option was to drive my car which I was perfectly fine with, and actually would prefer.

 

The remainder of Wednesday night was uneventful.  Because of rush our traffic and accidents on I-696, I-94 and 401 I did not arrive in Markham until almost 10 PM. 

 

Thursday morning we set out for our first visit of the trip.  My coworker drove as he managed to obtain a Jaguar X-type as his rental car. (I only hope that he was only charged the normal rate.)  The plan for the day was to trial three different materials from three different suppliers, all at the same manufacturer.  Now it isn’t necessarily unusual to try-out a couple of different materials, just not on the same day.  We got to play a little bit of hot-potato when the second supplier arrived early all the while the first trial was behind schedule.  It was an interesting time.