Last week I had an epiphany about the Assimilation software which led me to go into total full-on development mode. This was fine except for one thing – I had a trip to make to Beaver Creek resort for an excellent Top 6 business retreat lead by Tommi Wolfe – and I wasn’t done with the development I’d been obsessed with when I needed to go.

It turns out that being in total full-on development mode isn’t terribly compatible with travel or more mundane things – like parking a car in a parking garage. This blog entry is about the comedy of errors that happened when I tried to do that. After it was over, it was pretty funny and all ended well in every respect.

First about Coding

First off, about the epiphany – thanks to some great input from my good friend Brian Finley, I’d realized that the Assimilation code was sometimes way too hard to install. So, I went off to write a universal installer that would install it and configure things with the “press of a button” so to speak. It was exactly the right thing to do, so I dove into it head first, staying up too late and having great fun creating and debugging this code.

Then Thursday afternoon came, so I grabbed my suitcase and laptop and off I took a little road trip to Beaver Creek, 2+ hours away. I drove safely enough, but spent most of my time driving thinking intently about what I’d accomplished, and what I had yet to do on the installer.

Now about Travel

When I arrived at the resort, I went in to register, dropped my bags off in my room – the usual things. But I couldn’t find my phone. I was a little concerned, but figured I’d find it, so I went to park my car in the underground parking garage. Coming into the garage, I had to use my room key to gain access, so I rolled down my window and went to park. When I parked, the first thing I did was look for my phone. I turned on the dome lights and looked everywhere for it, to no avail. Then I carefully wrote down the spot I was parked in, noted which elevator I would take to the rooms, and got out of the car. And there was my phone – on the roof of my car! Feeling very lucky and very relieved, I got my bag, went up the elevator and went to my room.

I worked hard on the software and alternated watching the Broncos game while tests ran. The game ended, and I was watching it for the last minute – the best part of the game. I continued the testing and tweaking until 11 or so, then went to bed. Next morning I went early to the conference room and got in a little more work before the seminar started. Class went well, I learned a lot, and went to the social event that evening. After that I finished up the work, got the by-now-wonderful changes committed and went to sleep. Between the intensity of my attention on the development and all the learning about my business, my head was full, and I woke up fully awake after 3 hours or so of sleep. I eventually took some benadryl to get back to sleep, since I hadn’t had much sleep the past few days.

The Comedy of Travel Errors Gets Deeper

I woke up more than a bit fuzzy-headed from the benadryl, packed my bags to check out, and went to go find my car. I could not find the area of the garage where my car was even though I’d written the space number. So, I asked the valet guy if he could find it for me. He took my keys and reported back that he couldn’t find it either. In the meantime, I’d quickly ran back up to my room to get my backpack, since class was now about to start, and I hadn’t allocated all this extra time to find my car. The cleaning crew was there, so I went in and got my backpack. When I got back downstairs, I checked out, and shortly afterwards realized I didn’t have my wallet. I’d left it in my room – the room I’d now checked out of. So I ran back up again, and the cleaning lady recognized me, and I got my wallet, and went to class – feeling more than a bit stressed.

I got a lot out of the seminar, and put off thinking about my car until lunch. At lunch I went back down to talk to the valet guy. He found it – but the battery was dead. When I found my phone (while lost in development-space in my mind), I’d been so happy that I forgot to roll the window back up or turn off the dome light. The car was locked – window down – and dome light on. So, he kindly called a free Beaver Creek jump service and I got the car going. Needless to say the valet guy got a good tip! I drove down the interstate for a few miles then came back. I’d missed lunch, but boy did I feel better! I had my wallet back, I had my car back, and it started and ran. Life was good!

And I lived Happily Ever After – at least for a while

During the last part of the retreat, I had several really good ideas for what to do in the business, and Tommi laughed and said if that’s what it took to get my thoughts stewing, that maybe I should lose my car more often! ;-). I’m not sure I’m ready for that, but I definitely am looking forward to carrying out the ideas I came out with from Tommi’s seminar – and I hope you’ll eventually enjoy the results in the Assimilation Suite as well.