companions

when driving somewhere it is important to choose your companion wisely. I think we all know this, but I' can't drive this point home enough. this week my driving companion's name was bob (not to be confused with my brother bob who is obviously awesome).

bob, to his credit was very funny and a very good speaker. I asked him to come out to MA from IL to do some seminars for me, and he was happy to oblige. as a presenter he was well received and generally impressed the right people. in addition, he was also fond of ice cream and mercedes.

he came out on Monday and got lost driving from the airport to his hotel. (severely lost) and well its just not that tough. Tuesday I picked him up and I drove us out to our appointment. much to my liking he went on and on about how much he loved the forester and how great it is. on wednesday he drove the rental car to the cape cod bridge which is an hour away on a major highway....during rush hour traffic....at 50 mph. I figured we would be run off the road by an angry commuter and this was exasperated by his rental car's NY license plates. we met up with a broker of mine- who drove in good MA form- freakin' fast down rt 6 and back up again all the while talking about catholics and politics, like a good Irish boy should.

that brings us to this morning where I met bob and we headed in to boston, which was interesting at best. he doesn't do toll booths so well. gets confused about the fast lane. is kind of spastic and switches lanes frequently, but slowly. remember bob rarely goes over 60...ever. after getting off the highway we got into downtown and hit some traffic (not much) but he was convinced it was basically the end of the world. we parked and he was convinced that the garage was much too low and that the car was going to hit the ceiling. this, despite the fact that we had already cleared the sign at the beginning and there were many larger vehicles parked on either side. his remedy for this was to duck his own head down while driving, as if that would somehow make the car shorter. I can tell you definitively that it doesn't.

our appointment ran over time as the crowd had many questions to ask him. this was good except I was taking taking the train back to the office and had a schedule to keep. bob didn't care. his flight wasn't until after 5pm. we walked out of the building and I said a rushed and hurried goodbye to bob, and then ran to catch my train relived that he would be my driving companion no more.

bob, you're a good guy, a great speaker, but a terrible driver......