The Dobrindt Family

Goodbye Delta, it's over

Ok Delta, I give up. You win. Here is the towel. I am done with you.

As you know, I am not happy with Song, your low fare carrier. I am going to spare you the verbal beating you so very much deserve because I simply don?t have the energy. Plus when someone stops caring, they stop arguing.

Here is why I have finally quit caring. First, I have to fight my way through your reservation system to get a seating zone that will allow me to store my one small pull bag next to the thousands of make shift travel bags the Disney crowd try to shove in the overhead compartment. I pay 4 times the price of your advertised fare and there is nothing I get for it. I, as a preferred traveler, do not even get to board the plane first because with Song, frequent traveler status means as much as me telling you I am the king of Milton.

So last Monday morning, there I was, sitting on your plane, helping people find row three, seats A, B and C because after all, a 3 looks like a 4 and if they are sitting in row 4 but have row 3 seats, it does take a lot of mental concentration to figure out that you in fact have to get up and move to your assigned seat. And sitting next to me is a large guy with his little kid. In the row behind us is the guy?s wife with their other two kids. It was obvious that it was the first time they traveled in a long time because two of the three kids, probably around 7 or 8, were pretty excited about ?going into the sky?. But the family was taking pictures, and talking to each other like they were back in their basement family room shouting up to the kitchen to bring down more Mountain Dew. This nice little family had not a care in the world, or concern in the world for other passengers, God love them. They were shouting away, me next to the guy, from one row to another. So cute. So I guess the guy got up and asked the flight attendant something that she thought was cute, like ?my kids are so excited about being in an airplane, can you just cry? because before I knew it, the flight attendant brought over two free roundtrip tickets anywhere Song flies, and gave them to this guy. I am not joking. Wish I were, but not. She said that Song is having a promotion and that if you fly once every 10 years, on really cheap seats, and are oblivious to others around you, Delta will reward you with free stuff.

Now as you can imagine, I was delighted. I got up, high-fived the guy, hugged the flight attendant, and got on the PA to announce the good fortune to the rest of the plane. Then I proceeded to pour scolding hot coffee in my eyes to scale down the pain I was feeling inside. ARE YOU KIDDING ME.? Not only do I get the shaft from you, but you throw it in my face by giving a free ticket to someone, wait, two free tickets, to someone who NEVER TRAVELS. I asked to be bumped from Silver to Gold and you tell me to pound sand. And you turn around and give this guy and his family, who you KNOW bought the seats at a super cheap rate, FREE TICKETS. Sweet mercy I was ticked. Did I mention that my seat was broken so I had to sit with my stomach clenched so the stupid thing did not keep reclining on its own? That was fun. A little stomach exercise at 8 in the morning for 3 hours.

Oh, one other thing. When I call the normal number and the idiots working there can?t talk to me because I am Silver Medallion, you should try to implement a system that 1) won?t make me put in my sky miles number again and 2) WILL NOT HANG UP ON ME YOU IDIOTS. I can?t confirm this, but I am pretty sure there are magical phone systems that route calls to the proper group without requiring the caller to do it HIMSELF.

Anyway, I am glad for that guy and his wife. Just because I am bitter and sour doesn?t mean he has to be. He was very nice to me and I can?t fault him for his enthusiasm for going on vacation. Heck, if I were taking my family for 10 days to Disney, I would be pretty jazzed too. But I can fault you, Delta, for throwing in my face the fact that I travel every week, pay a lot of money to do so and get zero preferential treatment for it. You, Delta, Song, or whoever you are, should be ashamed of yourself and your stupid gimmicks. Instead of having a promotion to reward people who seldom fly, how about having a promotion to reward those of us who have no choice.

Grandma's Marathon

Patti?s Uncle Tim ran the well known <a href="http://www.grandmasmarathon.com/" target=_blank>Grandma?s Marathon </a> last weekend in <a href="http://www.visitduluth.com/" target=_blank>Duluth, </a> <a href="http://www.duluth.com/" target=_blank>Minnesota. </a> Here is a snippet of a conversation.

<u>Tim</u>: I finished the race yesterday.

<u>Me</u>: Congrats. How did you do?

<u>Tim</u>: I came in 9th in of the 65 and older group.

<u>Me</u>: Aren't you 44?

Hey Red Sox fans, a question for you

Interesting. June 16th and the Red Sox are 4 and a half games out. My friend Uncle Billy said that the Yanks would be up by 6 games in mid July. Looks like it might be before that. All the nonsense I have been hearing so far, our pitching is great, wait until Nomar gets back, we have a real closer, THIS IS OUR YEAR. And that was all before a single game had been played. And now this. A couple of losses, the Yanks win in crazy ways, and things are not looking so bright. Good times in Bean town, good times. Little Pettie started pitching well and now all is right with the world. The goon finally found his stinker, sorry, sinker, ball and all is right with the world. Ortiz, who I actually like, signed a contract and all is right with the world.

Hey Sox Nation, let me ask you a question. Deep down inside, down where no one is able to get to, down inside your heart where there is a black crevice, where you no longer turn to for moral guidance, ask this question. Do you really think the Sox will win the World Series? Oh sure, you can say all you want. You can hope and pray and posture in front of your friends while drunk at your Somerville parties. You can send emails while at work and post comments on blogs, but do you really think so? Do you? You know that deep down inside President Clinton knew what he was doing with that intern was wrong despite what he tells everyone. And so you, Sox fan, know you have no chance. Do you really think they will win it all? No. Of course not. You know it and I know it. Stop this nonsense and be honest with yourself and others. It?s not going to happen and your pathetic and sad display of confidence will never change that.

Movie quotes to describe my job

There are a couple of ways to accurately describe my profession. For those who do not know me, I am a management consultant. Some of those descriptions are

- Late nights
- Early mornings
- Aisle seats and 3rd in line to take off
- Fatty foods and nice restaurants
- Coffee, vending machines and alcohol. Lots of alcohol
- Stress

But in the bizzaro world I live in, I think of things in terms of songs and movie quotes. Not sure what song would best describe my job, but two movie quotes come to mind (with words I changed in <i>italics</i>).

1 - I have more responsibility here than you could possibly fathom. You weep for your <i>invoices</i>, and you curse the <i>consultants</i>. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That those <i>invoices</i>, while tragic, probably saved lives. And that my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. I know deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you don't want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent <i>consulting</i>. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of <i>professional services </i>I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it. I prefer you said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a <i>plane ticket</i>, and stand to post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

2 - This was a great man -- a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a PLAQUE, or a SIGNPOST, or a STATUE of him in that town. Someone <i>threw him under the bus</i>. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry. I knew him; I knew he was headstrong -- talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he was <i>thrown under the bus </i>-- I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen! I didn't ask who gave the order, BECAUSE IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH BUSINESS!!

The Stepford Wives

I remember seeing the original <a href=" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073747/" target=_blank>Stepford Wives </a> in the movie theater while on a date. Just joking. I was only 4 when it came out.

But I did see the original version of The Stepford Wives years ago. It was called a horror.

I want to see the<a href=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327162/ target=_blank> remake </a>. They are calling it a dark comedy.

I call it ?hope?.

Quick update

I know I haven?t written much lately. I really do want to comment on Reagan, the Stepford Wives, the Sox and Yankees, my current project, the state of my pregnant wife, funny things about my daughter, and Ray Charles. But I have been pretty much full out with little mental capacity for anything other than sleep. Stay tuned, things will be changing.

Memorial Day 2004

Monday night at midnight I was on an empty Hertz courtesy bus going from Orlando airport to pick up my rental car to drive ? hour to a hotel. I pretty much spent the day, Memorial Day, in transit. I started the day in the Hamptons NY where I was driven to Orient Point where I took a Ferry to New London where I took Amrak to Boston where I drove to my house where I packed a bag and then drove to Logan where I flew, at 8:30PM, to Orlando.

As I was staring out the window of the Hertz bus, thinking about being in the Hamptons, my thoughts kept turning to how perfect the day started. I spent the first half hour of the day in bed with my wife and daughter watching cartoons. Without a care in the world. Except for this crazy cartoon dragon and these two little Spanish kids. There is nothing that could have made a better start to the day.