Working in =
Detroit. Rain, rain, and more rain.
I dashed to =
the rental car drop off, to the shuttle, and to the airport only to find =
out from an airline ticket representative that my return flight was one =
hour late.
As I cleared =
security, the progress of my flight went from one hour, then two hours, =
then three hours, then four hours late departing. I learned about these =
delays from the announcements given by a weary airline gate agent. =
It became =
clear that I was going to miss my connecting flight home. After =
minute-by-minute travel rearrangements, and knowing that I had to =
deliver a web-based training the next morning back home, my son decided =
to drive the three hours to the hub airport, fetch me, and drive me =
back.
We arrived =
home at 4:30 am. Funny what dreams you have when your Starbucks frequent =
drinker card gets punched all the way through in 24 hours. I napped a =
couple of hours, made coffee, logged on to the internet conference site =
for my training, and waited and waited and =
waited.
It is lonely =
at a web-based live meeting training when no one logs in. Do you know =
why they didn’t log in? Because I had actually scheduled the training =
for the next day, not this day that we had raced home to await. I had a =
brain freeze and remembered the last weekday I worked with this group =
and that just stuck.
I worried =
about telling my son that he had lost hours of sleep, driven through a =
storm to raise Noah’s ark, and road construction to get me home 24 hours =
early for a training. But the phone eventually rang as he called from =
work and it was time to own up.
What do you =
think he said? What would you have said to this old, forgetful =
dad?
Would you have =
scolded? Yelled? Teased? Post a berating meme on Facebook? Would you =
text all of your friends and let them know? I might say nothing but put =
the incident in a mental "debit" column, ready to trot out the =
offense at the next opportune time.
Well, his =
response to finding out that he had driven almost 400 miles round trip =
in the rain, construction, and fatigue-time of the night in order to get =
me home a day early was a slight chuckle and this comment, "Hey, =
Dad. The important thing is you are home."
I love my =
son.
~~
Dr Bob Griffin =
[email protected] =
www.grif.net
"Jesus =
Knows Me, This I Love!"