Quebec Customer Event

The first full day of my trip and the day of my customer event must have been enough excitement to get me up early. Way too early. But in a twist of fate, I left too late. I was playing on my phone, covering off my daily routine and also getting some of the tools ready for the day at hand. Because there are no breakfast buffets anymore, a tragic loss in the midst of the virus, I had to stop for a McBreakfast. The ordering was much more complicated than back home where I am essentially a professional at ordering breakfast. I was able to cobble together enough of my French to make it happen and continually agreed to any further statement that included the word bacon. They could have charged me six times the price and I wouldn’t have noticed. Something I was scared of happening in the moment, more that I’d ordered six meals. I got to the site ahead of everyone and got the lay of the land. In a normal year I’d have come a day sooner and done this and taken all my own notes to be freed up to chat and gab more with customers. As it was I was going to be as much on the clock as they were. This meant that I would be noticeably less engaged with them than in year past. Singular because this is but my second round. The engagement I did have was with an earpiece in my ear participating in another day of my Quarterly Licensing meeting which ran from ten in the morning until six in the evening with only three stoppages. As the morning progressed and the rain finally filtered off I started to chat some more with customers. We had some good conversation and questions. A few folks were fast and gone in a couple of hours. Others were really taking their time and getting strong notes on everything. Around half noon I headed to the building to enjoy a serious ribeye steak, part of the special lunch the local MDR put on for Brack and I. There were some salads as well. It was pretty fantastic. The last couple of people working through their notes stopped off to say goodbye and thank us for the opportunity. When only one remained I headed to the field to continue my own evaluation of products. I had to stop after only a couple of hours to power up my devices. The power bank that I had brought to keep my afloat was non-functional. It was just ahead of this that I had a fall. I’ll provide some minor detail. There was a deep ditch to cross to get between crops. I started to descend the bank and realized partway down that there was a lot more water in the bottom than I bargained for. I would have to leap about three feet to the other bank with no guarantee of solid footing. I decied after a few seconds of frozen deliberation to ascend and walk around. In those few precious seconds of hesitation my feet slid out from under me down the bank towards the water. I didn’t get wet but it was enough to make a minor grass stain on my right knee. The real damage was that I had finally adjusted the cord on the power bank to the point that it was working and I had been holding things perfectly still to allow the flow of the stored power into my phone. The jolt of crashing down on my chest was enough to disrupt said flow and make for some frustration. I decided then that I would be shopping for a new power bank. I got across to the other side and sitting in my truck for forty minutes I gave my hastily prepared update to the group still on the phone, recall that the meeting was still going on Mountain time. I probably couldn’t have given a less engaging update if I tried. I hoped that providing more insight into what it is that I do and some of the wins that I’ve found this year would make things easier for the rest of the team but more likely it was just of interest to me. Part of why I did it was to let them know that I’d made changes to a communal tool so they wouldn’t be surprised later. It was lame. I kept going on notes until nearly dark at which time I gathered up the flags that were set out in the morning and returned them to the building. I couldn’t get in so I put them where they’d get noticed. I had artfully arranged against the door but felt that the wind would have knocked them over anyways so didn’t bother with my display. I hustled back to the hotel, met up with Brack and we had a quiet meal at the lobby restaurant again and we both decided to head to our rooms early. Sleep came quickly afterwards.