Cursed weather! Apparently it doesn't matter if you're in Chicago, New York, Kentucky or Florida, the weather will find you and fulfill the Murphy's Law you worked so hard to thwart.
This is the fifth year of our Winter Circuit Tour, and the first year I actually got to bed before 3 am the night before leaving. In fact, I was so prepared I was able to sign off in time to enjoy dinner with friends before I disappeared for a week. Everything was going smoothly, all events occurring in accordance to the Master Plan. Unfortunately, said Master Plan incorrectly assumed the weather would cooperate.
Against all odds we (myself and new Exchange Assistant Tina) made one of the last flights out of Chicago before the airport shut down on Tuesday. Unfortunately, our valued media (ie: The Exchange Video Catalog), which was entrusted to UPS for overnight shipping to Florida on Monday, was not so lucky.
Consider yourself lucky this blog entry isn't entirely devoted to my intense hatred for UPS right now. If I thought it would do any good to plaster my experience across the internet I would do so, but I harbor no illusions that the three day delay of our little 30 lb box, which meant the world to us, matters at all to them. Or that my tale would influence the operating decisions made behind closed doors on the umpteenth floor of some sheik big city skyscraper. But somehow, someway, our little box, placed on a UPS truck on Monday at 4pm for overnight delivery to Florida, did not make it out in time to beat the snowstorm that brought the midwest to a standstill at 10 am on Tuesday.
But we did. So in Ocala we arrive, only to learn that our distribution materials did not. Wednesday is more of the same, our little box is stuck in Kentucky, and now the whole eastern seaboard is shut down. Add to that, it's a whopping 37 degrees when we emerge from our hotel room in Ocala Wednesday morning, and I make a mental note to schedule this trip for the third week in February next year.
Multiple phone calls and several refreshes to the UPS tracking page later it's now Thursday and all signs point to further delay. I begin tallying the hotel and car rental fees for these two useless days and grow increasingly furious. We are scheduled in Wellington for Thursday, where we have 14 horses showing and several clients to meet with, yet we cannot move onto that location until the media arrives at this one. UPS has not updated our tracking in over 24 hours (despite their claim it is policy to do so), and still shows our package in Kentucky. I have all but given up hope when finally, in a desperate refresh before I slam my laptop shut and head to the show to mill around aimlessly, the page suddenly claims "Delivered!"
Okay, so this post IS basically about my intense hatred for UPS right now, but only because I've run out of time to add more to it. Check back for more Florida tales and a slew of pictures from the trip, there's a lot to catch up on! I'll try to get writing while the memories are still nice and fresh :)
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