Conference Meltdown: Guest post by South County Boy

Breakfast call from dad!

In a rare blogging first, Hubs would like to feature a post on the blog! You seen his mug all the time playing with little dude, and while he generally leaves the blog, posts, content, and writing all to me, after his conference fiasco, he wanted to share his stream of consciousness with you.  

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Hello there everyone! South County (Boy?) here for a change. I wanted to share with you all how I  survived my very first work conference down in San Diego.

It was a 3-day conference for training in various electrical areas that I need some base knowledge in... and I have been basically begging my boss to send me to for the last 3 years. He has been promising to send me to training's since Booger Bear (Little Dude) was 6 months old, but has kept on, let's say "forgetting."

We had a bit of work drama going on in October and November when my boss hired a new girl at work that basically lied about her qualifications, and instead of getting rid of her as soon as possible, he kept her on to see if he could at least get her trained up to a usable level. During this time, the new hire "accidentally" left her pay stub up on the computer screen when she left the office and EVERYONE was able to see it (the digital pay sheet is VERY recognizable). It very quickly became apparent that she was getting paid even more than the SENIOR member of the team that has been there for 37 years. Needless to say this brought on more than a few issues between everyone and she ended up getting fired in short manner when she started lashing out at other team members to try and justify her being there.

During the whole process of her getting fired, the boss had to call in each team member and basically listen to them complain and yell at him for everything that went on. When he called me into his office (I was the only one not to go in there and rant to my personal credit) and after confirming her under performance, I brought up the fact that he STILL hadn't sent me on a single training despite promises to do so over the past 3 years.

Well, the boss man decided to take a jump on this because this was something that he could actually do something about in the aftermath of her leaving. Two days later I got an email from him telling me to sign up for this 3-day training in San Diego. We would upfront the cost of accommodations and meals and the company would reimburse us in a week or two after I returned.

So Fast forward to the morning of the conference. I am up at 4:30 a.m. so I can drive down for the first day before I get my hotel room for two nights. I'm about 25 miles away when my car starts going haywire. My battery light had been going on and off for a little while now, and while I knew this wasn't good, I thought it would, at least, be okay to get me to the training because the light wasn't staying on the whole time. We'll call it a flicker.

Anyway, my RPM dial died... then my gas gauge... and then the radio... and all the lights. 

Needless to say I got off the freeway as fast as I could and parked the car before I did anymore damage. After calling the wife (cause she's the brain of the operation), I called the State Farm Roadside Assistance line (best 3 dollars a year ever) and told them what was going on. They called up a tow company and said that they would be there in an hour to tow me to the closest mechanic (1 stinkin mile away).

I waited about 45-minutes and I get a call that they had an emergency call (probably a car stuck on the actual freeway) and that they would be delayed by about 30 minutes...

45-minutes later I call back State Farm and they call the dispatcher and tell me that it will be about another 30 minutes now before they can get to me.

All in all it took me THREE stinkin hours before the tow truck was able to come and get me.

They took me down the road to the mechanic and he agreed that it was probably the alternator and that they would put my car first on the docket for the day. He called up Hertz for me and they came and picked me up and I was able to get a rental car without too much trouble. 

So, I was off! I was able to drive down and get to my training, and I was only three and a half hours late, thankfully a colleague of mine told me a lot of what I missed was base knowledge that I already had...  but it still kind of sucked that I missed it.

The packet they gave me covered everything that they talked about, just not with all of the demonstrations and in depth knowledge that comes from people asking questions. I enjoyed the rest of the day, and I ended up getting a call from the mechanic at about 2 o'clock telling me that, yes it was the alternator, and it took this long to diagnose because they had to charge up my battery first because I had run it down quite a bit since the alternator was dead. It would take an hour to change it out and it would cost $400.

At this point I am happier than happy because this means that Sally (The Ford Escourt) has not died her last death. I am also more than a little happy that my car will be ready today because I REALLY do not like driving the rental car. Not because it's a crappy model or anything but because I always over worry about other drivers wrecking into me and leaving me on the hook for a car I don't even own. (I know that's what insurance is for, but like I said, I over worry).

So we get out of training a little early and I start booking it up to the mechanic since he was going to close at 5 p.m. and it's just a little after 4 p.m. at this point.

Let me be honest, I was booking it...  the Nissan Altima that I was driving really had some nice get up and go. As I was getting through traffic,  I called the mechanic to let him know that I was on my way. I continued driving and just when as i'm about 2 miles away from the exit I need to take, I get a call back from the mechanic.

Dad playing with face filters to make little dude smile

(Wanna guess what they said? I'll give you a hint, it's bad........)

He tells me that in the process of pulling my car out front, the battery light turned back on...........

The alternator that they had put in was defective........

Turns out that it was    just      good enough to pass the test drive, but that was it........

So I am feeling really dejected at this point and just end up turning around so that I can drive back down south and get to my hotel room. On day two I get the call from the mechanic that the car is actually ready this time, so I left for lunch a little early and I was able to get on up there, pay for the car, drive up to Hertz, and convince them to give me a ride on back to the mechanic so I could drive "Sally" back.

As I got back on the freeway, I almost immediately got in trouble because I was too used to all the punch that the other car was able to give, that Sally isn't able to..... But I survived the work conference in one piece.

I also learned a lesson about hotels... go with the "conference" recommended hotel. I ended up with crappy wifi, a worthless "tap water" warm hot tub, and air planes buzzing overhead till 9 p.m. all because I chose an $80 a night hotel instead of a $180 hotel. The wifi was what really bugged me. Made video chatting with Little Dude more difficult.


Conference Expenses: 
$189.78 (Hotel)
$6.99 (Breakfast Day one)
$31.00 (Dinner Night one)
$32.73 (Rental Car) -- We think work is going to reimburse 
$7.54 (Snacks)
$29 (Dinner night two)
$11.30 (Dinner night three)
$13.52 (Rental Car Gas)

$321.86 + Mileage on my car to be reimbursed.

#388.95 (Car Repair) -- This we will have to pay.. I joked with my boss about expensing it, but alas, "pre-existing condition."