Interruption...and Again

There has been an interruption in my blogging and will be another.

I went to New York City early Sunday [January 15] morning (the same day Michelle Bachalet was elected president of Chile, I am pleased to say). When I arrived, I went straight to the Jacob Javits Convention Center to put up an exhibit booth, after which my colleague and I grabbed a cab for the very short ride to our hotel. Unfortunately, I was in a rush to get out of the taxi and managed to leave my computer and digital camera in the back seat. I realized what I had done before I had even opened the door to the hotel, but by then the taxi had sped away. For the next two days, I searched and searched...called Taxi Licensing Commission, visited with several cops, called the police precinct where lost items are supposed to be delivered by cabbies, etc., etc., etc.

Fortunately, the receipt for the cab included the medallion number for the cab, but the Taxi Licensing Commission was closed Sunday & Monday (Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday) and on Monday I spent hours trying to get hold of the driver. The police precinct reported that no notebook computers had been turned in.

Last night, I left a message for the cabbie...after getting bad phone numbers for him. I asked him to call me in my hotel. No return call when I awoke at 4:30 am, so I called and left a threatening message, saying I knew who he was, I had filed a police report, and I was going to do everything in my power to find him. He called back just as I was boarding my flight back to Dallas. I asked him to send my computer and camera back to me via Fed-Ex and told him I would call him later in the day with my Fed-Ex number. I did that, but then he started in on me, saying he did not believe the computer was mine. This conversation lasted quite a long time, and I was proud of myself for keeping my cool and not threatening to kill him and his family. Finally, he agreed to send it back to. He called later to say it was on its way. I only hope it really is. I wanted to get the tracking number, but his English was so poor that I could not understand much of what he said and vice versa.

I won't know whether it was returned until tomorrow afternoon, when I call back to the office from Long Beach, CA, where I am going for another trade show.

I won't have access to a computer, so will not be writing...but will be keeping my brief notes so that, if anything interesting happens, I can write about them with some degree of accuracy.

Finally, tonight, I must say of my trip from LaGuardia airport to the convention center on Sunday...it was frightening. I truly loathe cabbies who work hard to get me to wet my pants by playing aggressive, high-speed, high-stakes games of "Chicken" with large tanker trucks full of gasoline. I must say, too, that the New York City Police Department has some civilian employees in the Mid-South station who should be euthanized for the good of society. I must say, finally, that the New York Taxi Licensing Commission is tied with the Mid-South police precinct for having the most obnoxious, unintelligent, knuckle-dragging morons as customer service staff personnel.

More to come when I have access to a computer...now, it's time to wash clothes and repack.