back on the road again (next week)

hotlanta & charlotte back2back

will be flying out of the city once again next week. should be better though coz its going to be longer than that 12-hour quick trip to chicago few mondays back. ill be flying out to charlotte, north carolina and atlanta, georgia back to back from tuesday PM til friday. will be there to test some of the commercial ideas we have. should be a nice little trip especially that i dont remember having been to those cities before. only major drawback is that a friend's flying over from malaysia next week and i obviously wont be able to spend as much time with her as i had expected. but anyway, the few days out should be a great opportunity to be exposed to other people's thinking.

the other night was a great treat as well as i had the pleasure of riding one of the nicest quick drive home ever. got done close to 9PM from work so i decided to call in the black car service to drive me home. the chauffer was great. in the short 20 minutes with him, i got to hear more stories than id heard the rest of the day. he's a retired teacher. spent 33 years teaching. new to driving in a car service biz but he drove a cab for a bit. he's an italian but grew up new yorker. he thought pacheco was either spanish or italian. he thinks my english is good, with no accent whatsoever. if ever there is, might be new yawker. visits italy every summer. his dad lives there in florence. he's a war veteran. loves history. has 2 children. 1 from cornell, 1 from columbia. son's just about to graduate college and wants to take up law. he doesnt want him to though. bribes him with a car but doesnt seem to be working. in the 60's, there was a product called a pet rock. worse, 5 years after, there were even rock veterinarians. in italy, there was a time they sold canned air. then there was bat manure for sale as well. he thinks france is all messed up nowadays. i agree. amidst all the turmoil, chirac eats his escargot. oops, there goes my corner. i get dropped off. quite appreciative of the nice ride home after an extended stay at work. looks like ill be wanting to stay later more often just to be driven back home by the same great guy.

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witnessed an accident on the intersection where i got dropped off. very loud thud and i immediately look towards the noise. a taxi beat the red light and slams onto a car's side. the car spins 180. fortunately no one was hurt.