A Paragon of Confidence

Up early.  Rather ready.  I’ve got to be there in two hours.  It will take an hour and say, five minutes to get there.  So I’m fine.  I order my cab, he comes on time.  I’m in my cab, I write all the other people to ask:  “Are you on your way?”  Because even though its 7:30, I’m already en route or our 9:00AM meeting. 

One person writes back.  “Yes, looking for cab.”  “I see.  OK.  Let me know if you have any issues”, I thumb, a paragon of confidence.   Another says he will be on the way shortly.  I notice that I’m behaving this way as I pull up on Gaobai Road to some impenetrable traffic.  What’s this?   I have a look at the drivers GPS and then my own.  There is a solid red line all the way up to the high way entrance, some three kilometers on from here. Cars try to advance in the oncoming traffic lane.  Everyone is more important than everyone else.  The time I’d imagined as productive is spent in the moment, fretting, minute after minute.  Nearly three quarters of an hour later we discerned that a broken traffic light was the cause of the problem.

The one hour trip took two.  All my early preparation, and preparedness  was wasted.  Now people began to write back.  “We’re arriving.  We’re here.  “Where are you?”  A long, long way off.  Please, start the meeting without me.  I'll send you the lady's number.  I’ll let you know when I arrive.  I told the cab driver if I had been ten minutes late it would be embarrassing.  Forty-five minutes late . . . that is just a joke. 

This driver was reasonable.  Someone you could laugh with.  After lunch, on our way to the next meeting, we had a driver who you could laugh at.  He set off confidently enough and took us to the wrong place.  We renamed the company tower we were heading to.  "Who?''As though someone in San Francisco said:  "Twitter?  What the hell's a Twitter?"  The driver did not know of this company or their tower.   I put him on the phone with someone who was already at the location.  He yelled.  He yelled again.  He yelled again much louder into the phone.  Then he turn and quietly ask me, “where are we going?”  These guests were one part amused, one part shocked and there wasn’t really much of anything to do about it.

Eventually, I suggested he simply pull over please, right here.  He was going around in circles that could be more profitably traversed on foot. 

Friday, 9/29/17