Wednesday

Live from Chicago...fingernail scratching on the blackboard.

The conference is at The Fairmont near Millennium Park in downtown C-town.  With 500+ attendees, I'm not sure that this place is the best facility for the program.  They've had to utilize rooms on the lower level and on the second level (with the hotel lobby on the first  level), and don't have full coffee/soft drink services on the second level (where I have spent the entire morning).  But it's a high-end place and well-located.  We'll see how my attention-span holds up over the next 30 hours.

I elected to drive in last night and stay at a lower-priced hotel a little North from here.  In the past, I've done a variety of things for downtown seminars, all driven by time, costs, and hassle factors.  Maybe leave early AM from Iowa, knowing that I would have traffic and would likely miss at least the first session.  I've often driven in the night before, but stayed at a suburban location (for a much cheaper rate), and then left early for The Loop from the out-lying hotel, like 0545 or so, to beat most of the traffic.

I haven't stayed downtown much because of the hotel and parking rates.  But traffic is a huge dis-incentive, and I chose this time to pay the fees and avoid the most acute stresses of travel.  Its not much of a stretch to state that my parking fees per day could alone approach the rates at a discount hotel in Oakbrook. Ouch! (I did save a few bucks by not doing valet parking and having to tip the attendant.)

The program is training for various service providers to retirement plans sponsored by businesses.  The combination of Federal laws and regulations, and the private litigation environment (this is not so new!), gives consultants, investment advisors, third party administrators and data processors lots of incentives to develop definitive CYA procedures.  As an old f**t, and getting older, it makes me wish that I had hit the lotto a while back so that I could leave these battles for others to wage.

The run with 2 and The Winniferous last night wasn't too bad.  Far from easy.  I've been pretty good about getting in 4 runs per week, but I need to be looking at extending the Sunday distance this week or next.  The Trot is 49 days from tomorrow.

I'll add more here later.

BCOT