New York State Of Whine

Another business trip, another cruddy city. Never had the desire to visit Buffalo, NY, ever. Wouldn't be here now if it weren't for my job. All of my life I've heard that Buffalo was one of the worst cities in the world, especially in the winter time. I can vouch for it now.

So, I arrive on Monday evening and it was 10 degrees with a "feels like" of 0. I stood outside of the airport waiting on the hotel shuttle service for an hour. I was so cold I thought my ears had fallen off. All I could think of was my wife telling me I should pack a toboggan and me laughing and saying, "nah." This morning it was 3 degrees with a feels like of minus 7... nice.

I've also always heard "the people up in Buffalo don't have problems with the snow, it's just like anther day to them and it doesn't stop them from doing anything." WRONG! That is a huge lie. Ever since I got here all everyone is talking about is how bad the weather is and how bad the snow is and how they hate driving in this stuff. Traffic crawls at a snails pace. Schools are closed, businesses are closed, and everyone has told me, "you picked a bad time to come up here." You think? So dispel those rumours that Buffalo folks have no problems with the snow. They ain't no different than we are. The only real difference I have seen is there aren't any backer spittin' rednecks in big 4-wheel drive trucks flying down the middle of the road and tailgating folks like there is in Tennessee when it snows.

On the plus side, my hotel room is fantastic! There are 2 Queen sized beds (only need one but I think I'll sleep in both of them while I'm here), fireplace, big screen TV, full-sized fridge, dishwasher, stove, desk, couch, chair, huge bathroom, etc... it is almost as big as my house! There is about 2-feet of snow outside of my room so I ain't doing much outside. I would go out and build a snowman but I don't want to die. I'm also one night stay away from achieving Gold Status.

I've had to extend my stay an additonal night because of issues at the customer's site. Speaking of that... the customer site is pretty far from my hotel and I have to call a taxi to get back and forth. It costs $41.00 one way. I've already spent over $100 dollars just in ground transportation and will most likely spend $100 more before it's over with. I found out today why there was no Marriott's near the customer site, it's right smack dab in the middle of crack town. I had no idea until the taxi driver asked me if I knew what part of town I was in? He informed me that most of the drug dealing and drug houses were there where he was dropping me off at. That made me feel real good...

So, there you have it, my New York state of whine...