(Written Friday…)

I’m back. Back in a tin can, with Vegas back in the desert dust and depression. The title of this post is a great line from Wilco’s “How to Fight Loneliness,” the first song to pop from mypod on the flight home. The APA show was good for me. It was great to chat with many of our customers. They are so hungry for that dialogue… that relationship. I’ll do it again next month at the SHRM show and I’ll be better prepared after this weeks experience.

As for off-hours observations, the first is that smoking is allowed in the casinos and you have to navigate them to get to the conference center, restaurants, etc… There’s no avoiding the maze of craps and cards and it’s 24/7. One morning I walked down in search of caffeine. I was darkened by the drooping dropping ashes into cups detained desperately by one armed dreamers downing one more drink… It was 6:30am.

Still, I do love the fakeness of it all. Fake skies, fake cities, fake tits (not that there’s anything wrong with that…), fake love and fake Elvi… Depraved Disney.

Just today the whole Memorial Day thing dawned on me. It also occurs to me I have no plans at all. I’m sure I’ll take the boy to see “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Hey, maybe it’s at the local Drive-In. I hear it’s hot back home.

Update: The tech support folks at the basketball hoop manufacturer responded to my plea with a possible solution to the “This step cannot be reversed” quandary:

“You will need to make sure that there isn’t any hardware on the poles, take a piece of cardboard or a blanket and place it on your driveway, kneel down and hold the pole horizontal (flat) about waist high while you are kneeling, you will then drop the pole from waist high onto the blanket or piece of cardboard about 50-60 times and the vibration should release the poles.”

I guess I do have plans.