As usual I woke up at 6am and still had trouble getting out of the hotel before 8am. Yesterday had been a lot cooler than what I had been used to over the last couple of weeks. But today was even worse. It was in the high 40s (while New York was in the 60s!) and raining. As I turned the key in the ignition of the car, it began to warn me that the tire pressure was too low. I checked all the tires. Three were at 30 and the right front tire was at 26. I wasn't going to risk taking this on a 65 mph road. This was the worst possible time for this to happen. The sessions I was looking forward to the most (search engine optimization, customer conversion, and Facebook applications powered by Drupal) were happening that morning. I knew I would miss the search engine optimization session while this problem was resolved but hoped I could catch the other two.
The hotel clerk recommended Sears as the closest place to deal with tire problems. This particular Sears had an Avis rental office right next door. I probably should have just began the process of swapping the vehicle right then and there. But, I figured if I could just have Sears fix the problem it would be easier. After an hour, they came back and told me the rim had a problem and would not hold air. The mechanic urged me to get it swapped at Avis since I was going to be driving across the country to get home.
I was frustrated with this at first. I had gotten used to the car and didn't feel like going through the trouble of moving my stuff from one car to another. However, I should be thankful to God that it happened in San Francisco rather than in an area without a major airport. I could be faced with not having a car to swap out without going out of the way (e.g. having to go to Las Vegas, Portland, Spokane, Seattle, Reno, or Salt Lake City). The problem could have occurred in some place where cell phone service was not available too.
One hour down, and I was now cutting into the time for the second session. When I went to the Avis office, the clerk informed me that she had no cars and directed me to the San Francisco Airport. Her directions did not work and neither did those from the GPS. So, it took about a half hour to get to the airport when it was really only about ten minutes away. As I approached the airport, I remembered that when swapping a car (or returning it), the gas tank must be at full. Of course, being right near the airport, the gas stations gouge. I paid $3.49/gallon. Elsewhere, gas could be found for $3.29/gallon.
When I got to the airport, I had to drive the car to the return area first. An attendant took the car information but seemed unconcerned about the rim problem. For me, it's important that they actually fix this rather than just clean the car and send it on its way. Since it has a New York license plate, the practice would be to send it back to the Northeast....via a person who is driving cross country from San Francisco. Driving a vehicle which can't hold air in its tires through desolate areas in eastern rural parts of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, the Dakotas, etc., is asking for trouble.
When I went to the rental counter to be assigned a new car, that was a mess. I asked about an oil change. They were unable to tell me when the vehicle had its last oil change. While I knew I would be having to get the oil changed along the way (and Avis will reimburse me for that), I really needed to know when it had its last change. After waiting on the phone with the service department for a while, the clerk told me that had "2,000 miles left." I asked if that meant 2,000 or 2,500, or something else. She then said "around 2,900 miles left." There's a real difference between 2,000 and 2,900. I'm going to have to check the oil once it gets above 1,800 or so. If I'm near a populated area I may get it changed around 2,400 miles as long as there are no problems before that. The vehicle I got was the exact same model as the one I turned in, and it also had a Northeast plate again. I was going to be one of the people with which they would be sending a Northeast plated car back to the Northeast.
Avis is very nonchalant about turning in vehicles. You don't even have to tell them where you left the vehicle. They want the keys left in the car and of course the car is to be left unlocked. While people can't easily steal the vehicles (there are spikes at the exit and an attendant must lower them), a prankster could steal keys.
After an hour of transferring all my stuff between cars (I always pack way too much), I went back to the staffer who checked the vehicle in. I reminded her that the vehicle had a problem. She still didn't take it seriously. Finally, she said she would call someone to bring the car in for service. As I was finishing up arranging my things in the new car, I noticed the staffer drove the vehicle away.
After missing all the morning sessions, I was into the ninety minute lunch period. I was about fifteen miles from the convention center so I decided to have lunch near the airport. It would reduce my time in the parking garage and save on parking fees.
The afternoon sessions were fairly unremarkable. Fortunately, I learned that the audio from the presentations would be posted online. I started to realize that while the content of the presentation is important, when you have this many sessions in a day, presentation is important. If a speaker is not confident, and does not present the information in an exciting way, it's not going to sink in as easily.
In some of the non-technical sessions I attended, they were again emphasizing niches. One speaker pointed out that simply having haphazard volume without any kind of targetting toward niches a person enjoys can be destructive to a person's ability to do a job well. On the other hand, if they truly target niches, they will end up getting quite a bit of work that they will enjoy and with which they will do a good job.
Despite using much less time in the parking garage than yesterday, the parking bill for today was $21. That's ridiculous.
Getting to my final San Francisco area hotel was an adventure in itself. I was south of the airport this time in the city of San Mateo, and about fifteen miles away from the convention center. US 101 in California is obnoxious when it comes to exits. While there is occasionally a time when an exit cannot be built on both the northbound and southbound (or eastbound/westbound) lanes of a freeway type road, this is a too frequent occurrence on US 101. I missed several turns and took way too long to get to my hotel.
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When I got to the hotel, I asked the clerk if there was a Subway nearby. She wanted a sandwich too, so she asked me to buy one for her and she'd pay me back. The Subway was supposed to be about one mile away. The GPS took me on a full tour of the area, making me drive three miles to get there. After a long line at Subway, the GPS was equally obnoxious getting me back. What should have been a few minutes for an errand turned into an hour long trip. Thankfully, the hotel clerk was not angry when I brought her sandwich to her after an hour.
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