Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Best Laid Plans

The climatic scene in Goodfellows came to mind today. In that scene Ray Liotta runs through everything he has to do in his busy day - "pick up his brother...make the meatballs...sell the guns...move the stuff....stir the sauce....catch the plane" and it all comes tumbling down when the ATF shows up on his front driveway.

Well no ATF in my driveway this morning, but a highly scheduled day fell apart pretty early. My PTO days are like gold. I only get so many every year from the day job and I try and save as many of those as I can for harvest time. When I do take one I try and jam as much into it as I can.

The plan this morning: Get up at the normal time 6:30 AM, coffee and paper in bed, then out quick by 7:15. First up Enterprise Rental Car. There I'd reserved a pick up truck for the day. Stefania would drive me over to Enterprise then we'd both head over to Skip's Tires. The FJ Cruiser is in need of new tires, and since it's our only car, the rental truck would mean we could leave it for the day with out worry.

Next we'd be off to the San Mateo Department of Agriculture to renew our operator ID number at 10am. For some reason, the Ag department thinks it's easier for me to come in during a workday to spend 4 minutes getting a stamp on a piece of paper than figuring out someway to do it over the phone. So a 45 minute drive each way to a bad neighborhood in Redwood City for a 5 minute meeting.

Next it would be over to a rock supply company, also in Redwood City. We need about 400 pounds of rocks to replace some posts in the vineyard at Chaine d'Or. Normally it would be a good chore for Jerry B. to do, but I know trying to get all the steps to purchasing the rocks into Spanish, given my poor Spanish, would lead to mayhem. So I figured I'd pick up the rocks and then drive them the 20 minutes up to Chaine d'Or.

From there it's a 50 minute drive through the mountains to Big Basin Vineyards. See if I have the pick up truck, I can load in the two barrels of 2008 Eaglepoint Ranch Syrah I have at Big Basin and move them to Chaine d'Or for bottling. I had it all set up with Joe at Big Basin, and if everything went right we'd be back unloading the wine at Chaine d'Or about 2:30-3:00 PM. Then just an hour back to Skip's Tires, pick up the FJ, then shoot over to Enterprise and return the truck before 5 PM.

Yeah, right.

I'm standing at the counter at Enterprise at 8:00 AM hearing about how there are no trucks in San Jose until 10am. I'm trying to send Joe a message at Big Basin on my iPhone when one comes in from Bradley at Big Basin saying Joe can't do it today after all. Plans - done.

Skip's was ready for us though. I'd gone in on Saturday to pre-order the tires I wanted and get everything set up for today and they were ready for us. Stefania and I walked about 3/4 of a mile to a bookstore to wait out the tires. They look great and should hold up better off road than the old ones did.

Everything else, well it's rescheduled now.

3 comments:

Enterprise Rent-A-Car said...

We apologize for any inconvenience with a truck not being available for you at the time of rental.

If you'd like to address this with us, please email care[at]enterprise.com with your full name and reservation number, including reference # 100414-003661 in the subject line.

- Elizabeth with Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Paul Romero said...

It's a kind offer, but not needed. Enterprise has been really great for us over the years. The staff on Pearl Ave in San Jose has always been very good about getting us trucks, especially at harvest! If our timing hadn't been so tight, we could have just waited.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car said...

Paul - Glad to hear about the staff at the Pearl Ave location. Should you need anything in the future, just let us know.

- Elizabeth