Home...sort of

I got home around 2:30 this morning after driving from Estes Park, CO. I slept until 11:00 this morning. Our cat, Almo (aka The Devil), has apparently missed me. He would not leave me alone the entire night. He insists on throwing himself at me when he wants to lay down. If I don't immediately hold him in place he then begins to meow loudly and then repeat the process until I hold him down as he settles into place. That's the last time I go on a climbing trip and bring a stray cat home! He's an evil, evil animal. Damn cute too.
When we left Estes it was clear and cold. It had snowed most of the night...probably 5 inches. This was the first time I'd been to Estes when there was snow. It's an amazing town regardless of the weather but especially pretty with fresh snow on everything. The drive sucked. We had snow, ice, white out conditions until we were nearly halfway across Nebraska. The drive took a total of 18.5 hours. I would like to not be in a car for many days to come. Unfortunately, I'll be spending tomorrow doing errands in Minneapolis so I'll be in the car all day...leaving the house around 7:00am and probably not getting home until 9:00pm. Friday I get to drive to Milwaukee for the weekend to attend a MultiSport Event. We have a customer in Madison that will have a booth at the event/trade show. I'm going to be there to help them in their booth. I'll get home from that event late on Feb.1 and then have to be in Minneapolis for yet another event on the 2nd. The two events couldn't be more opposite from each other. The first is a consumer event for athletes to have a chance to see and purhcase the hot new bikes, skis, running shoes, and clothing for this Spring. The second event is a trade show sort of thing for a hardware distributor in Minneapolis. This one will be for their customers to come see the product they'll be able to purchase for next winter. In 24 hours I'll go from one event full of fit athletes to another full of mostly fat hardware industry folks. I'm sure they're not all fat but I'm willing to bet most of them will be overweight.
I'm not really looking forward to either event at this point. I'm tired and would prefer to spend a few days at home but my wife is gone until Feb. 3rd so I guess I really don't have much reason to be home.