382 – My First Trip to Europe I

It was back in April of 1998, and the company I worked for was very worried about the Y2K problem that had everyone scrambling like bugs at a picnic. It never occurred to me that my services might be needed elsewhere.

On a Thursday morning, I was called into my bosses (Gary’s) office, where a bigger boss (John)  was with him and they asked me if I had a passport.

Now, back then, I had only ever been to Canada, and we never needed a passport for that so I replied in the negative. I was told the in house travel agency would cut me some fake tickets so I could get my passport the next day (Friday), and that I would leave Sunday for 2 weeks in Europe to do some Y2K upgrades to our servers and PC’s. It felt like I had been hit in the gut with a baseball bat. I had no idea what to think. I vaguely remember John telling me that while in Europe, and off company time, to do whatever I wanted to do, and money was no object. He also said he’d meet me a few days into my trip there. I would be travelling to our large office in Paris, a smaller office in Douee (sp) France, our engineering office in Ubach Palenberg Germany, a sales office in Stuttgart, and a sales office in Milan Italy. My mind was reeling already.

I quickly called my wife who was very excited for me. Then, I started to get all the things I would need for the upgrades, which wasn’t hard as I had them all in a folder from doing them in work there. I was given the name of the contact that would pick me up at the airport in Paris (Bernd), and his number, and I called him to ask him the particulars of where to meet.. etc. Basically, he said he’d meet me right when I got off the plane, and he’d be holding a company catalog over his head and waving it around.

More to come, now for something funny:

Ooooooooh Dear

GROCERY STORE | FORT KENT, MN, USA

(I am stocking shelves, a customer comes up asking for assistance to find an item.)

Customer: “I need to find some Eight O’s corn.”

Me: “I’m not familiar with that brand, ma’am, but I will do my best to help. Are you looking for corn that is fresh, frozen or canned?”

Customer: “How am I supposed to know that? It’s Eight O’s corn!”

Me:  “Well, is it cold?”

Customer: “Yes!”

Me: “It is probably in our frozen section, then. Let’s go take a look.”

(After pointing out our selection of frozen corn, she picks up a bag of store brand frozen corn excitedly.)

Customer: “This is it! Eight O’s!”

(I look at the item and see she has picked up an 8 oz. bag).

Wrong Kind Of TV Package

RETAIL | CALIFORNIA, USA

(A fairly regular customer, known for asking lots of questions about merchandise he had no intent of buying, wanders in to the electronic department.)

Customer: “What’s this?”

Me: “It lets you browse the internet on your TV instead of requiring a computer.”

Customer: *excited* “Really? Wow!”

Me: “Yep, and if you buy the optional keyboard, you can even use mit for email.”

Customer: “Email? I’ve heard a lot about that. What is it, exactly?”

Me: “Well, it’s kind of like regular mail. You type up a letter and send it off,
except it gets there instantly and there’s no postage.”

Customer: “Really? Wow! Does it do packages?”

Have a wonderful Monday all..!