Same-day service
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 5:08PM
Thomas P.M. Barnett

Last week I went into DC and lectured at an Army Command and General Staff College extension course held in Fort Belvoir (a repeat engagement). I ended up staying over to help host an OSD meeting at Enterra.

This week, despite the invasion of swine flu (first, our youngest got it Monday, mostly recovering by Wednesday, and then our second youngest got it Wednesday) in the family abode, I sneak out today and fly down early to Atlanta on Delta, where I'm picked up by an investment exec and taken to a downtown business club. I'm set up with a small conference room where I steam the suit and shirt and get dressed, tweaking the brief a bit on one slide (I do a non-military-oriented version), and then I sit through a lunch, chatting with one table of execs.

Go on at 1230 in front of about 125 audience and was supposed to run 45, but run more like 75, losing nobody even though I was told many might get up and leave at 1300 in order to get back to trading. I go a solid 30 with Q&A with the group, and then the host calls the event to a close. I thereupon go another 20 with a select few.

Back into conference room where I swap out, then driven to airport, and I'm back home around 7pm--a nice 12-hour day.

Listening to my 2600-song iPod shuffle on the flight back, I realize I am becoming addicted to Radiohead.

I also read a bunch of the second volume of Peter Guralnick's epic volume of Elvis, which I picked up at Graceland last summer. I read the fab backstory on the 68 special. I am definitely rewatching the DVD tonight (also got that at Graceland).

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