2007-04-27

ehowton: (Default)
This morning I returned to my desk after spending a day at home with my sick son. I received a message on my phone from one Eric Howton just saying hello the day before he was to leave St. Louis. I realized he was probably just getting his rig and precious cargo of 2 cats and one 5 year old girl (affectionately know as the package) on the road this morning. I decided to give him a call.

Here is precisely what happened next…..

At about 08:30 EDT I dial the phone… the sound of ringing is heard… Male voice picks up… and says “aa.. This is Eric!” in a loud voice. All I hear after his voice at this point is the sound of the rushing wind, very loud classical music, and sprinkled in every 5 seconds on top of it all at very high pitch “meeeoow, meeeoow” . I start in with the typical morning pleasantries which gentlemen with the familiarity of a decades old friendship exchange. Now as this initial exchange goes on for about a minute it is noticably difficult to hear my friend, any of you who have spoken to him on the phone before are well aware this is never the case with him… and I remind you here that the loud classical music and sprinkled in every 5 seconds the very high pitched “meeeoow, meeeoow” continues on... I just started laughing because of the vision of this poor S.O.B packed into that rig with this menagerie producing a cacophony of sounds and by the way looking at another 14 hours on the road over the next 2 days. He added in a story that one of the intended cats to accompany him on this journey went missing this morning (“meeeoow, meeeoow”) so a substitution was made. Laughing, I ask my friend “how long have you been on the road?” .. He answers proudly “ 30 minutes.” “This has been going on for the entire time so far?” I ask. “YES!” Eric proclaimed, then adding that if the Brahms didn’t work to calm the cats soon he would switch to Rachmaninoff. This kills me, mostly because he sincerely believes this proposed change in composer may bring relief to his current predicament! Classic Eric I say, its what makes him a beautiful man. At this point I am beginning to make a scene in my office because I am giggling like a retard! You know that heavy belly laugh that you try to hold in, but subduing it only makes your laughter harder and it just keeps building on itself. Yea that’s what was happening on my end… I said you should have given the cats tranquilizers for the trip. “THEY ARE TRANQUELIZED!” (“meeeoow, meeeoow”) he exclaims classical music roaring in the background! (I am ROTFLOL at this point). I had to wrap things up as I was really drawing the ire of my over serious office mates by now. We agreed to speak later this evening when he arrived at his overnight location. Still giggling and my belly sore from laughing I say “ I’ll talk to you later buddy”. “OK I’ll look forward (“meeeoow, meeeoow”) to it” he said back. As he hung up the phone all I heard was the rushing wind, Brahmms playing loudly, and still sprinkled in every 5 seconds on top of it all “meeeoow, meeeoow”…. It took me a minute to settle down after we hung up. The situations that man gets himself into are priceless.

Now fast forward in my day to lunchtime. Upon returning to my desk the message light is blinking on my phone. The menageries driver had left a message saying “hey, I was thinking you could (“meeeoow, meeeoow”) post about this as a guest on my page. That would give you something to do today and everyone on LJ would likely enjoy (“meeeoow, meeeoow”) this story.” I begin giggling like a retard again because the music is still playing, although presumably it is now Rachmaninoff rather than Brahms, and the cats are still going at it “meeeoow, meeeoow” Every 5 seconds.

Honestly this was to be the subject of a post on my JL site this evening; however my imagination was immediately captured by the idea of guest posting this story on Eric’s page. I decied to call him back to get the necessary password to take him up on the guest post offer.

At about 12:15 EDT I place my second call to the driver of the rig hauling the menagerie…

the sound of ringing is heard… The driver picks up… and says “Good day sir!” in a loud voice. All I hear after his voice is the sound of the rushing wind, very loud classical music, and sprinkled in every 5 seconds “meeeoow, meeeoow”. I am immediately laughing like a retard again. I can't express adequately how funny this was to me . The only difference this time was the cats sounded a bit muted, same interval between meeoows just lower volume.. I pursued that as my first line of questioning. “They sound a bit quieter this time? I inquire. “ Yes, the music (“meeeoow, meeeoow”) seems to soothe them.” my friend exclaims with a tinge of pride. Expelling uncontrollably as he says this to me with that classic Eric sincerity, I exclaimed back to him “Eric, they are likely just becoming dehydrated!” We both had a good laugh about this as he and the menagerie continued on their way. Now I do need to say here, not knowing the sensitivities of all Eric’s readers, that no cats were harmed in this adventure. The animals are well taken care of and provided all the necessary water and other care that any animal lover would provide their pet on a long trip such as this. We exchanged the necessary technical information and avatar suggestions needed for this post before wrapping up this our second phone call of the day.

As he hung up the phone all I heard was the rushing wind, presumably Rachmaninoff playing loudly, and still sprinkled in every 5 seconds albeit at a lower volume “meeeoow, meeeoow” …….. Poor S.O.B……. How could you not love the guy?

To roads less traveled my friends.

Regards,

~ photogoot
http://photogoot.livejournal.com/

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