In order to get The Crazy Man to leave the NoVa area (either by plane, car, train or boat), the following gets done (by me!):
A Notebook (1 inch in diameter) is created. The following sections are included:
- Reservation Confirmations
- Phone numbers
-A list of emergency contacts with name and phone numbers
-A list of the doctors, medical professionals, and pharmacy contact info - complete with names, nurses, phone numbers.
-A sheet that includes anywhere from 5 to 10 names and phone numbers of who The Crazy Man wants to call while he is away.
- Back-up Info
-A xeroxed copy of all the current credit cards and drivers license (including phone numbers on who to call if it needs to be reported lost or stolen)
-A xeroxed copy of the passport
-A xeroxed copy of car insurance info, health insurance card and triple A card
- Other Info
-Return address labels, stamps, his son's address labels to send postcards.
-FedEx prepaid labels ready to send boxes back. (Not sure what is in these boxes he ships back. But he always ships a box or two back from wherever he's been).
Ok, so that is the binder that needs to be created. And unfortunately, the information is always changing, so this information does not get transferred from one trip to another.
Next a day-timer gets created. It is one of those pocket calendar type books that have a spiral bound and each page is a different week. Only, The Crazy Man uses a day-timer from 2005 or sometimes older. Yes, really. So what I do is create these mini-pages on the computer and then tape them into the first few pages of a 2005 pocket calendar. In the day-timer goes the following information:
A detailed trip itinerary that has flight info (airline phone number, confirmation #, date, flight #, time departing, time arriving, seat #s), hotel info (address, phone number, confirmation #, date checking in, date checking out, number of nights staying), car rental info (phone number, confirmation #, date and time picking up the car, date and time dropping off the car). And any other reservation information -- for example all the cruise info.
I also include a few blank pages because The Crazy Man loves to take notes. The rest of the day-timer sports calendar pages that are over 9 years old. Personally, that would drive me crazy, but The Crazy Man loves to recycle.
It should be noted that with each reservation that has been made (hotel, car, etc), I've called to find out the General Manager's name and direct phone number. The Crazy Man (as soon as he knows he'll be traveling) has spoken to the General Manager many times about his impending visit. About what? Who the hell knows, but he finds something or other that has the utmost importance to be discussed. So all of the General Manager's contact info is also included with this trip itinerary info.
Other items to be taken care of to prepare The Crazy Man for travel is:
1. Calling all his various banks and seeing if they can get in (100) $2.00 bills. But they must be BRAND NEW. Never been used. Just so you know, banks can not request hot-off-the-press brand spanking new $2 bills. But I always try. And I always have to make the request to see what they do receive. This is always a fun exercise to do a few times a year. The Crazy Man gets a kick out of handing out new $2 bills in whatever town he is visiting.
2. Calling all his various banks to see how many gold $1 coins they have available for him to get. He likes these to be brand new too, but it isn't a deal breaker. He also needs to know which president is on the coins before he decides if he'll go get them.
3. Stopping his newspaper and mail for the time he is away. However, even if The Crazy Man lands at 11:30pm on the evening of his return, he will still want the newspaper delivered that day.
4. The Crazy Man always has me call both UPS and FedEx to find out who will offer the best rate on shipping boxes back. These boxes don't actually exist yet. I use imaginary specs and weight to see what the shipping rate will be.
5. Calling the Walmart Pharmacy and finding out how many refills are left on each of his many, many prescriptions. He wants to know that if he has to get a refill it will be available without having to call the doctor to get a new prescription written. If there are no refills left, then I have to call that specific doctor (while also the pharmacy is doing it too) and make sure they get a new prescription on file. I give it a day or two and then call everyone again (pharmacy and doctor) to make sure it got done.
6. Doing an analysis with a few different car rental places to see who will offer the best rate. Then, once a car rental place is chosen and a reservation is made, I have to call AAA and find out if they will match the rate through their car rental program. I have to make sure I've spoken with a supervisor to make sure they understand that they could lose potential business by not matching the rate. BTW, they have yet to match the lowest rate we've already managed to find.
6. For this particular trip The Crazy Man wanted to speak with Princess Cruise Lines many, many times. His most outrageous request was asking if they could move Talent Night on the ship to earlier in the week. Again, I have to ask myself, 'What the hell!?!?' I think he simply dreams this stuff up to see how much he can get away with. Seriously, he was putting in a request to get Talent Night on the night he wanted it to be. Who does that!?!?! Also, the woman he is traveling with is an Elite cruise member. She has sailed over 185 days which means she is entitled to many privileges that normal cruise travelers don't get. The Crazy Man wanted to discuss in detail the Elite status they will be enjoying on board. For example, they get a complimentary minibar in their room. Many questions stemmed from this particular benefit: What gets stocked in the minibar? How often will it be restocked? Do we have to call to get it restocked? What if we only drink the water from it? What if we drink one kind of liquor but not another? What if we need it restocked more than you normally do? Once he got "Elite status" confirmed with one staff member, I had to make sure another 3 or 4 people associated with Princess Cruise Lines also was aware of this.
7. Calling Triple A is always lots of fun. The Crazy Man wants driving maps of everything under the sun. Directions to all the museums, shopping, theatres and a listing of all the performances and shows playing for the time they are in the city. I've offered to do this for him through google, but he is determined to use Triple A. I think this an old school thing. He loves the format it gets mailed to him in. However, it takes a few calls of bugging them over and over again before we can leave Triple A alone.
There are a few other things that needs to get done in preparation but the above items are the big ones.
The thing that really gets me is when I've done all this work and then at the last minute The Crazy Man will tell me he has switched hotels, or decided to change the car rental agency they are using. That's the stuff that drives me crazy.
By the time The Crazy Man has left town, I am a happy girl seeing him go.
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