You would think that a group of professionals in town for a Biodefense conference could be courteous. Those with money are staying at various hotels. The rest of us, mostly old timers with a good leavening of various militaries have been provided rooms in Buildings 04 and 05. As one of the directors remarked “the billing is your standard military one star accommodations.”
I think the price is excellent, especially since I am on the self pay plan. That is really not the reason that I skipped the outing to the Hoffbrauhaus. I just don’t care for a dinner with 300+ others in a large cavernous room where the highlights are beer, meat and Blass musik.
This is a barracks. Linoleum floors, echoing halls, stairwells with doors which are always open. You can easily hear voices, every door that shuts or slams and shoes as people walk down the long halls.
All of this is background to the fact that there are women (since we are not in cowboy country most men just don’t have those kind of shoes) clicking and clacking up and down the halls in high heels. It is driving me nuts.
To make it worse, most of the offenders seem to be from the former Eastern Block countries. It reminds me of the women in fatigues with teased hair, lots of make-up and high heels in the Russian camps in Bosnia. I think things have changed from those days, but sometimes I am not sure.
Technology challenges -Oh – and if you want your phone to ring – it really helps to turn the ringer on.
