Monday Morning Match is a simple post – maybe a quote, inspirational story or idea – intended to spark some motivation inside each of you so your week gets off to a fantastic start on Monday morning.
When something happens that hasn’t occurred in over 44 years, what do you do? What happens when Denver receives its biggest May snowfall since 1975? You order another Bloody Mary and roll with the punches, that’s what you do.
Let me explain…
Last week I was escorting my mother out to Kalispell, Montana where she will spend the summer in her home just 45 minutes from the main entrance to Glacier National Park. My parents bought the home overlooking the Buffalo Hill Golf Club in the foreground and the Swan Mountains in the distance before my father passed away in 2000. Mom still sneaks away from the heat and humidity here in Central Ohio every summer to the beautiful views and cooler temperatures of Big Sky Country. As she is now in her early eighties, it isn’t easy for her to travel alone so I flew with her and made sure she could make her connecting flights and get her settled in out west.
In return for my few days of “Sherpa-like’ duties,” getting her home and car ready for the next 100 days, I get to selfishly enjoy spending one-on-one time with Mom as well as enjoying some of the best that Northwest Montana has to offer. We get to see wildlife, enjoy tasty dinners, and visit some amazing breweries across the Flathead Valley. Our annual treks to the National Bison Range and a visit to the parts of Glacier that were open (80′ snow drifts are still being cleared from the iconic Going to the Sun Highway that bisects the park) are always the highlights, but I must say, sitting in the Tamarack Brewing Company or Sacred Waters Brewery midday with a pretty hip octogenarian enjoying her hefeweizen while I sampled the best of the breweries IPA’s are the things I’ll remember most.
But what does this have to do with a rare May snowstorm in the state capital of Colorado? Let me tell you…
As we departed Columbus airport on time for our connection in Denver, the United pilot gave the passengers a heads up that we would be experiencing some minor turbulence throughout the flight due to some bad weather hitting the central portions of the country. “Oh yeah,” continued the pilot as an afterthought, “It’s snowing in Denver and the current temperature is 31. Sit back and enjoy your flight”
“Wow,” I said to Mom. It’s May 21st and it’s snowing in Denver. I’m sure glad it’s not like that in Kalispell.” As we took off and were able to access the WiFi about the flight, I double-checked the weather forecast for my few days in Montana. As I thought, we were going to be enjoying mid-60’s and partly sunny skies. I doubled checked the United mobile app to confirm the gate we would need to hustle to when we arrived in Denver as we had a very short connection and Denver is a very big airport.
The entire flight, the only thing to see from the window in 7F was clouds but as we began our final descent into Denver, we started catching glimpses of the ground below. It wasn’t just a light dusting of snow like we had imagined, but actually accumulation. Turns out that Denver International Airport officially had 3.4″ that day and that isn’t good for air traffic control and airline logistics so the notification on my phone that appeared letting me know our flight to Kalispell was delayed was no surprise. Nothing we could do about it and when traveling, it’s always better to be safe and defer all decisions to the people that do this every day. It also meant we could take advantage of Mom’s United Club membership and enjoy a more relaxing lounge than sitting the crowded gate areas of the main terminal.
We grabbed a seat by the window and ordered two Bloody Mary’s. (No, not both for me silly. One “spicy” for me, and one regular for Mom.) We settled in and simply waited…and waited…and waited. As good as the first Bloody Mary was, the second one was even better. What else was I supposed to do, go outside and shovel snow? I had no control over the weather, air traffic control, or anything else that would have gotten us to Montana any quicker so it was best if we just sit back and enjoyed David’s fine craftwork.
Long story shorter, the skies eventually cleared, our connecting flight (which was coming from Little Rock, Arkansas) finally arrived, and we were ready to make our way to Montana…only 4 hours late. Mom was tired and getting anxious but it seemed like our travel delays were over…when the pilot came out the doorway and whispered to the gate agent, Elizabeth.
“This doesn’t look good,” I said to Mom and the nice Canadian woman that was on her way home from her nephew’s high school graduation outside of Cincinnati.
Unfortunately, the long delay in Little Rock caused the crew to exceed their “allowable time” and we would need to await a new crew. I honestly figured we were done for the day and started frantically searching my Expedia and Southwest apps for other possible flights that might get us closer to Kalispell. No flights on United were available the next day. the closest I could get us was Missoula or Great Falls (still a 2+ hour drive) and if we would have rented a car, we were looking at a 1,000+ mile journey (12 hours or more in the car through rural Wyoming and across 2/3rd of Montana). Luckily, United did a great job of finding a new crew, even calling in a co-pilot on his day off. The passengers cheered when he arrived and we all smiled as we touched down at Glacier Park International Airport some 6 hours later than we were scheduled…all because of a little snow that wasn’t expected.
So what does this have to do with real estate…or sales…or anything? It has everything to do with those things because everything we do in life is going to have unexpected obstacles or challenges. We all face things that occur out of the blue, often things we didn’t want to happen. Sure, maybe it’s not a freak snowstorm while trying to connect in one of the busiest airports in North America, but circumstances happen all the time that we didn’t want or need.
What will you do next time your “plan” doesn’t go as expected? Will you get angry at people who have no control over the situation? Will you quit, give up, or go home? Is it right to disrespect people who are simply doing their job under the circumstances?
Several things are needed when things don’t go as planned; Patience, empathy, a positive attitude, and a good sense of humor are the first few that come to mind, and all of them were put to use last week in snowy Denver. Maybe the next time things don’t go your way, instead of getting frustrated, try to build relationships, solve problems and have fun instead. That’s what Mom and I did last week in Denver and thanks to David behind the bar in the United Club, Elizabeth at Gate B87 and Carolina, our personable flight attendant on the flight from Denver to Kalispell, we got Mom “home” safely.
Epilogue: When we finally arrived at Mom’s house, unfortunately, we were locked out and couldn’t get inside. A phone call to a local connection was made and after a short wait, we were finally in. As we sat in the garage, we just smiled as we waited for the key to arrive and jokingly wished we still had David from the United Club nearby to make us another Bloody Mary. Something tells me by that time, Mom would have ordered her’s spicy too.