Lottie and I just got back from the National Ground Water Association (NGWA) annual convention in Las Vegas, so I thought I'd share some of our experiences. We try to go every year. It's a nice break, and since the kids are grown, we can have some holiday time to ourselves. We planned our trip, and made reservations more than a month beforehand, so we could get the best rates, etc. About two days after the tickets arrived, a letter came from the Vegas Hilton. They wanted to give us two free nights, and meals. I'd already made reservations, so I called and asked if I could extend them to include the two free nights. No problem! Next I called the airline to change my tickets. Big Problem! To make the change, I had to buy two new tickets. It looked to me like two free nights would cost about $950! What a deal... I asked if there was any way around this and the young lady told me if I went to the airport during a slack period and explained my problem to a sympathetic ticket agent I might do better. I did, and it worked. I had to pay a minimal change ticket fee and I was ready.
I called the hotel and confirmed the change. The young lady taking my information was doing her best to be helpful, and bowing to 'political correctness,' she asked me if we had any 'special needs.' I recognized this as a 'politically correct,' way of asking if I was crippled, afflicted, lame, needed a wheelchair, or any thing that they could help me with. I told her, "Yes, as a matter of fact, there is one thing I need in my room." She said, "What is it, sir, we at the hotel try to do our best for all our customers." I told her, "I need a room where I can see the TV from the commode." Silence... Long silence... "What?" So I told her again. I explained that sitting on the commode was such a waste of time, if I could watch the news at the same time it would be more productive. She wasn't sure if any rooms were laid out that way, so I asked her how long she'd worked there. Two years. "Two years, and you've never checked?" I asked, "There are lots of us who can't function without this feature." Like I was asking for a dialysis machine or something. She said she'd check and call me back, and she did.