I love going to Chicago for the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigerating Exposition (AHR Expo). Lots of new product, but the weather is always gorgeous this time of year, even though it can be a bit balmy by Lake Michigan. For some reason, one of our friendly sales reps, Michael O’Callaghan, always manages to drag me into the streets of Chicago for an evening walk-about during the three-day event. He tells me that we are in search of an Irish bar, but he usually walks me in circles until we stop at a Dunkin’ Donuts for something hot to drink. And of course, once there, who can pass up those fat pills with the colorful sprinkle things?

One evening at the end of a long day at the expo, O’Callagan convinced me to get out of the long cab line leaving McCormick Place because, according to him, we could walk about two blocks and pick up a cab much more easily. The wintry mix was blowing sideways, we trudged through knee-high drifts on the sidewalk, we never found a cab — yet O’Callaghan promised there were black and tans just ahead at the local pub. I am a gullible Irishman, so I followed him for nearly two hours.

I can’t wait to get back to Chicago to see the new products coming to a market near you. However, this year if I see O’Callaghan in the cab line, I am running the opposite direction.