I took this photo of SMART and a group of PODpeople in Durham, NC.  I can tell that they are all obviously Dukies, because they do not look Preppy enough to be Tar Heels.  They swarmed around SMART no sooner than he had dropped his rear hatch looking for a pillow.  One was on a motorcycle, two came out of a pickup truck, and one from a electrical contractor’s truck.  Perhaps because I was distracted by all of the tattoos on the contractor, I did not see where the last PODperson came from. 

I must admit that this group of fans came up with some incredible questions of SMART and myself, including:

• Do you always sleep in a POD?
• Do you bring him in the house at night?
• Can you fit in a sleeping bag?
• Can that little thing have children?
• Did you find it under a Christmas Tree?

 
Anyhow, SMART had pulled off the road saying that we was fatigued from a long day of driving.  We had gone to Raleigh early that morning to do a photo shoot in Kroger #305 in North Raleigh.  SMART and I were working on a Kroger Manager Wine Training Program and we wanted to set some shots of an actual store set.  You can see the tripods and lights in SMART’s generously sized luggage area.  Kelly, The Wine Consultant at #305, thought that SMART was adorable.  He took some great phots of the German and French wine segments. 

After about 30 minutes of kibitzing I could see that SMART was really was tired.  How ironic that we had stopped a POD Hotel.  When all of the PODpeople had gone their way, I said good night to SMART, and I went across the street to the get a room at a Hampton Inn.  SMART plucked a couple of golden dollars into the ‘pay-as-you-sleep’ slot in the POD and retired for the evening.  (The POD Hotel is the only place that SMART will sleep.) 

I forgot to mention that the individuals pictured above are called PODpeople, not because they stay at POD Hotels, but rather because they are insane, fanatical, tripped out believers in SMART Cars, and especially nanoPOD, who you all know simply as SMART. 

It must have been late last night when SMART sent his first video.  He misread the size of the file thinking that it was 12 MBs, when it actually  was 212 MBs, a huge mistake.  Hopefully, for some of you it did not take too long to download, while others did not receive it at all. 

SMART asked me to send this bonus photo and accept his apologizes for the faux pas.  This photo was taken at RCR while SMART was entertaining clients – REALLY!

Earlier this week SMART and I went to Durham, NC for a Bonterra Ad Agency meeting, big steak dinner that evening, and a whirlwind look at grocery stores the following day.  SMART went bonkers when he saw the adorable shopping carts at the first Kroger store.  In fact, I was barely out of the passenger seat, as he dashed to the far side of the parking lot and scarffed up his favorite color of kiddy POD shopping buggy, and was on his way in the store. 

I almost ‘freaked’ in front of the rest of the survey team, but how could I possibly get angry at SMART.  We followed him in, saw what we had to, and then left to see the rest of the market.  (I had to ride in some kind of wildly big SUV think.) 

When I returned several hours later SMART was sobbing uncontrollably in front of the store.  He had run through his entire box of tissues trying to dry the tears of a broken heart.  It seems as though the ’smarty pants.’ ‘over-educated,’ ‘blue-blooded,’ residents of Durham treated SMART like some kind of alien from NC State. 

From what I could drag out of SMART, he was in the store less than ten minutes when he was literally pushed back out the same door he came in by insults, engineering slurs, snide remarks, and every kind of unimaginable four letter word known to mankind.  He felt so ‘un-American.’ 

SMART entered the store with all of the innocent enthusiasm of a child, and excited that he was doing the family grocery shopping for the week.  His world however, soon crashed. 

As he pushed his buggy down the cereal aisle a snide pre-teenaged boy punched SMART in the nose and wanted to know what cereal box he had come out of.  The Seafood Manager asked SMART if he could swim, or just float.   A little girl in the school supply aisle remarked to her mother, but loud enough for SMART to hear, “Mommy, Mommy, I am afraid of that big pencil sharpener.” 

The Dairy Manager quipped to smart, ” I know you look like and egg, but can you cook an omelet?”   In the Pet Department two teenaged twin girls were going at it with each other as to whether or not that‘nanoPOD’  thing was a big dog bone, or a cat toy.  The store’s co-manager kicked SMART in his side to see if he was made of plastic or metal. (It’s plastic.) 

But, the cruelest cut of all came from a diminutive little old lady, who herself was putzing around the store in an electrified wheel chair type shopping cart.  She pulled right out in front of a terrified SMART and brazenly asked him if he was one of those machines that went up and down the aisles cleaning and polishing the floor.    And that if he was, she wanted him to know that she did not like shopping when he was in the store.

I took SMART to his first movie last week, an IMAX version of Sideways, and he was blown away to learn that Pinot Noir was a more noble wine than his preferred Cabernet Sauvignon.  On the way home he had me stop at a wine shop, and he ran in and purchased Sanford Pinot Noir (because he saw it in the movie), a case of Michel Picard, Puligny Montrachet Villages, 2005,  a Fetzer Pinot Noir (French of course),  and a huge 3L bottle of Jekel from Monterey. 

We were still  returning from the drive in theater, when SMART was on his in-car mobile calling some of his friends and inviting them to a Sideways Party in the Doonan’s standard width, two car garage.  Even on such short notice a number of his friends did come over.   As he always does, SMART parked East facing France, as I set about decorating the room.  For those of you who may be unaware, SMART, while engineered by the Germans, is actually of French nationality, having been born in ‘Smartville’ near the Lorraine Regional town of Hambach, just across the broader from Germany. (We will fill you in on a Swatch connection at a later date.) 

Pate’ was the first to arrive.  She is the goose wearing the yellow hat.   Edith Piaf, was all over the invitation.  She scootered over as soon as she was finished with her pedicure, bath and blow dry.   Doesn’t she look adorable sitting under the sunflower?   None of us knew who the frog was, but with the swimming gear we guessed that he was has a relative of Jacques Cousteau. 

SMART excused me for not attending the party, which was mostly due to the fact that I was busy taking the official Sideways Party photos. 

The wine flowed till the wee hours of the morning.  Edith indulged herself so much in every new bottle of Pinot Noir opened (there were fourteen in all), that she was unable to drive home, and had to sleep in SMART’s luggage compartment. 

I can’t fathom where SMART gets all of his energy, but more power to him.