Home For The Holidays

Holiday travel is one of those things that all road warriors try to avoid, if possible. In the last few trips during this holiday season, I've noticed that many people are just forgetting about common courtesy while traveling. In one trip, some vacationers were boarding with several oversized pieces of luggage. I don't know how they got it past security. Many families were traveling during the season. Most kids are pretty well-behaved, but I inevitably get some kid sitting behind me, kicking the seat continuously for the entire trip. Just before the Orange Alert started up again, a lady sitting behind me was complaining about the size of the aircraft, and the fact that we were on the ground pushed back from the gate for ten whole minutes. Then she proceeded to complain about the pretzels and drinks. She just wouldn't shut up for the entire trip. I guess some of this stuff is universal, but it does seem more pronounced during the holiday season. Maybe next year I'll stay home for the holidays. I'm off to New York tomorrow, which seems only fitting, as it is the first day of 2004. Happy New Year! Later.

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of my readers. I posted this on another one of my sites, but I thought I'd run it simulcast here.

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the nation,
Another trip came up, much to my indignation,
The road warriors were home, all except for me,
I was trapped in Orlando on December 23,

The roadways were jammed. It was a terrible place.
And as for the parking, not even a space.
The airplanes were crowded, not even a seat,
For friends and family for the people to meet.

The wait time was longer, about two or three hours,
While waiting in line next to people who don't take showers,
The odor was alarming. It really did stink.
By the end of the line, I needed a drink.

I don't really touch alcohol, not even a bit,
But traveling before Christmas puts me in a snit
The alert level was orange, a step above yellow,
Which made travel nuts, and definitely not mellow,

The agents were nasty, and as rude as can be,
For the week I got searched, not two times, but three,
Wanded and prodded and patted and poked,
It would be easier to just shoot me, as I've often joked.

A woman complained about the size of the plane,
She wouldn't shut up, and said it again.
Her husband was patient, but she was so loud,
Her voice filled the airplane and disturbed the crowd.

The children were screaming really loud in my ear,
In the seat behind me, and kicking the rear.
Our plane trip was over, it was a long way to fly,
Through snowstorms and thunder that lit up the sky.

For luggage, in line, we waited and waited,
On the speaker was someone who seem constipated,
I'm finally home, and that being said,
Merry Christmas to all! I'm going to bed.

I think this sums up the week pretty well. And, as I mentioned on that other site of mine, I guess I can't quit my day job to become a poet. Happy Hoildays to all! Later.

Hibernation

I just got up, and it's after two in the afternoon. I'd usually be working right now, but since e-mail and other services are down right now, I just thought I'd goof off for a little while. It's been quite a while since I've done that. It's also been such a long time since I've had my usual weekly hibernation session. After all, without this session to recharge my batteries, I'd completely melt down during the week. As you can imagine, with my schedule lately, I haven't had too many chances to recharge. This is the first time I feel like I've actually gotten a good night's sleep in a really, really long time. It doesn't sound like I'm going to get much sleep in the upcoming months, so I guess I'd better enjoy it now. I'm back on the road again tomorrow, and then I'm going to take a well-deserved vacation for a couple of weeks. Later.

Passing Time

Yet another year has passed, and I'm still on the road. I'm on the road 51 out of 52 weeks this year. I spent the greater part of my birthday today in Minnesota, freezing my butt off. I expected to get stuck in Minneapolis, but they seem to have a good handle on dealing with snow. Much better than I do, anyway. As I mentioned earlier, I don't do snow very well. I especially attempt to avoid it on my birthday. I got delayed in Chicago today, and got myself a hot chocolate. That's about it. Not much excitement, other than the fact that I'm on the road and going to bed in Tampa, FL, tonight. So, another year, and a kazillion miles later, happy birthday to me! Later.

Going To Extremes

I can't believe I have to get back out into the field already. It's bad enough that I don't get to sleep any more, due to these early flights. My birthday is on Tuesday, and I'm spending it in Minnesota, and I'm getting on a plane to Florida after that. Talk about going to extremes, huh? Yep, it's Minneapolis and Tampa this week, and my flight is in a few hours, so I've got to start packing. What happens to these weekends anyway? I spent the weekend working, and I'm still not caught up. I seem to remember telling myself that I would stop working on Saturdays. I wonder what happened to that plan? I'm looking at the calendar, and you can congratulate me, because I've been traveling EVERY WEEK THIS YEAR!!!! This is a first for me. It's already the middle of December, and my first week that I'm not traveling (for business) is the week beginning December 29th. That's just not right. No wonder I've been cranky this year. I'd get a desk job, but not traveling would be an even worse shock to my system. Talk about extremes... Later.

A New York Minute

This has not been a good week for transportation. I wasn't supposed to get a car in New York, but I did, because my colleague had a plane delayed due to the weather in the northeast. Apparently, the 18 inches of snow made things run a little slower in Boston and New York. At least I didn't have to drive much in New York, since my friend Denise was able to drive around in the snow and ice for me. I do not mix well with snow, as I have mentioned earlier. I had trouble with the car rental people, as someone gave away my car, and I had someone else's name on my receipt. It took a while to get that fixed, and it took the hotel an hour to send a shuttle to pick me up at the airport on Long Island. Of course, I was waiting in the freezing cold weather, because they said that it would be there any minute. I returned my rental car the night before I had to leave, since I had one of those quadruple connections at 6am, before the car rental place opened. The hotel only offered shuttle service between 6am and 10pm. Since the hotel was relatively new, the taxi driver in the morning couldn't find it, and when he finally showed up it was 40 minutes before the plane was taking off. Then the real fun began. I flew into Boston, and had to switch terminals, but at least I wasn't traveling alone from Boston to San Francisco. Unfortuneately, from Boston, we had to connect in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Usually, I wouldn't mind a connection in Las Vegas, but we only got 10 minutes there, so what's the point of that? We got to San Francisco eventually, and had to deal with the fact that car rentals are really, really, really far away from the terminals, and it was really confusing to get there with the relatively new train system. It's off to Minnesota for me next week, despite my better judgement. I wanna go home!! Later.

Let It Snow . . . NOT!

A light snow was falling earlier this week in Youngstown, OH, and Kansas City, MO. I typically don't like to drive in snow, but these days, I really don't have much of a choice. I'm on my way to New York on Monday, and I've heard that they are expecting 18 inches of snow with no relief in sight until Tuesday. Not a good thing when you have to do the Los Angeles-Boston-New York-Boston-Los Angeles-Las Vegas-San Francisco-Los Angeles run within a four day span. Of course, at least I'm hitting major cities for the most part. My days in Hawaii and California (excuse me, Cah-LEE-forn-yah -- the new approved state pronounciation from our governator) have not really prepared me for any type of cold weather. In fact, driving in snow, looking at snow, being snowed on, or being within a 100-mile radius of snow, are things that I really try to avoid as much as possible. Get me back to my tropical island in the Pacific. . . Later.

Out Of Range

Well, my e-mail isn't working, but since I have an internet connection, I thought I'd blog a little. Allow me to catch up on my adventures of the week. I started in Springfield, once again. Actually, I had to drive an hour or two into Joplin, MO, for the evening. After an odd drive back into Springfield (by the way, there's no place like Springfield), I caught an early flight into Cleveland, which was delayed anyway. I was going to stay in Cleveland and drive tomorrow, but that plan got shattered when my partner for this trip had to fly into Pittsburgh. So, I rented a car and drove a couple hours into lovely Youngstown. Way too much driving on this trip... My cell phone has been in roaming for most of the trip, too. That means that I haven't been in what my cell phone company considers "civilization." My phone has been going in and out of service every few minutes in my hotel room. I guess this room in this hotel is the outer limit of civilization, at least, according to the phone company. Back to Kansas City for me tomorrow... Later.