The Longest Week Of The Year

I returned to my old schedule, just for a week.  It all started on an overnight New York flight on Sunday.  Since flights have been so inconsistent lately, I had to stop in Washington DC for a "quick" connection, which turned out to be several hours.  Delays are pretty common these days.  However, if you're meeting a large group of people from all over the country and no one makes it on time, it may be time to look at our air travel system. 

In the middle of the week, I rerouted myself to a last minute job in Texas.  I had a 20 minute connection in Cleveland, so the airline decided to reroute me through Chicago. It took an extra 10 hours to get to my destination, since I missed the last connecting flight.  In the tradition of a true road warrior, I decided to reroute myself to the closest available airport with a flight and drive through the night.

This was one of the few times that I didn't pack too much extra stuff for an "emergency" add-on trip.  After all, it's been almost a year and over 200,000 miles since I had to add a few days to an existing trip. At least I didn't tear the seam of my pants like I did in Cleveland several years ago.  Also, I didn't give the airline a reason to lose my luggage, as I carried everything on the plane.  However, I still needed to get the WalMart suit, and get some other extra clothes and stuff.  I did still manage to twist my ankle and wind up in extreme amounts of pain on Saturday.  Some things never change...

I finally limped my way back home, and I'm still limping along.  That was one of the longest weeks I've had in a while.  Let's not do that again.

Later

Zoning Problems

In the last couple of weeks, I've traveled from Washington, DC to Honolulu, HI, to Erie, PA, back to San Diego, CA. If I calculated this correctly, twelve time zones were crossed in less than twelve days. One of my travel theories states that it takes one day to recover from each time zone traversed. Fortunately, I'm grounded for the next couple of weeks, so recovery should not be a problem. So until next week, at least, I'm out of the zone. That's kind of like being out of synch with the rest of the world. Sometimes, that's not necessarily a bad place to be. Later.

Still In The District

I had great plans for the day. I was going to go out on several customer visits, and maybe even get some sightseeing in during the evening. Unfortunately, I couldn't do either today. I've upgraded from Dayquil to Advil Cold Medicine, and I've got two other meds with me to pull me back into the land of the living before my flight back home tomorrow morning. I've got to get better before my next trip on Saturday morning, at least. I'm still doing conference calls. Ok, I'm calling from bed, but the people at the other end of the phone can't tell. Anyhow, I've got one more to go, and then I can go back to sleeping this off... Later.

In The District

These field reports are starting to get a bit rare. I'm reporting from within the beltway. Yes, I'm actually staying in the District. You know, Washington, DC. That's right. I'm back to my old habits. I've probably overextended myself again, and am living on that miracle drug, Dayquil. I decided to try to get back in training again, and overdid it before I got on the plane. I always seem to have that bad habit of forgetting that I'm not eighteen any more. Anyhow, I'm here until Wednesday morning, and back for a couple of days at home before I leave again for Hawaii. I am one of many people in my group from San Diego at this conference in DC. It was strange that we all seemed to take different routes to get here, and we all seem to have different disaster stories of how we all got here. One person connected in Los Angeles, another in Atlanta, someone else in Chicago, yet another in Cincinnati, and someone went through Phoenix. Just about everyone experienced some sort of flight delay. I connected in Dallas without any flight delay, but getting out of the airport was an adventure. Let's just say it involves a minivan and step ladder... Anyhow, this is a long update, so I'd better get some rest. After all, I should probably sleep this cold away. Later.

Sleepless In Seattle ... The Next Generation

I'm winding down from my vacation. As always, I decided that I needed to make the most out of my vacation time, so I did a double vacation for the week. I met up with Jon in Buffalo, which was great, though I was spending the weekend in Pittsburgh. I think I spent more time in the car driving than I did with Jon and his girlfriend. It was about nine hours in the car for the day.

The rest of my vacation was spent in the Pacific Northwest. My young friend James and I were scouting colleges in Oregon and Washington. We were staying in Redmond near his friends, so the day trip into central Oregon took a little more than five-and-a-half hours each way. That was a bit exhausting, but we really had a great time. I really didn't get too much sleep throughout the week. After all, I was on vacation, and why waste it sleeping the night away? I had a lot of stuff to do, and James had a lot of stuff going on with his friends, so we both had a great time. I think we both want to go back in the not too distant future.

It's back to work for me tomorrow. At least I've got another journey into Washington ahead. Only this time, it's Washington, DC, on Friday.

Later.

Darkness Falls . . . Down A Well

I managed to escape the Northeast Blackout of 2003, which affected Detroit, Toronto, New York, and various nearby areas. I'm still in DC, and I probably will get delayed, bumped, or scrambled tomorrow with all my flights. After all, I've got to get back home in order to fly out again on Sunday. Like I said, I don't think I'm making much of a difference out here any more. It's not because of the job, but rather, it's the fact that I think I've finally gotten to the point that I have outgrown it. It's time for some new challenges. But that's a story for another day. Later.

Who Moved My Cheese?

Like a rat in a maze, I made my way through Washington, DC, in the middle of the night. I was trying to find my way to my hotel this evening. Unfortunately, I could see the hotel, but thanks to all of the one way streets and confusing signs, I circled the town for more than an hour within complete view of the hotel. I have now been lost 204 times in my career with this company. I should have retired after number 200 in Baltimore earlier this year. It would be nice to feel like any of my travels actually makes a difference for anyone. Oh, well. Later.

Sleepless in Seattle

I've wanted to borrow that title for a while now. I landed at SEA-TAC earlier today, and it wasn't raining, which was a big surprise. After all, it rains over nine months out of the year in Seattle. Anyhow, my colleague and I drove from the airport into Bellevue, one of the suburbs in the area. I'm still not functioning on all thrusters from last week's adventures, but I'll get by. I haven't been able to sleep very well in the last few days, and I'm sure tonight will be no exception. I don't leave for Washington, DC, until Wednesday, but I'll move to a closer airport hotel tomorrow night. Back to work for me. Later.

Escape From The Third Ring Of Hell

I'm back at home, after escaping from Phoenix. This week really wasn't supposed to happen. I traveled across the country to Durham, NC, and caught the last flight out to Phoenix. I woke up at a reeeeeeally early hour for a conference call that never happened. I still have my cold, apparently. I had terrible muscle spasms throughout the trip, and I fell down on a short set of stairs after one of my meetings, and sprained my ankle, once again. I'm taking the rest of the week (or at least what's left of it) off. Next week, it's Washington state and Washington, DC, in that order. Later.