Virgil
Travel Blues
by , 11-01-2008 at 10:15 PM (1839 Views)
Well I'm back. Test went a day longer than expected. I must say traveling stinks. I've got a splitting headache, I had to sit next to a smelly guy on the plane, my luggage was almost the last one out, flight was late. You have to pay for food on the plane now and have to pay to check a piece of luggage. The whole day was wasted. It's a five hour flight but with a three hour time change added, my whole Saturday is shot. Plus I feel so bloated, I'm afraid to get on a scale and see how much weight I've gained. Of course my wife was ticked I was gone so long and that it got extended an extra day. What can I say? Work is not easy. Would she prefer I not work?
But there were positives. There was a snow storm at work Tuesday. Ha! Freezing back home while I was in 95F (35C) temperature, actually over 95F. But it was a dry desert 95 and it actually felt good. But they got around 12 inches of snow in October. Haha, thank God I was away. Commuting home must have been a mess. I only got to use the pool once but it was wonderful. Happy hour every night included free drinks (that's free alcoholic beverages) and then eating out with the guys at a restaurant was usually a blast. But went straight to bed right after dinner (on days I didn't quickly check in on lit net
), too tired to even read much. I had brought a number of books to read and barely touched them other than on the airplane.
Days were long. I think it was typically working eleven hour days, and mostly outside in the heat. I've even got a nice little tan.And by then end of the week I was exhausted. I am still exhausted. But things went very well. I would say we achieved 90% of our goals and that's pretty satisfying.
I used to love to travel. There was a time when I was a young engineer when i was traveling half the month and sometimes in one stretch. I used to love to go to some part of the country I had never been and meet new folks and work on something or other for a project. Just get into an airplane and several hours later you were talking to some American with a different accent and working on something together. There was a guy I used to meet out in Arizona who was a cowboy. I'm not sure how else to describe him, other than to say he was what was left of real cowboys. He used to try to mess with my head. Heck I was a young hot shot engineer from back east and to him frankly a green foot. We got into some tussles but in the end he was a good guy. While he tried to show me up in person he made me look good to my bosses back home. I remember riding in a pick up truck with him in the Arizona desert for miles and miles, up and down those desert washes that have formed these dramatic dips, and he would smoke his cigarettes and make a point of never wearing a safety belt. I guess this was before wearing safety belts was the law, but that would not have made a difference with Jim. He said it probably made sense to wear it but he irked that some government official was telling him how run his life. That was how he was and he told me about his fishing and hunting. He was particularly into hunting elk. Well I from New York never did any of that but I was in awe of it. He tought me lots, not so much work related but in being yourself. Well, I found out a few weeks ago Jim passed on. Lung cnacer and only 62. Knowing Jim he wouldn't have changed a thing. Thanks for everything Bud.
Well, I'm back. I probably missed a bit, even though I checked in every so often.
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