A Different Day

Well I’m in my new location I’ll be writing from over the next few months – Savannah, GA.

Savannah is about a 4.5 hour drive from the house. Not worth flying since I’d have to fly to Atlanta or Charlotte and connect. So I opted to drive this week.

It was strange not to feel rushed to get to the airport. I woke up, went to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned, went home and packed my bag then drove south. I didn't have to take off my jacket and shoes, x-ray the bag, pull out my zip-lock back of liquids or any of that. I was able to hang my clothes in the car so I won't have to iron in the morning. So to say today is a "Different Day" certainly describes it.

I did have to be here for a phone call in the late afternoon, but the worst case would be I’d pull off on the side of the road to take the call. The skies were foggy all the way from Myrtle Beach to Savannah. In Charleston I could not see the top of the bridge until I was on it. And when I got to Savannah I couldn’t see the top of the bridge even while I was on it.

Just north of Charleston the basket weavers were selling the baskets on the side of the road. It's amazing how many stands there are and even more how much they charge for them.

Savannah is a really beautiful southern city that reminds me a lot of a small New Orleans. The Live Oak trees and Spanish moss everywhere. There are beautiful city squares and the riverfront. I look forward to getting to explore some here.

I’m sure I’ll have to go eat at Paula Deans sometime. I know she loves cooking rich foods. I’ll have to look and see if she has deep fried butter (no it’s not real, but she does love butter).

Do I Have to Do All The Work Around Here?

If you ever wonder what I do for a living this picture should sum it up. This week was the go-live for the Inventory project at the hospital. Take a guess which person in this picture is me.


One Clue - I'm wearing a paper hat! Just like I did when I worked in fast foods. I guess my career has come full circle now.

The Road Home

Last week I was in Portland and the airfare was too expensive to take the most direct route home. So to save about $600 on the airfare I took the route that had me stop in Minneapolis and Atlanta on the way home. For a few hours time to save that much seems worth it.

The day started out with the typical Delta Delays. We were an hour late leaving Portland due to runway construction and weather in Minneapolis. Four hours late leaving Minneapolis for Atlanta and one hour late leaving Atlanta to head home. Total delays in one day were 6 hours.

I gave up the thoughts of ever landing on-time a long time back. I make my reservations and plans to always be one hour late. It’s really a shame but I’m more accurate than the airlines and I don’t stress about when I’m getting there.

I did however have a fun experience that was a first for me. I actually had a coupon to use wireless internet on the plane. So I hooked up on the 2 hour flight from MSP to ATL and it was a lot faster than I expected. The good thing I figured out is that you can hit the wireless and go to Delta’s website for free. So I was able to see the status of my next flights, find out where we were landing and even could have re-booked a backup flight if necessary. I’d have never thought of internet on the airplanes when I started my travel career. I just hope they never allow phones.

Today I’m back on my way to Houston. My flight was on-time. I am meeting a co-worker in Houston and I arrive about an hour before him. This will be the day we will be ahead of schedule.

One Year and an Eternity ago

Last year I changed jobs over the July 4th weekend. I left a job that I had worked for almost 4 years to go back to my previous employer with a lot more travel. I left on July 3 from one job and started the new job July 7.

It seems like an eternity since I came back. I always say a month doing this type work feels like a year. You are running from place to place, week to week and the time just flies by. I have no idea how many air miles I’ve flown in the past year but I’d say it’s very close to 150,000. I know I’ve ping ponged cross country most of the year working in Los Angeles and Oregon. I started off in Houston for a few week last summer and back in that area for the 1 year mark.

Looking back it was the right move at the right time. It was a gut wrenching decision to leave a job I loved and leave people I truly cared about. Sometimes we have to spread our wings and go even if we don’t really want to do it.

Not much of a blog today… But it’s what happened a year ago in my life. Some mighty big changes that week.

What a beautiful morning…

Yesterday was a travel day. I was headed home from Portland, OR again. When I left it was about 30 degrees so we had to be de-iced before leaving. This delay worked in our favor since it gave the Sun a few more minutes to come up. The view was spectacular. I was on the right side of the plane looking out over Washington State. The mountains I get to see on that side are Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams and in the distance I am told is Mount Rainer which is south of Seattle. The mountains were so pretty with the pinks tones during the sunrise.

I will include a few pictures I took. They don’t come out as well since I was taking the picture through the window and the flash on the camera kept going off. I guess I need to learn how to use this camera.

Rainer, St. Helens & Adams



Mount St. Helens - I know this because of the flat top.


Mt. Adams

I had a very productive week. Some weeks are more rewarding than others and this was one of those weeks. I had to work my way through a software build scenario for a department I was not familiar with using features I had never used before. There was a lot of reading, testing and building going on in the evenings. I was awake 21 hours Monday working over 12 of those hours. Tuesday was an 18 hour day, Wednesday and Thursday were whimpy 12 hour days. Friday I spent 14 hours flying, connecting and driving home.

People often think the life of a business traveler is glamorous. I have to say there are certainly many perks, but there are many weeks that are like this one where you work double the hours of a typical job. Your body is run through the ringer. It’s not uncommon that we don’t sleep well, are awake very long periods of time, change 2-3 time zones, have poor dietary options.

I try my best to have a positive attitude. A long time ago I was really down about how hard my life was as a traveler on my way home one week. I took that time to reflect on the good parts of the job.

* How many people get to see the sunny side of the clouds twice a week?
* I get to eat a good and even great restaurants and it’s paid for.
* I stay in nice motels most weeks (I have had some bad ones too).
* I get to drive a wide variety of new cars each week.

Another benefit is that I don’t get caught up in office politics since I’m generally in and out. And if someone starts getting to me I remind myself that by the end of the week I’m on an airplane on the way home. I call it my countdown clock. Way back when I started this I would juggle 6-9 clients at a time so by the time I’d get back I was over anything that was tough from the previous trip.

It was then I figured just how much a positive attitude toward your job makes. I always remind myself how lucky I am to have a job I enjoy. Not everyone has that.