So I’ve been sick for the last two days. It’s your standard issue coughing, wheezing, sore throat, Fall seasonal cold, but I’ll be glad to be rid of it. I guess it could be the continuation of what I was fighting last week or something left for me by the lovely little boy who sat next to me from Atlanta to Memphis and sneezed every 6 minutes. In either case, I’m glad it held off so I could enjoy last weekend and until I could be miserable in the privacy of my own home.
Tag Archives: Travel
Scheming…
Is it bad that I have only been back to work for three days and I’m already scheming about where I want to go on vacation next time? In between now and then, though, I have a few obligatory trips I need to make. One of my cronies from the office is getting married in October in Williamsburg so I anticipate being up there for an extended weekend and probably a “pass-through” visit to Western Maryland on my way back to Tennessee. Then of course there is the obligatory Christmas visit. After that, though, it’s pretty much an open slate. Maybe somewhere warm with a rum economy in the spring. If the euro would ever stop beating up on the dollar, I’d love to go back to Europe but I don’t foresee that happening any time in the immediate future.
It’s not so much that I’m out of good ideas as it is that I want to make these trips count since they’re getting to be pretty damned few and far between. One of the biggest problems with west Tennessee is that getting anywhere is an expedition that involves an overpriced airline ticket (for a hub airport, MEM is ridiculously expensive) out of the city or an all day drive in any direction. In the interim, I’m hoping to coax a few old friends to Memphis with the promise of world-class barbecue and… uhhhh… Bible study.
Memphis or bust…
Well, no first class upgrade this time, but no matter how great a trip has been I always seem ready to get back to where ever it is that I came from. It’s good to be back with your own stuff and your dog. It’s been an awesome trip. Great food, entertainment, gambling, booze, and even better company. Life is very, very good.
Bright light city…
It’s official. Vegas 2008 is on the calendar. Tickets are in hand. The hotel is booked. Time off has been approved. And I’ve once again prevailed upon one of my favorite travel companions to tag along with me. I mean, really, what better vacation can you think of than gambling, free booze, and a good looking broad? Life, my friends, is very, very good.
Return Leg…
Let’s just say that my desire to climb in the truck at 6:00 tomorrow morning and drive 13 hours back to West Tennessee is less than total. The last day is always the worst part of a vacation and particularly so when you’re leaving so many good friends and family on this end of the run. All-in-all, it’s been a great and much needed week. I wish it could have been three or four. For those I managed to see, it was awesome. For those I didn’t, I’m sorry the timing didn’t work out. And for everyone, remember that the interstate system runs in both directions. See ya in Memphis.
Recalling the satellites…
In the 1850’s people crossed the country in covered wagons. They died of dysentery and cholera. The trip took half a year and if they didn’t make it before winter, they could get stuck in the mountains and have to eat their friends and family just to try making it through to spring. I’ve always been amazed at people’s capacity to make this trip, but recently another thought occurred to me… How the hell did they manage to tolerate the trip without satellite radio or an integrated GPS? I can’t get halfway across town without either one of them.
First time for everything…
In 5 years of service, I’ve never turned down any task that’s come my way until yesterday. I had to give up an all expense paid trip to Kansas City because of this damned bug that keeps disappearing and then coming back a week later to kick my ass. So yeah, I said no to my first assignment ever this week and it bothers me more than it probably should. Putting self above work is sort of an unnatural act for me. It goes against my basic instincts.
In this case, though, I think getting on a plane yesterday afternoon would have done god-awful things to the inside of my head. Apparently if you let a sinus infection fester for too long, it turns into something really bad… Which helps explain why I’ve been feeling like my brain is trying to sneak down the back of my throat and make a run for it. Fortunately, my case is only regular bad and should be cleared up in a week or two with the help of our food friend penicillin. I’ve said it once, but I’ll say it again… Hurray for better living though science!
Big old jet airliner…
Other than the obvious work-related foolishness, there really hasn’t been all that much going on this week. I’ve done a little photography in the evenings, but the light wasn’t terribly conducive to getting the long shots that I prefer. I do have a couple from down around the World War II and Lincoln Memorials that turned out much better than expected, though. Hopefully I’ll get them posted when I get back to Memphis and after I’ve had a chance to tweak the color settings a bit. All in all, it’s been a quiet couple of days here in the District. Good hotel, good food, good work. At the moment, I’m at a loss for things to bitch about… and you know how that drives me crazy. Even with that said, I’m ready to hop on that big old jet airliner and get back to the house.
Live, from the 5th Circle of Hell; or From Atlanta with Love
There are a few posts from this week’s trip and you’ll be reading them in whichever order I feel like fleshing out my notes. There is also one that will be written, but not posted without the consent of the other parties involved. Barring that consent, it will remain a permanent part of my personal archive and never see the light of day. Either way, it’s there as a part of the record. You know, for 300 years from now when someone finds one of my old flash drives buried in the rubble of civilization and has to reconstruct what life was like in the 21st century based on only a handfull of snarky blog posts.
I digress, however, from the work at hand. I hate the airport at Atlanta. It’s over crowded both in terms of flight operations and the sheer number of our oblivious fellow airport patrons (did you really think I was going to use the phrase “fellow traveler?”). All the early flights are sold out, so here I sit until 7:30, when, I hope, the skies over the ALT are not full of thunderheads. It’s summer in Atlanta so I’m not holding my breath. This place is some kind of hellish business traveler’s purgatory where time takes on no actual significance.
It’s only saving grace is that it has indoor smoking if you know where to look; thus proving that even hell has its perks. Thank God I’m easy to please.
Itinerary…
Spend enough time doing what I do and you’ll learn that flight plans are never for sure until you are taxing up to the terminal at your destination. I filed all my paperwork this morning that put Uncle’s official stamp of approval on my travel plans… Thirty minutes later I was walking to the shredder with those plans.
You should always be suspicious when the boss wanders over to you and starts the conversation with “since you’re going to be on the road Monday anyway…” So, instead of a nice quiet flight back to Memphis on Monday morning, I’m going to reroute through Atlanta for a 10 hour layover so I can take a meeting downtown before heading back to the airport to catch my newly scheduled evening flight to Memphis.
There ought to be a law against forcing someone to go through two airport screenings in one day… especially when one of them is Atlanta.
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