Sheep Guarding Llama

Saturday. Good morning from the Embassy Suites in San Jose, California.  I was up at a good time this morning.  No luck on shifting this cough, though.  I went down early to the restaurant and had tea and a bite to eat.  Max came down a bit later and eventually Anton joined us.

We hung out for probably two hours in the restaurant and had our breakfast and I charged my phone while down there.  Then up to our rooms and packed up.

The original plan was to leave the hotel at just before ten as my flight was just before noon.  But I got delayed by a bit so did not need to leave until a quarter after ten.

San Jose airport is so easy to deal with.  I checked my luggage and was right through security.  Turns out I could have skipped checking the luggage this time, this airplane was essentially empty.  But the last one was completely full. There is no guessing.

I was right through security, nice and easy, and had loads of time to wonder about the airport.  We boarded at 12:45, about an hour late.  We got off of the ground and the pilot put the pedal down.  The flight that was supposed to be three and a half hours was done in two hours and forty minutes, not even enough time for the short in flight Disney movie, Coco, to finish (which is good that I didn’t try to watch it, then.)  We went so fast that we made up for all of the delay and landed early!

Dominica and the girls picked me up.  It was about six when we I got in.

On the way home we hit the pharmacy for some medicine.  Dominica is not feeling well either and I’m worse now having flown again.  That does not improve things.

Then we stopped at China One, our usual Chinese place that we normally get to deliver, and ordered our dinner so that we could just take it home with us.  That saves about ten dollars between not paying the delivery fee or the tip.

We took our Chinese dinner home and the girls just watched YouTube while Dominica and I watched some Allo, Allo on Netflix.  It was well after seven by the time that we got home, easily almost eight by the time that we managed to sit down and eat.

I was pretty worn out and was in bed before eleven, which is pretty early for me.  The family is supposed to be going to Houston tomorrow where they will be staying for the week.  So we have to get up and get driving tomorrow.  Then I am going to be home alone for an entire week to, in theory, catch up on work that needs to be done.  Mostly development work.

Friday. Today is my conference day out here in San Jose, California.  It’s a beautiful California day, very nice weather.  I got some very good rest last night and am hopeful that my couch will not be so terrible today like it was yesterday.  That was really something awful.

I had to be up pretty early today, and actually woke up on my own around five thirty.  So time for a nice, warm shower, before going downstairs to meet up with Anton and Max for breakfast in the hotel at the Embassy Suites, which we did at six thirty.  Then at seven fifteen we were off to find the Marriott where are conference is being held.

We did pretty well getting over to the Marriott on time. This morning is Storage Field Days and we are presenting on Virtual Tape Libraries.  Not the sexiest of topics, but it seemed to be well received at the show.

I had a really rough morning of coughing prior to the talk, but I managed to make it all of the way through my section without coughing at all.  Of course, the moment that I was done I had to run away to another room and just hack and hack.

After the talk was done, we went over to the Hilton for an early lunch.  We were actually there at a quarter till eleven, which is a bit early for lunch for anyone.  It was so soon after breakfast that Max and I just split some fish fry.

After lunch we went to meet with BackBlaze and got a tour of their offices in San Mateo.

After touring BackBlaze, we drove out to Half Moon Bay to get authentic seafood on the water. We looked up the top rated place on Yelp and headed out.

We actually took much of the same drive that Dominica and I did several years ago when we came out together when I was presenting at Pertino the first time.

We found the coolest little local seafood place.  The food was amazing.  We sat outside. I just went for the house specials: clam chowder and fried calamari.  This might have been the best calamari that I have ever had.  Sadly, there was no way that I could finish it.  There has just been so much food today, I can’t keep eating.

After second lunch it was back to the hotel.  About five thirty we were back.  We were all pretty tired and my cough was just killing me.  I feel awful.

I took a shower, nice and hot, which helped my breathing a bit.  Gave me somewhat of a rest from the continuous coughing.  And I laid down then for an hour and didn’t move.  I didn’t fall asleep, but the rest and the lack of movement really helped.  I felt a bit better and was about to go out around seven when we reconvened.

We went back to the same steak place that we went to last night.  We got wine and I had the BBQ salmon tonight, which was excellent. Nothing but the salmon, though.  I was not that hungry, but turned out that I was hungry enough to finish the fish.

It was an early night.  We could not have been out past ten.  Everyone was tired and after the wine we just had to get some sleep.

Thursday. Had to be up at six this morning so that I could shower, get dressed, and get off to DFW Airport so that I could catch my morning flight out to California.  It’s not bad, only a four hour flight on American Airlines which is normally pretty comfortable.

We left the house at eight and ran into only a little traffic getting to the airport out at 114.  Dominica and the girls dropped me off and I got right through security nice and easy.  I checked my bag as the flight is completely full.

Security has changed at DFW and they are using a “single giant bin” approach instead of the “string of bins too small for anything.”  It seemed to work pretty well.

Flight left on time.  It is a four hour flight from Dallas to San Jose.  On the flight they played Justice League, I tried not to watch it, but it was on shared screens.  Certainly the worst movie I’ve been subjected to in as long as I can remember.  That was a train wreck.  How can cinema have gotten this bad?

I read a bit of Nexos magazine on the flight.  I am amazed by how much Spanish I am able to read, now.

It was about eleven thirty when I arrived in San Jose, local Pacific time.  Two hours time different from Texas.  Max picked me up at the airport and took me to the Embassy Suites so that I could get checked in.  Then I had about an hour to unpack and relax before we met again in the lobby.  We drove up to San Francisco to pick up Anton who was arriving from Seattle.

After getting Anton, it was time for coffee from Pete’s, and then off to find some lunch.  We went to a local steakhouse and had some amazing wine, and I had Chilean seabass, and chipotle cheddar mac and cheese.  It was all excellent.

After dinner, back to the hotel for an hour and a half of prepping for the presentation tomorrow.  Once that was done, off to bed.  Probably by around ten. We have to be up very early tomorrow morning.

Wednesday.  Our one day at home between traveling.  Just arrived by car from Missouri last night, and tomorrow morning I leave for California.  This is it, the one day at home in a month.

The girls have their homeschool book club event at the Carrollton Public Library today, that was the big thing that we wanted to be sure that we made it back for.  That was about one that they went there.  They had a good time and got new books for next month.  Liesl is reading “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White, now.

After book club they were invited to go to the playground with some friends, which they did for a while and had a really nice time.  This homeschool club is great for them.

After the playground, the girls set up in the living room with one of those “dig for dinosaur bones” kits.  They went through the entire thing this afternoon.

Got all packed up this evening and went to bed as early as I could muster.  Long day of traveling tomorrow.

Tuesday. We started the day at Paul’s house.  I woke up just early enough to see him off to work.  Dominica and the girls were still asleep.

Everyone got up and we were on the road at a decent time this morning, probably around ten.  Paul stopped back to lock up the house as we left, so everyone got to say goodbye before we got onto the road.

Immediately upon leaving Cuba, Missouri we were met with some of the worst winds that I have ever encountered while driving.  It was completely insane.  It was all that I could do to hold the car on the road as we went down the highway and it just kept going and going.

It was a terrible drive.  We made bad time and it was terribly fatiguing.  We had to cut south and drive through Arkansas in the hopes of reducing the wind a little, which might have helped, but we really can’t tell.  The wind continued through Oklahoma.  So I had to fight it the entire day, there was really no relief.

So our drive was long and tiring.  We were very glad to finally get back home to Dallas this evening.

We had a lot of unpacking to do when we arrived.  First, though, we had to inspect the house and see how bad things are with us having been gone for so long and there having been so much range.  We were amazed to find that there was no visible water damage or anything.  We half expected to find the house was not even standing any longer, but things were just fine!  It’s a bit of a miracle.

So we took an hour and unloaded the Quest in the dark.  It’s all empty except for the dresser now which we will get tomorrow.

A short evening, some food, and time for some sleep.