Sheep Guarding Llama

Today we have to drive, there is not too much alternative.  The trip has to be done.  We were at the Hampton Inn in Fishkill when we woke up this morning.  Everyone slept in to a good, reasonable time.  Dominica was up first around eight thirty and I got up around nine.  The girls slept in for a while yet.  Dominica showered and got ready and then went down and got breakfast in the hotel while I showered and got ready.  Then when she returned I went down and got breakfast myself (bagel and a muffin) and brought back some cereal (Lucky Charms and Honey Nut Cheerios) for the girls.

When I got back up to the room it was nearly ten and the girls were attempting to not get up yet.  But we had to get moving so they had to get up.  We packed up and were probably on the road around ten thirty.  We were not looking forward to this at all.  There was snow coming down even before we left.  We were hoping for a clear day but that was not very realistic to expect.

Today I led the way and Dominica followed me in the Acadia with the kids.  This made a huge difference in how she felt driving.  She was able to watch me drive and gauge how the road was off of what I was doing which made things much easier for her.  We were moving pretty slowly, only doing about forty to fifty miles per hour when we were lucky and dropping far below from time to time.  The Interstate 84 bridge over the Hudson had its official speed limit dropped to just thirty five miles per hour due to the weather.

We were able to move along pretty consistently and that was very important.  We did not make great time but we made stable time.  Our first stop was about two hours into the drive, Dominica wanted to stop at a rest stop.  I checked in with her there and she said that she was feeling pretty good because she was able to follow me and she was not really having any issues.  So we decided to press on and see if we could make it the whole way.  We really do not want to have to stop today if at all possible.

The girls were doing well today too.  They were in a good mood after being in the hotel last night and knowing that they will get to see grandpa as soon as we arrive.  Every time that I checked in on them they were very happy.  On the drive I finished reading “One Summer: America 1927” and then continued reading “Made in America.”

Driving the twenty foot U-Haul was exhausting.  It handled pretty well but I had to be very attentive the entire time and my feet and legs were never comfortable.  It is not a fun way to drive all day.

We only stopped twice on the entire drive today, the first time at the rest stop and the second time was at the Kanona Pilot travel plaza to fuel up again and to let dad know how close that we were.

Overall the drive went better than expected but we were very thankful to be pulling into dad’s a little after five.  We were so ready to be out of the car.

I set up the MacBook in the kitchen and got online right away to check in with work.  Shortly thereafter dad and I drove down to Pavilion and picked up pizza from the place that used to be Davis’ Pizza (I still have no idea what the name of that place is.)

We were very happy to have some dinner and get to relax with nothing to really do tonight.  We are very worn out.  We got off to bed at a decent time, probably around eleven.  The girls were awake a bit after we were, at least Luciana was.  They are so excited to be at grandpa’s.  The living room is, of course, strewn with toys.  Luciana runs into the house, opens the hall closet and has many toys out before we ever manage to even get up the stairs on most visits.

I managed to get a full night of sleep last night, at least seven hours.   Today is going to be rough.  We were up around eight.  We were supposed to get the UHaul truck around nine but we were overwhelmed with all of the stuff that needed to be done yet this morning.  There was so much packing yet to do before the truck was here or our professional movers was here.  Dominica called Bob, our mover, and rescheduled him from ten thirty to “we will call you when we are ready.”

We did some packing but had to run out and grab the truck at ten because they UHaul place closes at eleven and if we didn’t hurry we would not be able to get the truck today.  They had to call to tell us or we probably would have missed it.  The girls and I were waiting to go but Dominica had started doing other packing and had planned on waiting to get the truck.  So we are very lucky that they called when they did.

We got the truck no problem.  It was the same place that we rented the van from last time and were so happy with.  It was a little funny, actually, because last time we were doing the rental van and I was just about to go to the Amazon and Facebook interviews that ended up leading to the job at Change but Change was not in the cards yet.  This time I got to talk to the same guy and fill him in on everything that had happened.  It turns out that his wife is from Spain, in Galicia and he has been there several times.

While I was getting the truck back to the house Dominica and the girls went to Walmart to get chocolate milk and a few other emergency supplies to be sure that we would be ready for being on the road for a while.  She had forgotten that I did not have a house key.  I ended up hanging out outside with our neighbor Louis until she and the girls got back.  That was handy as we exchanged contact information in case we need to reach him when we are away.

It was about eleven when we were back and working on the house.  We called Bob and had him head down to start packing.  Dominica and I worked on getting as much more stuff as possible packed although Bob arrived pretty quickly, by eleven thirty, so it was time to start getting things really onto the truck.

Bob helped me get the truck, which I had parked across the street in the visitor parking area, backed up to the house and then we got right to loading boxes.  The first bit went pretty well.  We had lots of boxes ready and a lot of large furniture so that part was relatively easy.  Dominica tried to direct things while packing up as much stuff as she could but there was a lot of stuff still to pack which made things really difficult.

The packing was exhausting.  There was so much to do and we only had one person helping us. Although that was really a blessing because if we had more movers packing the truck everything would have been packed in no time and there would not have been time for Dominica to work on packing up the little stuff around the house.

It was thirty-four degrees for most of the day and dropped to freezing when the sun went down.  We started off with it being pretty clear but after not too long we got snow, then later we got sleet and by late afternoon we had heavy snow and driving sleet.  Even with it being so cold I was completely drenched with sweat and wearing nothing by a polo shirt, no jacket at all.  We even turned the house temperature down to fifty.  The weather was really worrying us as it was just getting worse and worse but there was nowhere for us to sleep in the house.  My rule was that one way or another we had to make it to Fishkill tonight to get us past the mountains on our side of the river.  If we could get there tonight I would be okay with it although getting all the way to dad’s tonight is by goal.

As it was we had Bob stay for about six hours.  The first three hours were really productive.  The last three was pretty wasteful.  Lots of little things and trying to figure things out.  It was so hard trying to determine what to do for the last few hours.

At about five Dominica sent me back to Walmart to get a lock for the truck (our existing one had rusted out) and to get more garbage bags as we had run out.  We were throwing out so much stuff.  Easily a dozen thirty or thirty-three gallon garbage bags of just trash left the house and another five of donations were still in the house when we were done and at least one large back of recycling!  I cannot believe that so much stuff was in our house.

When I got back from Walmart, where I had to really resist hitting McDonald’s to get food because I was craving it like crazy, Bob had already gone and Dominica had about an hour and a half of packing left in front of us.  We went as fast as we could and were probably on the road around eight thirty.

Dominica led and I followed in the truck.  She had a hard time driving in the snow and was not very happy.  The truck did pretty well, I was impressed with the handling for such a large vehicle.  I had very little problem driving it although there were some times that I had literally zero right side visibility and was not sure exactly what to do.

We made it to Fishkill where Dominica tried to stop at the McDonald’s for me (we had not eaten all day!) but missed the driveway.  We pulled into the big gas station on the northeast corner of the Interstate 84 and fueled up there.  Dominica came over and told me that she really could not go on tonight.  The road is hard for her to handle and the snow in the dark was too much for her.

There was a Hampton Inn right there by the gas station sitting right at the entrance ramp to I84 so we called there and they had plenty of rooms.  When we got there we were one of only four or five rules that were occupied, probably, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  We got a two double bed room which was nice and comfortable.  Not super cheap but we always know that we are going to get something really nice with a Hilton hotel and we get points for it so we like that.

As soon as we got into the room I headed back out alone to go to the McDonald’s to get food for the family.  While I was out I realized why I was craving McD’s French fries so much because they are really salty and I lost so much salt during the day from all of the sweat.  So that make much more sense.

I brought the food back and we settled into the room for the night.  We pretty much just ate and went right to bed.  We were completely worn out.  We had nothing left.  I took a hot shower for a while to relax a bit.  That felt good.  My feet, especially my right foot, were in a lot of pain.  I needed to get off of them.  I was thankful that we were not driving any longer as just driving the truck was hurting my foot a lot.

Luciana won the “sleeping with daddy” lotto so we took the one bed and Liesl and Dominica took the other one.  Liesl had an iPad plugged into the wall and opted to watch The Wiggles Go Bananas which blew our minds.  It has been years, easily half of her lifetime, since we have seen her watch that!  We were like “what year is it!?!?”  Liesl was just laughing and laughing watching it.  I wonder how much of it she really remembers and how much she just feels generally nostalgic about it.  Of course, she might watch it often without us necessarily knowing but I do not feel that she does.

Luciana fell asleep almost instantly, long before the rest of us.  She had been asking to be able to go to bed at least an hour before we had left the Peekskill house!

The hotel room was so warm that I opened the window in the room all of the way for a while before we got into bed. Even with it being only twenty-one degrees outside the room was way too warm.  I had had the heater off since we got into the room too.  So we decided to just leave the window open a few inches all night.  We were very glad that we did as even by morning it was never as cold as we would have liked it to have been.

I played about thirty minutes of Trivia Crack before drifting off to sleep.  So glad to be in bed.  These last three days have really done a number on me.  I am pretty happy that we are stuck with the stop tonight and the slower week now (because of the stop tonight we cannot attempt the crazy “drive to Houston eight hours per day over the course of four days” thing that Dominica had been pushing hard for us to do which was going to make both the drive and my work just impossible plus was going to cost a fortune in hotel bills too while not giving the kids any time with the family up here before getting down to Texas while only getting us to Texas two days earlier at best.)  So now we will be at dad’s most of the week and probably going to Ohio on Thursday morning and leaving Ohio to head to Texas on Friday night.  At least that is the plan.  We will have to see what the weather ends up being like before we make final plans.

It is always hard figuring out how to write the daily update when I am awake all night long.  My day started just after they had figured out that we could fly last night so we were just taking off from San Francisco airport (SFO) as it became today.

I had been watching the Argentinian film Corazon de Léon which is a bit of a crazy romantic comedy made all the weirder because it is a movie (pelicula, one of my few solid Spanish words) about a midget except instead of getting an actual midget to play the role they took an actor of average height (about one inch shorter than me) and filmed him separately from the other actors putting him on oversized furniture and whatnot.  The effect kind of works and kind of is just that odd uncanniness that makes you always uncomfortable.  His size relative to other people is not uniform, sometimes he is nearly the size of a normal person and sometimes he is ridiculously tiny.  And you can tell often that there are green screens, failed forced perspective or split screens with obvious lines right down the center of the movie.  Overall the movie was pretty good, cute and entertaining but definitely odd.  No doubt about that.  I liked that it was a South American film, always nice to see a movie set in an interesting and different locale.

We were in the air and had a very rough first half of the flight.  We were thrown all over the place for much of the flight.  It was possibly the roughest flight that I have ever had, at least in a large aircraft.  It was really something.

I wanted to try napping but just was not tired, especially with the crazy turbulence.  So I watched The Bourne Identity which I have not seen in quite a while.  Delta has a great selection of free movies on the flight.

There was time at the end of my flight so I watched a Brazilian film in Portuguese called Os Homens São de Marte… E é pra Lá que Eu Vou!  It was pretty good although I was starting to fall asleep for a bit of it so did not catch it all and did not see the very ending.

The plane got into Atlanta a few hours late, but I still had an hour to make it to the next leg of my trip.  So not a bad layover really.  I had no issue getting onto the next plane, the little plane going to White Plains.

I did not get so lucky as to have a row to myself on the second leg but I did have  the aisle which was nice as there was not enough head room against the window.  On this leg I just listened to my book on my iPod as there was nothing to watch.  This was only an hour and a half, not bad at all.

Once I got to White Plains I went inside and my girls were in the airport waiting for me!  I was so glad to see them.  They surprised me as I came around the corner at baggage claim.  I am so happy to be back home.

We had to wait for my luggage, but only for a minute or two.  It was the third one out on the carousel.

We drove back to Peekskill and went right to the downtown diner that Dominica has been wanting me to try out.  This is the same diner that we started using just recently but apparently it has since changed hands and is still a diner but is now a Guatemalan place.  Dominica and her parents had figured that out just recently.

The food was good but I was so tired.  We ate and then went back to the house.  Then it was right to bed for me.  I was so tired.  Completely exhausted.

It was probably two, maybe three at the latest, when I got into bed.  Liesl was already in bed waiting to snuggle.  I was asleep in no time.  Soon Luciana came up and climbed into bed with us too.

The three of us ended up sleeping for many hours.  It was dark, maybe as late as seven, when I got up.  Dominica had been packing more while we were napping.

Dominica and I spent the evening packing as much as we could until around eleven when we just had to call it a night in order to get some sleep so that we will be functional tomorrow.

After going to bed so early last night, I was up shortly after four this morning.  Probably not the best for having a good flight tonight as I am going to be past exhausted and long ready for bed even before I board my very first plane.  It is going to be a long, long day.  I do not get to New York until noon tomorrow with no chance to sleep between now and then unless some miracle happens and I am able to rest a little on the plane, but I do not expect that at all.

I tried staying in bed as long as I could but by five it was clear that I was not going to fall back asleep.  So I got up, did a little work and packed up the hotel room.  I headed out around eight thirty.

I checked out of the hotel and started my walk.  For the first time this week it was really raining.  Really, really raining.  There is a major storm hitting San Francisco today.  Not only did I have a nearly two mile walk in the rain, but a two mile walk while pulling my suitcase behind me and carrying both the laptop and the CPAP bags.  It was a very long feeling walk.

When I got to the office I was completely soaked.  Everyone was pretty shocked when I got to the office.  I’m told that in California, people just do not walk in the rain.  Apparently I am a tough New Yorker.

I spent a lot of the day in meetings.  Lots of “getting ready for me to go” kind of stuff.  This is my last day in the office until, most likely, late June.  So a lot of little things to wrap up.

This evening, as my last thing in the office, I gave the weekly demo presentation for our team!  So I got to get up in front of the entire company and give a quick technology talk.

After work I hung out for nearly an hour before actually leaving the office.  Then I walked almost exactly a mile from the office to the Mission and Sixteenth BART station.  It was raining pretty hard again and the wind was really whipping through.  It was so windy that at one point I actually got hit by a rock!

I got to the BART station and took the train, which was completely backed, to San Bruno where Sarah picked me up and delivered me up to her and Jeff’s house.

Jeff has been in pain for days with a killer headache that he cannot shake at all.  He has been in incredible pain.  I hung out there till around nine.  We got dinner in from Shari’s which Sarah ran down the street to pick up.  I got their pie shake this time, it is their signature thing.  And it was delicious, but I think that I would rather just have a normal pie normally.

Sarah dropped me at the airport and I went pretty quickly through security and was to my gate nice and early.  I just listened to my Audible book for a while until getting onto the plane.  My flight was delayed by thirty minutes since early in the day because of the weather. So instead of leaving at 10:55 PM we were scheduled to leave at 11:25 giving me extra time to just sit.  I did hit a bar and have one Blue Moon while waiting and had a nice conversation with a California college student named Matt who was at the packed bar next to me.

Once on the plane I started watching a movie while we were waiting.  I was really, really fortunate that on a completely full, not one seat left over, plane that I somehow was the only person in my entire three seat row!  The flight attendant even stopped and looked at me and I was like “I know, right?  It’s like winning the seating lotto!”  So I had lots of space to myself.

They came on the PA system pretty quickly and told us that the plane was not able to take off at wind speeds of greater than thirty miles per hour and we were currently sitting at forty two which meant that we were stuck.  We could, in theory, use different runways with different wind patterns except that they are all shorter and we were ten thousand pounds over weight to safely use those runways.

So we had to sit tight for a while and wait for the wind to die down, which it didn’t.  We sat for a long time.  We got regular announcements as to the status, but it was never good.  At one point the airport management came onto the plane after the pilots had left and explained the situation and explained that they were carefully watching connection times and would be in contact with Atlanta airport to work out options for people and were already removing people from the flight that had no means of making it to their connecting flights.  Luckily for me, for once, I have a really long layover in Atlanta so I can absorb at least four hours of delays in San Francisco and still make my connections there.  So I was not really worried yet.

We had pretty much accepted that we were going nowhere tonight and figured that we would all be heading to a hotel soon when suddenly the pilots dashed onto the plan, sealed the doors and we were off.  There was a lull in the wind and we were going to make it out during that window come hell or high water.  And we did.  We only had a few planes ahead of us on the runway and we took off as quickly as possible, only about two or three hours later than originally planned.  I was quite impressed that they pulled it off.

The take off was tough, I was nearly thrown from the aisle to the window from the swerving of the plane with the cross winds tossing it around.  Even once we were in the air the turbulence was something awful.  But we were underway and going to be in Atlanta in time for me to make it back home on my planned flights.  So even though there were major delays, it did not actually affect me in any way.  I just sat on my airplane (where I had three seats to myself and a movie to watch) instead of sitting in the airport later on.  Six of one….

It was a nice, new Boeing 737-900 plane with the nicer seats, really nice built in entertainment system, USB chargers and full electrical outlets.  I have been pretty happy with Delta over the last several flights that I have had with them.

Today is my next to last day in San Francisco.  I can’t believe that I have been here for two weeks already.  The time has actually passed by very quickly, although I really, really miss my family and cannot wait to be back home on Saturday afternoon.

Normal morning.  Up before six.  Spent some time in the hotel and then walked to the office on the early side leaving just after eight instead of at nine.  That got me to the office more than an hour before I needed to be there but made for a cooler walk and much less sunlight directly in my face.  The brightness of the nine o’clock walk, if there are no clouds, is a big frustrating as I walk directly into the sun on the way in.

At lunch today I got taken out for a full infrastructure team lunch which was fun.  We got Thai at a place that I have been walking past every evening on my way home and always look in wondering if I should stop in but had not yet.  It was a nice walk over there too, so my distance for the day is adding up quickly.

I had to leave the office early, just after three thirty, because this evening I am meeting with Loggly at their offices downtown.  I walked back to the hotel first and freshened up before heading out again.  The walk to their offices was another thirty minutes past the hotel, so a full hour on foot from the Change offices.  A pretty hefty walk.

I got the Loggly’s offices at a few minutes past five.  They got dinner for me and we had a really nice meeting for maybe two hours. It was very productive, I think.  They gave me a very cool goodies bag full of stuff for Dominica and the girls and the bag itself was really nice too.  I know that Dominica is going to love the shirt and the bag.

I walked back to the hotel and grabbed an evening snack.  I went to bed pretty early, maybe by nine.  I want to get lots of sleep and I need to get up on the early side tomorrow and get the hotel room all packed up.  I leave the hotel in the morning.

Overall today I walked 16,600 steps and 7.9 miles.