Sheep Guarding Llama

Packed up the hotel and put everything into the Spark and headed to the office this morning.  I am now “in motion” on my way back down to Texas.  Today is Friday and my last work day before my two weeks of training and vacation.  Can’t wait to get down to Texas and see my girls.  Originally we had thought that I would not be getting a chance to see them today and would have to wait until Thursday but because Dominica has been so sick with pink eye that can’t happen so they are waiting for me at home!

Work couldn’t be over with soon enough.  I really had nothing to do today, for a variety of reasons.  Spent much of the day orchestrating getting to the flight this evening.  Since there was so little going on at the office I ended up leaving pretty early, around two thirty if I remember correctly, to get to the airport.  No reason to take any risks on traffic today.  There was nothing for me to do in the office.

A coworker, who reads SGL (yo!) drove me to the Doubletree Hotel where I caught the Red Dot shuttle to the airport.  Only $64 which is nice.  Dominica found that for me to make the day easier.  That really was the cheapest and easiest way to get to the airport, half the price of a taxi or hired car.

Got to the airport plenty early, which really was a lot of peace of mind for both Dominica and I since the last thing that we needed was missing the flight tonight.  It was a long, boring wait but whatever.  I was on vacation and heading home to my girls!

I spent a few hours at the end of the terminal Sam Adams bar and had a few beers and hung out with the passengers getting ready to head out.

The flight was fine this evening.  Got delayed on the tarmac for over an hour due to congestion but the pilots got clearance to open her up and take a shorter path and we were only fifteen minutes or so arriving at DFW.  Not bad at all.

Art and Danielle picked me up at the airport and delivered me back to the house.  Luciana was already in bed, so I didn’t get to see her other than popping in to check on her before going to bed, but Dominica had told Liesl that she could stay up until I got home.  She was so excited to see me!  I feel so much better being back home with the family.  I’ve really been struggling being away from them for so long.  Hopefully I never have to do that again.

Did not stay up too late tonight.  Liesl was in bed shortly after I got home and so were the rest of us.  Now the long adventure of travel begins!

This is it, I am in my hotel in Connecticut this morning and will check out tomorrow morning and am on my way to Texas tomorrow afternoon.  I can’t wait to get down there and see my family and take a much needed two week vacation.

I walked to the office this morning.  One of my rare chances to do so.

Pretty quiet day at work.  Nothing to report.  Since I am new and leaving tomorrow for vacation, I am not expecting anything much.

After work it was just back to the hotel.  My last night alone in Connecticut!  I am so glad that this stint is finally going to be over.  I have really been missing my family.

I checked out of the Econolodge this morning.  They realized that I was a rewards member today and said that they really appreciated having me there, they really need the rewards members going there, apparently.  I guess that we show up differently in the reporting systems.  I supposed it tells corporate that their loyal customers choose the site rather than being chosen at random by people who don’t go on to utilize the rest of the chain.

Very slow day in the office today.  My boss has been out sick and my initial training is done.  But since I am leaving to head back to Texas the day after tomorrow it is not really that big of a deal.  I just have a couple of really slow days leading up to my two weeks of vacation.  Not a bad thing at all.

At the end of the day I was out at another site and went directly from there to the Hotel Zero Degrees to get checked in.  I’m glad to be back there.  And glad that I don’t have to pay for it – otherwise I would be at the Econolodge indefinitely.

I was feeling pretty lonely this evening and Dominica suggested that I go to the hotel bar and see actual people.  So I gave that a try.  It was packed there but not anyone being sociable at the bar.  I got some food, which was excellent, and a cocktail but did not hang around overly long.

Back in the hotel room I mostly posted on Spiceworks and listened to the book that I am working on, “Ten Big Ones” which I am a little over halfway through.  The sound of the book at least helps to keep the hotel from being so empty.

I went to bed early, probably around ten thirty.  Dominica messaged me just as I was going to bed to say that she and the girls had watched Disney’s “The Incredibles” tonight and that the girls had loved it.  They are all on a Disney movie marathon to get Liesl ready for Disney World next week.  We will be heading there just one week from tomorrow!  I can’t believe it.  Only two more days before I am on my way to Texas myself.

Art and Danielle hit the road to drive from New York to Dallas tonight.  They are driving more or less straight through as they have work to do on Thursday afternoon down there.  A long drive.  They hit some snow so turned south early on I79 from Erie to get away from it.  So they are heading through West Virginia – a way that none of us have driven before but partially the way that I had wanted to try when I was headed northbound recently.

My plan is to attempt walking to the office tomorrow now that I am at the closer hotel.  Why drive and deal with parking every day when I could get exercise instead.  My parking is free and not that hard, but still.  If the car can not move for a few days, best to take advantage of it.  I miss being able to walk to work.

In the Econolodge today. Off to work this morning.

Today is the last day of my training, or formal training at least, for the new job.  Spent the entire day working to wrap that up.  I didn’t want anything to linger on until tomorrow so I stayed late, not real late just about an extra hour, to make sure that nothing was going to make it to tomorrow.  I want to have this just done and get to go home and relax knowing that it is all finished.

I finished reading “The Last Founding Father” this morning.  This book definitely taught me an incredible amount, far more than I ever knew previously, about the first two decades of American political history post revolution.  George Washington and John Adams I have studied quite a bit but lessso for Jefferson and nothing at all on Madison and Monroe or even John Quincy Adams, all of whom were covered quite extensively in this biography.  The War of 1812 (the Second War of Independence) was covered in far more detail than I have been exposed to previously as well.

I am now moving on to working my way through “A Concise History of the Middle East, 9^th Ed.” which I have been listening to on and off for two weeks.  I am about halfway through currently.

Another quiet evening in the hotel.  Just me and my laptop.  Dominica is feeling noticeably better today after having seen the ophthalmologist yesterday.  Much of it is probably just knowing what is wrong but she has the right medicine now too and I am sure that that is making a difference too.

I did a bit of posting on Spiceworks tonight.  And I listened to about an hour of “Ten Big Ones”, the current Janet Evanovich book that I am reading.  It’s not very good, at least not yet.  Boring, but I feel committed to the series at this point.

The alarm went off at two.  I showered and got the car packed and was on the road at two fifty.  No rain this week, thankfully.  I drove past the Ralston’s where Danielle had just left.  So she was on the road somewhere ahead of me, probably already out on 390 heading up to the Thruway by the time that I came by.

I drove over to Geneseo and stopped at Tim Horton’s to get coffee for my trip.  No snacks this time, I was good.  Then onto the highway and south.

The trip went well today.  Had to stop midway to get some gas but that was all.  The weather was nice although I saw the thermometer drop to as low as thirty six degrees while I was driving.  I’m not sure that I am ready for snow already.

I mostly listened to “The Last Founding Father” while I drove.

Traffic wasn’t a problem until I got on CT 7 heading south out of Danbury.  Then I got caught in sluggish, barely moving traffic for about an hour.  I lost a minimum of half an hour on that stretch.  That really sucked.

Work today was nothing to write home about.  Pretty quiet.  This week will be mostly quiet as I start vacation on Friday evening.

I did have to run up to a meeting at another site today around lunch time.  That was my only real break in the day.

After work I checked back into the Econolodge.  Not very exciting.  Only two days there this week, though.  That’s nice.

Quiet evening, I just stayed in the hotel all night.  Went to bed pretty early, just a little after nine.  Need to catch up on sleep after last night and the long morning drive.

Thus begins my last week leading up to my long awaited two weeks of vacation.  I leave Friday night and I will be gone for sixteen days!