Sheep Guarding Llama

It was great waking up in the new hotel.  This is much nicer than what I have been used to for the last two weeks.  I’m thrilled with the new digs.

I got breakfast in the hotel this morning, which was nice.  Scrambled eggs and potatoes.  Nothing crazy but can’t get eggs at the Econolodge and really shouldn’t have breakfast without protein.

Had to pack up the hotel room, today is my last day down in Connecticut for the week, and into the office.

Very slow day at the office today.  Nothing scheduled and my only work was to study.  So very few interruptions.

Had to figure out how to get the oil changed in the Spark today.  No one has the oil filter.  This has become a pretty severe problem.  Dad spent a few hours trying to find the part somewhere but had very little luck.  The Chevy dealer was the only place in the area that he was able to find it.  I tried to take my car in for service locally in Norwalk but the instant oil change place didn’t have the filter and the Chevy dealer was backlogged until next week at a minimum.

After happy hour (at the office) I hit the road. It was only a few minutes after five thirty and I made very good time getting up to Danbury and headed west on Interstate 84.  The drive went well and I was not tired at all the entire way.  I listened to a good chunk of “The Last Founding Father” which did not get me yet up to the point where James Monroe has run for President yet but it did cover a lot of the War of 1812 (the Second War of Independence) which was really fascinating because there was so much about the war that I have never been taught.  American schools seem to really just gloss over this really critical war.

Got into dad’s house around eleven, having made excellent time and having good weather.  We talked for an hour or two and then were off to bed.  Have to be up to deal with the car in the morning.

I checked out of the Econolodge this morning.  I’m approved to be in the hotel by the office tonight which will be really nice.  It is an easy walk to the office from there rather than being several miles away.  The Econolodge has been good.  It is pretty cheap, about seventy to eight dollars, and not horribly far from the office.  But it is not around the corner either and not as cheap as one might hope.  It suits by purposes.

Got into the office today.  Nothing much going on.  I studied most of the day and finished up my class material ahead of schedule.  So that seems to be going well.

After work today I switched hotels and moved into the hotel right down the street from the office which is great.  That’s at a minimum ten minutes closer and a far nicer hotel.  The hotel room was really nice.  I resisted eating in the restaurant, though, as there was no need for extra food.  But it looked really good.

I spent an hour on Facetime with Liesl and Luciana who were fighting over Dominica’s iPhone because they both wanted to talk to me.  The fought a bit but at least they pretty much got equal time with me after all was said and done.  It is great being in this hotel because the Internet access is good enough here that I can use Facetime.  At the Econolodge I cannot.  I can only talk to the girls when I am at dad’s otherwise.

Once I was off of the phone it was around nine and I just decided to head to bed right away.  I have not been getting enough sleep and there was no reason to be up at all tonight.  I didn’t even take time to plug in my laptop before drifting off to sleep.

[Totally forgot to post this…. wrote it inline but am backposting to fill it in.]

Not very much to say about today.  The time away from the family is stretching out.  I am just under halfway through the time and it is not any fun.  I’m really missing everyone back in Texas.  I’ll be in Texas in just a little over a week but I won’t see the girls for a full six days after arriving there.  I won’t see them until Halloween evening when we drive to Houston from Austin.  Four weeks without them 🙁

I am in the Econolodge today, still, but today is my last one staying here.  I’ll be leaving the hotel tomorrow morning and switching to another hotel nearer to the office.

Nothing to report from the new job.  Still studying.  It was a good day though.  Feeling good.

I did very little after work tonight.  Just back to the hotel and spent the evening alone.

The Ides of October already.  This month is moving by quickly, even with me being out in Connecticut all alone.  Only a week and a half until I return to Texas for almost a week.  Today is Tuesday and I fly out next Friday.  That’s just ten days away and I will see dad over this weekend as well.

We have been working with our renters in Peekskill to figure out what they are going to do.  They know that we are desperate to be in the house by November 10^th.  We are very, very hopeful that they will have some place to live by then so that we don’t have to find an interim place to live until they are able to move out of the house.

Got moving a little slowly this morning and traffic was a bit of a pain on the way into the office.  Got in and had another very long day of doing training.  Good stuff, but it is very long and hard to keep on track with many, many hours of training.

Lunch today was an amazing cheese quesadilla.  Not the healthiest, but very tasty.  I did discover today that I can get grilled salmon, as far as I can tell, every day which is what I really need to start doing on a regular basis.

Worked until around seven this evening in the office.  It was dark quite a while before I left to go back to the hotel.  Not that there is any hurry to return to the lonely hotel room.  Looking forward to being into the house and having the family here.  At least keeping up on SGL is no problem.

Lonely night in the hotel.  Didn’t leave to go anywhere tonight.

Got up at one thirty this morning.  Going to bed at eight and getting up at one thirty feels a bit odd but somehow I managed to get enough sleep and felt pretty decent when I got up.

It took me until three to be showered and have the car all packed up and be pulling out of the driveway.  It was a light rain this morning which slowed be down a bit.  The Spark is not good in rain (and I am sure not snow which I will be finding out soon enough.)

I drove over to Geneseo and fueled up so that I didn’t have to deal with it later.  Gas was around $3.78.   A far cry from the $2.98 that I saw last week on my drive from Texas to Connecticut.

After getting gas I stopped by Tim Horton’s to get a sesame bagel with cream cheese and a coffee.  From there it was on to Interstate 390 heading south.  The rain lasted for me until Bath, New York which was pretty crappy.  That made for a slow trip for the first long stretch.  But once I was past Bath I was able to speed up and really did not see rain the rest of the trip.

On the drive I continued listening to “A Concise History of the Middle East” which I have been listening to on Audible since Friday which I believe that I forgotten to mention last week.

Overall the drive was not bad.  Five hours and fifty minutes using the Geneseo path on the western edge and the Danbury path on the eastern edge.  And stopping for times, twice for fuel, once for coffee and once at a rest stop.  So leaving at three in the morning to get to the office is not bad at all but leaving at two thirty would be more ideal.

More training this morning.  Lots more videos.

There was a birthday on the team today so the whole team went out for BBQ at lunch today in Westport, Connecticut.  I got a veggie burger with onions and a spicy chipotle mayo that was very good.  It was a very good lunch.

This afternoon we had baked goods at work.  I am not sure what the occasion was but there was pie, cookies, brownies, cupcakes, etc.

After work it was back to the Econolodge in Norwalk.  This time I got a better rate but am stuck in a stinky smoking room in order to get the king bed that I prefer.

Went to bed around midnight.