Travelin’ Man

Starting last Tuesday, I was away on business. As typical, the trip did not start out as smoothly as hoped. My coworkers and I were supposed to leave by 9:00 AM. Unfortunately, we left closer to noon. Once we were on the road, things did not improve. The weather made a turn for the worse. We had so much wind and rain that several vehicles had to drive with their flashers on. We also passed a number of vehicles in the road. At one point, we kept expecting to see a tornado touch down. Fortunately, the only major problem was a branch on the road blocking our lane.

The weather cleared up once we got to the resort. Well, resort is probably an overstatement. It is essentially a motel on a golf course. We went to the registration desk to check in. The desk was un-staffed, but there was a basket containing our keys. There was also another basket to use when checking out.

The next morning, we met in the buffet room. Again, there was no staff to be seen. But, there was plenty of cereal, coffee, pastries, milk, and juice. Apparently, nearly everything is on the honor system. With that in mind, I hope that no one minded me rebooting their malfunctioning Wi-Fi router.

The rooms were okay. The beds were smaller than a queen size bed, so I had to sleep diagonally. In addition, there were no phones in the room. But, as long as it was not too windy, we had Wi-Fi access. That night we ate at the clubhouse on the other side of the golf course. I am not much of a drinker, but as I was not driving, I think I had between six and eight beers. In fact, I probably had more alcohol in the past week than I have had the past year.

Even though the place seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and there were very few places to eat, I sure ate well. At one place, a co-worker ordered some fried mushrooms as an appetizer. He probably should have read the description more thoroughly as the plate had one pound of mushrooms. The first time we ate there, I ordered a slice of ham. The single slice completely covered a dinner plate. You would think that I would order less food the next time. But, you would be wrong. I saw that there were two sizes of Stromboli: regular and large. As I was very hungry, I ordered the large. The plate was probably two feet in diameter. Needless to say, I was not able to finish.

Working in a window factory for a week is a bit weird as am typically at a computer most of the day. Also, it is the first software development job I have had requires steel-toed shoes, safety glasses, and ear protection. I only had two minor injuries. The first was when I snagged my finger on a nail. The second was when I cut my hand on a window frame.

Tomorrow, I go out again for another week. And, while I do not enjoy being away from home, I am actually looking forward to the trip.

Tagline for today: “I’m writing an unauthorized autobiography.” - Steven Wright