The Long And Winding Road

Day 1

I am continuing my business trip this week in Gratz, PA. This week we left on time. With only about four hours of sleep, I was quite tired. I do not know how many times I drifted off to sleep during the ride. But, at least I did not wake up with permanent marker on my face.

We arrived around lunch time. We went to our regular lunch place. Unbeknownst to us, the place is closed on Mondays. We ended up eating at the clubhouse near our resort/motel.

A short time later, we arrived at the window plant. With the small injuries I had last week, I was determined to not have any injuries this week. Or, at least if I did have any injuries, I would be better prepared. Well, it did not take too long before I injured myself. This time it was not on a nail or some vinyl. This time, I cut my finger while trying to twist open my bottle of Mt. Dew. sigh

After a nice dinner and a few pitchers of beer, it is nice to be back in the room. One of the guys there must have had a bit too much to drink. I am sitting there drinking my beer. The next thing I know someone his placing a baseball cap on my head. I probably should have walked out with it. I left it on my head for awhile before leaving it on the table.

Even though we are staying at the same place, this room is a bit nicer than the other one. The bathroom is bigger; I no longer have to squeeze into it. In addition, I now have a digital thermostat that lets me set the room’s temperature.

My only complaint was that my Wi-Fi signal was a lot lower in this room than my last room. That complaint lasted about five minutes until I found a Wi-Fi repeater in one of the drawers. Woot! I am assuming it belongs to the motel. At any rate, I now have a solid signal. In addition, I imagine that my coworkers in the adjoining rooms have a better signal as well.

Day 2

I just finished day two of week two. The weather keeps getting warmer and more humid. Pretty soon, I will need to take a hot shower just to cool off. At least I have been eating well. I have not yet had a bad meal.

While the trip is going well, I am missing home. At least next week I will be home. I put in for some time off. So I hope that I will be home all next week. Then, I will probably be back here for a few more weeks at some point.

Until then, I will deal with the poor weather and the mediocre internet connection. Now, it is not even connecting (even though I have a good signal). Maybe I will reboot their router again tomorrow (unless someone is there this time).

I had planned on doing schoolwork, but I guess that will have to wait. In addition, I wanted to continue my job search. Yes, I am looking for another job again. No, I am not leaving my current job. But, with Rachel only working part time, bills stacking up, and trying to move, we just do not have enough money. So, I am looking for a tertiary job now.

Day 3

Another day away from home and the weather continues to get warmer and more humid. Actually, with the thundershowers we are getting now, it cooled off for a bit (though it got more humid). And, still no internet. After dinner, I went to the main office to reboot the router. But, another guest also having connection problems was in the midst of a restart. I was briefly able to log on by removing the internet line from the router and plugging it directly into my laptop. But, I was only able to get some of my work e-mail. I did snag a pastry while working on my connection problem. So, my trip to the hotel office was not totally fruitless. As the lightning strikes are getting closer and more frequent, maybe I will stop for now.

Day 4

The weather was a tad bit cooler. The window plant remains fairly hot though. I would start to sweat the moment I was not standing in the path of a fan. I sill do not have an internet connection. As some of my coworkers and I will be back several times, we talked to the manager. She said everything should be working next time. I offered my services if they still need help when I come back. I would not mind having no connection if I was on vacation. But, as I am on a business trip and as I also need to get schoolwork completed, it is a pain in the ass being without internet.

Day 5

With Friday here, it means a long ride back home. It is about a five-hour drive back to work, plus another hour drive back home. Like the ride out, I was fading in and out of sleep on the ride home. I remember waking up as the van came to an abrupt stop. We were in the number one lane (the leftmost lane) and traffic in front of us was at a dead stop. The next thing I hear is the squealing of brakes behind and to the left of us as a semi comes to a stop beside us. It is a good thing that the semi had an empty trailer. Otherwise, the driver might not have been able to swerve off the road in time to avoid a collision. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

I arrive home, anxious to check my e-mail, etc., and I find that our internet connection is down. ugh I was going to get a refreshing glass of cold water (as the water in the resort was only mildly cool). But, I guess there was a water main break somewhere in the city. So, we have to boil our water for the next twenty-four hours. I need a vacation and some sleep.

Tagline for today: “What’s the youngest you can die of old age?” - Steven Wright