There are some perks to driving through an ice storm at night. I find it much easier to not be distracted by the possibility of a horrible and tragic death if I can’t see it coming through the ice on the windshield. And hey, I don’t even think that the laws about signaling for a lane change apply when the lines are completely invisible.
Sometimes I’m amused at how much of my life and career is spent behind the wheel. I get to drive a lot for work and I still love it. I can always use some more time to myself to just be alone, think, and enjoy the scenery. The hectic schedule of work takes on an entirely different meaning when you’re paid at the same rate to be in front of your customers as you are to spend a day, on each end, behind the wheel on the open road.
The real benefit to me thought is the guilty pleasures of being alone with full control of the radio. Every now and then Beth gives me the evil eye when we’re on the road together and she guesses at my secret country addiction.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the road in the last three years. Between work and holidays, I’ve probably spent nearly as much time away from home as in it. It can be a nice life if you’re into that sort of thing, but you quickly develop habits to try to minimize the costs.
It seems like almost every time I go into a restaurant now I can spot the fellow road warrior. For the most part they blend in. But the next time you head into a restaurant, especially if it’s a big chain, have a look towards the bar. What you may see is a single man, sitting near but slightly apart from the other guests. He’ll probably be eating dinner as well with his drink. If you get really lucky, you might even spot a closed paperback on the bar beside the plate.
If you want to meet someone new, this is the person to talk to in the bar. For the most part we are pleasant and polite. Since we make our living working with, and trying to please customers, we have a lot of practice chatting with new people.
A note to the bartenders out there: talk with your customers too! We’re sitting at the bar because we want some social interaction to go with our dinner. There’s more to being a great bartender than just pouring drinks. The best bar staff will take a moment to talk with each guest and that really goes a long way to get the guests talking to each other as well. Usually, what keeps me coming back to a restaurant isn’t the food or drinks, it’s the great time I had because of the staff and service. There are more than a few places that I make a special trip to visit whenever I’m in town especially because of a great bartender.
Day 3 on a new time zone and I already seem to be on top of it. This is a new record for me. Time changes usually kick my ass. But, so far, I’ve been sleeping just fine on the new schedule and staying awake in class.
This is always an uphill battle for me. I usually end up knocking off for sleep as soon as I get back to the hotel from work. But then I wake up sometime just after the restaurants close and get to spend a wonderful night awake and hungry.
Speaking of food though: I’m starving. So, off I go.
It’s been a busy couple weeks around here. Summer is in full fling with all the associated projects and outings and work is fun, but keeping me on my toes.
In no particular order here’s what’s been happening:
Ollie is getting bigger. He’s just over 4 months now and stands taller than Sophie and his head is about twice the size of hers. I’ll have to post some more pictures and videos soon. We still don’t have any idea what type of dog he is, but we have really been enjoying him.
This weekend the fish club got together for a home show and competition. I volunteered to travel around with the group as a judge and we spent Saturday traveling all around the Seattle area. It was a lot of fun to meet everyone in their homes and get to see all the tanks they’ve been working on for so long. There was lots of amazing stuff out there.
Beth and I finally had a weekend day off together. We went for a great little hike. The dogs were really pooped by the end.
I’ve got a new boss at work. So far he seems to be getting along well.
The media PC died last week so we haven’t had the easy access to all our TV shows that we’re used too. We ordered a new one and it’s scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. I still can’t believe that the entire PC costs less than I paid for just the processor of the previous one. That, and it’s going to be 4 or 5 times faster.
Beth and I have bought our plane tickets to Europe. I’ve got some training in the Czech Republic in August, and this time Beth is going to come along. We’re going to add a week of vacation on to the end of it and spend some time traveling around Austria as well.
Well, that’s it for now. Get out there and enjoy the sun!
Have you ever been driving down a road, in the middle of nowhere, at night and wondered if you have actually have enough gas to make it to the next gas station? Then you start to count the cars going past the other way, compulsively check your cell for service, and turn off everything non essential that uses power?
I have to admit I got a bit nervous when I hadn’t seen another car for 10 minutes, I was at least another 40 minutes from cell service, and the low fuel light had been on for the past 15 miles.
Eventually, I did manage to find a gas station and I put in 26 gallons and got back on the road without any problem. Which is a little odd though, I was pretty sure the truck only has a 25 gallon tank.
What makes loud noises and costs a lot of money? If you said children you wouldn’t be wrong. Thank god I don’t have any of those or I really wouldn’t be able to afford my lifestyle of vice.
Just a quick snag in the plans for today: the truck had to go into the shop for a bit. Putting enough miles on the thing and stuff will start to fall off. But really, I don’t need to have all my tires rolling do I? I mean there are 3 more on there.
It’s usually pretty easy flying out of Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. They’ve changed their security procedures so that each gate has their own security checkpoint for screening passengers and baggage. This makes it nice and easy to pick up your boarding pass, get through a quick line where they check your documents, and make it to your gate.
But then once you get through the security at the gate you’re stuck. You’re already checked into your flight, so other than a toilet in the room you have nothing to do but sit and wait for the hour before your flight boards.
Well… looks like they’re finally shoving us in the plane. Take care, I’ll see you on the other side.
You are now free to move about the world, except if the seatbelt sign is on.
Wow, my timing sucks really bad this time. The Netherlands celebrated one of their biggest festivals of the year last night, and I arrived the morning after… I’m like the lame plan B chaser to the hot orgy. (Or maybe not.) I really need to start doing a tiny bit of research about the places I’m going to visit before I go.
On a less lame note, I put together a little video from one of my fish tanks. I’ve added it to the site on the left, but you can also get it directly from youtube here.
I was out surfing the inter webs today and was amused to find that two of my friends, in unrelated countries and on unrelated trips, had posted very similar accounts of the joys of local transportation. From Laura, who is currently on vacation in Mexico comes this anecdote:
Bus drivers are people who failed out of taxi school, I believe. The buses themselves only hold together by prayers. We careened through narrow roads between sheer cliffs and on the edge of sheer cliffs, coming within inches of disaster several times, and nearly killing at least three or four people who were waiting to be picked up. It was the same sort of thrill you get from a roller coaster.
And then from the other side of the world, Heather really sounds like she wants to learn to drive in Thailand:
The ride up and down from the mountain top was INSANE. The road was originally built by buddhists trying to make merit, a way long time ago. I don’t think the angles, curves, slopes – anything – has been reevaluated since the road was originally built for foot and cart traffic. Now it’s a bit wider and paved, but still has crazy steep inclines and over 180-degree curves, many of which are blind. Also add into that mix Thai drivers’ penchants for lane markings being suggestions, speed limits ignored, and you end up with the group of us wondering if the four-hour walk up the mountain might not have been a better idea.
I can picture just exactly the scenes that each is describing. I would imagine, anyone that has traveled much at all probably can. But, you know, from looking back into the archives I see that I’ve had a few choice things to say about drivers in Iowa myself. So, perhaps Iowa isn’t to blame for secretly being a 3rd world country, maybe there is a more universal truth here about people and driving.
It’s always a fun game for me when I first get on a plane to imagine who the person is going to be that will sit next to me. Every time someone walks down the isle towards me I find myself running an internal mantra of “ooh yes, please be you, please be you.” But more often I find myself saying “oh no, not you, please don’t be you.”
When I was coming home from Europe though, I found that my criteria had changed a little. Usually this is my list:
Cute
Not Fat
Quiet
Interesting
Where, if I can’t have the first then I want the second, and if I can’t have the second then the third and so on. But, when I’m flying in Europe, I find that everything can be trumped by one thing: is the person wearing deodorant. Because if not, boy that isn’t a smell I’m used to over here and it can get real old after 4 or 5 or 11 hours.
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I’ve spent a lot of time on the road in the last three years. Between work and holidays, I’ve probably spent nearly as much time away from home as in it. It can be a nice life if you’re into that sort of thing, but you quickly develop habits to try to minimize the costs.