On Tue, 09 Aug 2016 19:39:24 -0400, Jim Henderson wrote:

> On Wed, 10 Aug 2016 00:19:05 +0100, Stephen wrote:
> 
>>> But I fear that my following move to E&C probably does until Saturday
>>> at least.
>>>
>>>
>> Part timer.
> 
> Pfft! :)
> 
> (Traveling for work through Saturday)

Egads, I was the only one in Huff, guys. :)

And now I'm out of Huff.  But it was hell, too - the only parts of the 
trip that were *good* were the parts where I met with people I planned to 
meet with.

And, surprisingly, going through the security checkpoints at the airports.

I was in Denver - got there, got on the new train line from the airport 
into downtown (the terminus at Union Station is walking distance to the 
office and hotel), trip is supposed to be 30 minutes.

Well, not out of sight of the ATC tower, the train's electric pickup 
(where the electricity is fed to the train from the overhead wires) hit 
something.  And was broken beyond repair - it didn't *entirely* come off 
the train, but pieces of it went flying, and when the train ground to a 
halt, rail workers and the fire department worked to clear it so it 
wouldn't spark (I guess), and it was hanging off the top of the train, 
and I could see it out the window of the car I was in (because naturally, 
I was IN the car that the accident happened in).

So, 30 minutes turned into damn near 3 hours.  With no power (which means 
no AC) in 90°F heat.  In direct sunlight.  90 minutes in, they brought us 
water (I had a little left over from my flight).

The kicker is my flight got in *early*, and if it hadn't been early, I 
wouldn't have been on the train, and would have either caught a cab or 
taken the "bus bridge" they set up to route around the dead train.

So, instead of going to the office, I went to the hotel and checked in.  
Grabbed some dinner (the meals were good, if lonely).  Slept like crap 
(always do the first day on a trip for some reason).  Got up the next 
morning, and had a problem I've never had with the shower in a hotel - no 
COLD water (to speak of).  I've had tepid water, but never scalding hot 
water.  I didn't burn myself, but I ended up with a shower that had 
almost zero water pressure.

Maintenance changed out the faucet after I left, but the mixer tap was 
still not working that evening, and they said the pressure was fine.  
They looked again, found a problem, and fixed it (though I had the option 
to go to a different room).

Get my shower, get breakfast, start walking to the office, stop at a 
crosswalk, and a pigeon shits on my shirt - and in my hair.  Dammit, I 
only brought two "work shirts" with me.  Back to the hotel to change into 
the other one and clean myself up, because I'm meeting with my new boss 
(one of our VPs - result of a reorg) and 3 of the directors that report 
to her.  Probably shouldn't do that with pigeon shit in my hair and on my 
shirt - first impressions and all.

Meetings in the morning were fine, and then a company picnic at a "local" 
park (ie, a 20 minute train ride away to a part of Denver I've never been 
in).  My meeting ran long, so I figured I'd meet folks there and get a 
ride back with someone.

By the time I found the picnic area in the park (the park itself is 161 
acres in size - or .25 sq miles - which doesn't sound like much, but when 
you start at one end and have to do a "search grid" to find your group 
with about 15 other groups you have to look closely at to see if you know 
anyone, it's pretty time consuming) *2 hours* after it started, most of 
the festivities were over, and most of the people I knew had left.  I 
chatted with a few, but nobody was headed back to the office, and I ended 
up spending a fair bit of time sitting by myself just enjoying the 88°F 
weather.

And then walked to the train station and went back into town for some 
dinner.

Friday morning, a shower at the proper temperature (yay), headed in to 
the office, and realized I had forgotten my keycard.  Walked into the 
upstairs office with one of our developers (whom I have worked with 
extensively) to get a spare from a coworker who has them for students 
coming in for training, but he wasn't in yet.

Downstairs for the 8 AM all-hands meeting we typically have on Fridays.  
Wait outside the door until the receptionist arrives, and she's not happy 
that I've left my card at the hotel (she'd had a rough week as well, so 
she was already having a bad day, which didn't help things - and 
apparently there was a security audit going on that was making things 
that much more tense).  I get down to the area where the all-hands 
meeting is held, and there's nobody around.  Complete ghost town.

Funny thing, 8 AM PDT != 8 AM MDT. m-/

Then I thought "didn't I put the keycard in my wallet so I wouldn't 
forget to bring it?".  Yup.  I had it with me the entire time.  Double 
facepalm.

Back upstairs, check e-mail, do some other stuff, back down for my 9 AM 
meeting, and things go well until I get done for the day.

Back to the hotel, go grab dinner, don't have to get up early Saturday 
(today) because my flight wasn't until 11:30.  Schedule a car because the 
train line is *still* delayed because of the accident on Wednesday, and 
I'm not risking missing my flight, and I'm not planning to leave 4 hours 
ahead of time because RTD hasn't got their shit together for the new 
airport line.  So instead of $9, it costs $72 (with tip) for the hotel's 
car service to take me there (that's the same cost as a cab with a tip).

To the airport, breeze through security again (the changes are that we 
can now leave our shoes on and laptops do not come out of our bags - and 
they're back to using the old-style metal detectors rather than the 
millimeter wave scanners).

Get to the gate, sit and chat with A. for a while on hangouts, and then 
decide I should fill my water bottle and grab a bite to eat.

Got to the restaurant at 10:30 AM.  Flight boards at 10:55.  Order 
breakfast.  Nope, breakfast ended at 10:15, but I can order lunch.  So I 
have a hamburger for breakfast.  It was tasty, but it wasn't breakfast.

Get on the plane.  Airbus A320.  Last row, aisle seat (38C).  Damned seat 
is the only one in the row that doesn't recline, and there's LESS legroom 
in that row than anywhere else on the plane.  Take off, and the guy in 
front of me reclines the seat and takes a nap.  8 inches away from my 
face.  Guess I'm not using my laptop (that's generally out of the 
question on US domestic flights unless you *pay* for extra legroom - 
quite the scam they have going there), and barely using my tablet.

Oh well, I had extra time to sleep last night, so of course, I slept like 
crap again.  3 nights, 12 hours of sleep total.

Train back to the ferry terminal was fine.  The ferry was extremely busy 
- it's a nice Saturday afternoon, and people love coming out to the 
island on the weekends when it's nice.  And my phone decided that it 
didn't want to talk to the 4G network at all, so I couldn't message A. to 
tell her that I was on the boat and would be there to be picked up in 30 
minutes.

Because after the week like I had, having the phone decide "nope, I'm not 
going to let you use me for the one thing I'm designed for - 
communications".

Pizza: check.  Wings: check.  Coke: check.  Rum to go in the coke:  
Dammit!  Where's the rum gone? ;)

On the plus side, the sky's supposed to be clear tonight, so we're going 
to go watch the Perseid meteor shower tonight.  It peaked last night, but 
we should have a good view tonight.

So that was my 'exciting' trip.  In 2 weeks: Toronto for LinuxCon.

---

So given that while I was in Huff, the game stopped, I'm going to go - in 
memory of this trip, my move is Union Station.  It may be in Denver, but 
under rule 627(b)(iv), it's allowed if you've been on a train in the 
previous 4 days that has broken down.  The rule states that you may, at 
your option, pick any station on the line that you were on when the train 
broke down.  Since Union Station is the terminus, that fits the 
criteria. :D

Jim
-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

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