I travel the country on business, sometimes the world. Come see where I've been. |
Talk about perks, my job has one of the best ones I can think of! I travel in the course of business, delivering classes for my employer. I am a Senior Training Specialist for Motorola Solutions, and teach classes on a wide variety of subjects centered around 2 way radio communications. I'm qualified to deliver approximately 30 different classes, but about half of those are 'Legacy' classes, and are not in demand anymore. My students are technicians, those who maintain, program, calibrate, and repair large 2-way radio systems. Some of these systems are statewide, and use TCP-IP networking to allow sites to communicate with others. Some are small, traditional type radio sites. The size doesn't matter, in each case the systems must be kept operational at all times, since many of them are Public Safety Systems. So I get to travel, sometimes frequently, 3-4 weeks in a row.... where am I this week? This probably won't have daily entries, but I will make entries when I get to go somewhere, and keep an updated list of coming trips. My schedule changes faster than the weather, so don't be too surprised to see me list an upcoming class, only to remark later on that it is cancelled, or delayed. Delays are fine of course, but a later date might mean that someone else gets to go instead of me,,, Well, here we go with this, let's see where it takes us. |
Fort Lauderdale, Florida This weeks of May 6 and May 13 found me in Ft Lauderdale once again. I've grown to really enjoy this area, made all the more better by my friend Ariel being there the first week., We had a good time seeing each other, he even bought dinner one night at one of my favorite restaurants, The Pirate Republic. That's not a cheap place to dine at, but since he was the 'Senior Motorolan', paying for dinner fell to him. It didn't matter really, the money came from this project, so I could paid too, but that's how things go with us. The classes I delivered were both Networking classes, it was good to once again get my hands on the equipment as well as deliver the classes. It had been far too long for this, so I thought it was good, the class results proved my belief. I was able to relax at night both weeks, and spent the weekend in Clearwater with my ex-Father-In-Law. You might wonder why I would spend time with an ex-In Law, so I'll tell you. He's much more to me than just an ex-in law. We were shipmates on my first submarine, and were close friends while on the boat., Of course being married to his daughter meant we stayed in touch throughout the years. It was a good weekend, other than me having a pretty rough Allergy attack Saturday. But getting Flonase in my sinus', and eye drops in my eyes quickly cleared things up. Still, I spent far too much time Saturday napping, he didn't seem to mind. One of the big reasons for spending time with him is that he lives alone now. He lost his wife to Alzheimers almost 2 years ago, so is alone now. His youngest daughter live about 3 hours away, so he gets few visitors. He will turn 89 this year, so visiting him was almost a must. It was a good visit, just tiring for us both. Since I will be ending my time in San Francisco today, and will write a blog entry for this week later this weekend, along with editing this one to add restaurants I dined at later. I need to sit back and relax some, but wanted to post this at least. My upcoming schedule, as of now Week of: May 20: San Francisco May 27: Schaumburg Illinois June 3: Vacation! June 10: Vacation! June 17: Tennessee June24: St. Johns Newfoundland July 1: Holiday week July 8: Fort Bragg NC July 15: Work From Home July 22: Los Angeles July 29: Tennessee That's all for now, it's about time to get going again. A short entry today as a result.. Til next time, keep on writing, most of all, keep on loving those special people in your life! Sum1 |
Los Angeles, California This past week I was once again in Los Angeles delivering a class to LAPD. This is my 4th or 5th time working with them. I had not delivered this class since 2020 and it showed. My knowledge of the subject is sound, it was the timing and flow of the class that was off. It's fine though, everything went well, and since I'll be delivering the same class in Ft. Lauderdale this upcoming week, it was a nice tune-up, so to speak. Besides, Duncan Angami, the manager of the radio shop did offer me a job, in a way. He said that if I retired from Motorola because the travel was too much, but still wanted to keep working, that there was a job with LAPD for me. I'm not sure how serious he was, but I'd not take it if offered. Why? I'm not a big-city person, I'm much more comfortable with a city the size of Bloomington/Normal (~130,000 in this city). I spent my evenings resting and going to bed early because I didn't really want to get adjusted to PDT because I will be on the East Coast next week. I was successful until Thursday, but that was expected. The flight home last night was bumpy, but the plane had a lot of empty seats. As a result I was able to lie down in my row and relax some. We landed at O'Hare right about midnight. I knew it would be a while to get my luggage and my van, and drive the 2 hours home. Sometimes I hate being right. I got home last night about 3 am, and will have a whopping 25 hours here before leaving tomorrow morning. Wash had to be done, I needed to unpack and repack, and rest. I napped 6 hours today, and managed to get 4 hours of sleep last night. I think I'm ready for the week, Since I will be in For Lauderdale for 2 weeks, I will drive to Clearwater Friday evening to see my ex Father-In-Law. He and I are close friends, and always will be He knows his daughter and I are divorced, he encouraged me to divorce her 2 years ago when I saw him. He understands, and while he doesn't know the details about our relationship, he does understand why we had to do it. My upcoming schedule, as of now: Week of: May 6: Fort Lauderdale May13: Fort Lauderdale May 20: San Francisco May 27: Schaumburg Illinois June 3: Vacation! June 10: Vacation! June 17: Tennessee June24: St. Johns Newfoundland July 1: Holiday week July 8: Fort Bragg NC July 15: Nebraska July 22: Los Angeles July 29: Tennessee That's all for now, it's about time to get going again. A short entry today as a result.. Til next time, keep on writing, most of all, keep on loving those special people in your life! Sum1 |