Strange days
Jan. 10th, 2011 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayfurrI don't deal well with inactivity. I prefer to be busy, busy, busy DOIN' STUFF.
Thus I think it's safe to say that today isn't going well for me. I'm in South Carolina to train customers on our software and due to inclement weather the customer decided not to hold training today. Probably for the best -- the local drivers absolutely don't know how to drive in ice and snow. So I'm sort of sitting around the hotel doing stuff I ought to be doing -- taking mandatory online training on topics that I'm allegedly supposed to know but in fact have absolutely no need for whatsoever, for example -- and just drumming my fingers.
To make matters worse: I was here all last week, but wound up only doing a half day of training on Thursday and none at all on Friday. (It was due to schedule changes and stuff. It happens.) Bored, bored, bored. I did e-mail, filed e-mail, responded to e-mail, emptied my inbox, and hoped someone would call needing my help on something. At 5 o'clock I said "ARGH" and turned off my laptop.
On Saturday I drove down to Atlanta in the morning, did a 9 mile training walk for the 3-Day with some members of my 2011 Atlanta 3-Day team, took a stuffed animal to see the World of Coca Cola tourist attraction, then drove back in the evening. (Yes, I did in fact take a stuffed polar bear named "Colabear" to the World of Coca-Cola. Since my wife and I don't have any kids, we have a variety of stuffed animals that we've assigned personalities to, and we sometimes take the whimsicality a bit farther than most people would. I'd say 'it keeps us sane', but I think that ship has sailed.)
On Sunday I sat around the hotel room and did NOTHIN'. Bad weather was in the forecast and I didn't want to risk getting stuck an hour from the hotel by a sudden onslaught of icy freezing rain or something, so I stuck it out here, watched some Netflix episodes of "My Name Is Earl", and mentally cataloged all the things I could have been doing if I were at home.
I don't often stay on the road for more than a week, but when I'm two flight legs from home in an area with few evening flights, there seems to be little point flying home just to do laundry and turn around and fly back 12 hours after I arrive. If I'd flown home on Saturday I'd have gotten home around 1 pm, literally done laundry and maybe cooked another week's food for Carole, and then I'd have flown back down here yesterday. So: I stayed put.
Okay, so, it's easier on me to not spend all that pointless time on an airplane breathing recycled air and other people's germs, but on the other hand, sitting in a hotel room boredly web surfing and wishing it was nice out or that I was in some area chock ful of interesting things to see and do... that's not so fun either.
I thought about going out to a used book store and buying a random book or two, but I read so damn fast that I'd have them read in about 90 minutes and been bored again. It was hard to get up the get-up-and-go to go do that. (This is why I don't own a Kindle or Nook: I'd bankrupt us buying e-books.)
I wonder if the predicted freezing rain and "wintry mix" we're scheduled to get the rest of today and tonight will keep the customer closed tomorrow? I may just have to start carving a life-sized bust of Sitting Bull out of plasticine or something like that or just plain go crazy.
Thus I think it's safe to say that today isn't going well for me. I'm in South Carolina to train customers on our software and due to inclement weather the customer decided not to hold training today. Probably for the best -- the local drivers absolutely don't know how to drive in ice and snow. So I'm sort of sitting around the hotel doing stuff I ought to be doing -- taking mandatory online training on topics that I'm allegedly supposed to know but in fact have absolutely no need for whatsoever, for example -- and just drumming my fingers.
To make matters worse: I was here all last week, but wound up only doing a half day of training on Thursday and none at all on Friday. (It was due to schedule changes and stuff. It happens.) Bored, bored, bored. I did e-mail, filed e-mail, responded to e-mail, emptied my inbox, and hoped someone would call needing my help on something. At 5 o'clock I said "ARGH" and turned off my laptop.
On Saturday I drove down to Atlanta in the morning, did a 9 mile training walk for the 3-Day with some members of my 2011 Atlanta 3-Day team, took a stuffed animal to see the World of Coca Cola tourist attraction, then drove back in the evening. (Yes, I did in fact take a stuffed polar bear named "Colabear" to the World of Coca-Cola. Since my wife and I don't have any kids, we have a variety of stuffed animals that we've assigned personalities to, and we sometimes take the whimsicality a bit farther than most people would. I'd say 'it keeps us sane', but I think that ship has sailed.)
On Sunday I sat around the hotel room and did NOTHIN'. Bad weather was in the forecast and I didn't want to risk getting stuck an hour from the hotel by a sudden onslaught of icy freezing rain or something, so I stuck it out here, watched some Netflix episodes of "My Name Is Earl", and mentally cataloged all the things I could have been doing if I were at home.
I don't often stay on the road for more than a week, but when I'm two flight legs from home in an area with few evening flights, there seems to be little point flying home just to do laundry and turn around and fly back 12 hours after I arrive. If I'd flown home on Saturday I'd have gotten home around 1 pm, literally done laundry and maybe cooked another week's food for Carole, and then I'd have flown back down here yesterday. So: I stayed put.
Okay, so, it's easier on me to not spend all that pointless time on an airplane breathing recycled air and other people's germs, but on the other hand, sitting in a hotel room boredly web surfing and wishing it was nice out or that I was in some area chock ful of interesting things to see and do... that's not so fun either.
I thought about going out to a used book store and buying a random book or two, but I read so damn fast that I'd have them read in about 90 minutes and been bored again. It was hard to get up the get-up-and-go to go do that. (This is why I don't own a Kindle or Nook: I'd bankrupt us buying e-books.)
I wonder if the predicted freezing rain and "wintry mix" we're scheduled to get the rest of today and tonight will keep the customer closed tomorrow? I may just have to start carving a life-sized bust of Sitting Bull out of plasticine or something like that or just plain go crazy.
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-12 04:35 am (UTC)