The Big Commute

I've never really thought of myself as a big commuter. This week, even thought it's a short week, I'm commuting back and forth to Sioux Falls for some training classes each day. That's quite something. An hour of just travel one way for a day's work, then back home again. I can't imagine the people that do that on a daily basis. We got to experience some of that in Dallas Friday afternoon. We arrived in down town area at 5:10pm. Now that's good timing, if you want to waste your life away. It took us about an hour and a half to get the 15 miles to our motel. It was fun to be in a city for some of the time, fighting traffic, I don't miss that one bit. This wasn't exactly the scene this morning at the 41st Street exit off of I-29 either. I had pretty clear sailing, and will do it again the next two days.

At church on Sunday, I had another one of those bizarre "I know you from somewhere" meetings. I went to a Sunday school class for people roughly my age. The one girl that was in the class looked very familiar. So, after class, I went and asked her if we knew each other. So, we exchanged some information, and sure enough, traced our previous meeting back to NWC where her dad worked and her sister went to school while I was there. I never did really every find out if it was her or her sister that I recognized (because she told me they both looked quite a bit a like), but at any rate, there once again was that interesting connection from my past traced back here in Mitchell. The world gets smaller and smaller by the day.

What am I doing?

This has been somewhat of a different business trip for me. I've been eating like the world is going to end. Well, it might, but it's like I'm storing up for a big famine or something. I've not had my tv on in my motel room for more then 10 mintues this entire trip. I wouldn't have had it on at all if I would not have watched about 10 mintues of Monday Night Football before deciding that sleep was a better option. And, I've been doing some reading.

What?!?? I know, I've been reading. Not something I do all that often, but I've actually purchased 2 books this trip, and one of them is being saved for the way home. When I was in Denver on Monday, I had more time at the airport then I realized. Then, I found out I had an extra hour for the time change. So, I decided to go into the book store and see if I could find an interesting book. I was browsing through the store, when I came across the story of Josh Hamilton. Some of you may know it well, as he's been a feature on SportsCenter this summer for having a great baseball season. He has quite a story of addiction to drugs, and then a huge comeback. I got his book to read all the details, and actaully almost had it finished before I landed in Dallas Monday afternoon. I did finish it off at the motel that night, so that book, all 270 pages, was read in one day. I've got one more book for the way home, so that should keep me busy on the planes. I'm already into the overtime for the week, and still have 1.5 days to go. Next week, back on the road for more training before heading out for the big Turkey Day festivies next week. These two weeks are not going to be good for the waist line. I guess that one pair of pants that I almost put away (because believe it or not they were too big and baggy now) will have to stay out until we get back to spring.

One thing down here in Texas that has been funny to watch, is today the temperature was slightly cooler then what they are used to. It only got to about 55 today, and it was breezy so it felt alot cooler. We were at Starbucks this morning getting coffee before heading out to the job site, and we had to just laugh. My co-worker and I (both being from the north, he's from Montana) were just shocked at these people. This morning it was closer to 43 or so when we went in for coffee, and the people here thought it was gonna snow any minute. We just made comments to the effect of, "If they had any idea what cold was, they'd realize how ridiculous they look." It was quite a site, because they were dressed for -10 weather, even though it was over 40. I guess everything really is relative.

Tonight, on the way back from supper, we saw a huge football stadium with the lights on and cars filing in. On the board, it said that Abilene was playing Permian. Some of you might remember that school from the football movie Friday Night Lights. My co-worker and I probably would have gone to see the game, if we'd have been prepared. Neither of us bothered to bring a jacket on this trip, so we had to just head back and wait it out in the motel. Tomorrow, we actaully get to share a Thanksgiving Dinner at the company we're working for, then hit the road back to Dallas where we'll chill for the evening before getting up quite early Saturday to begin the trek back.

Some Thing Are Bigger in Texas!

I'm sure we've all heard that line before. Today, it happened to me. The realization that this is generally a true statement. At noon today, we headed off to lunch with the clients that we are working with down here. We are in a small town in the center of Texas, and they've got a couple different places, but we went to this mom and pop joint that I don't even know the name of. We sat down and I noticed the chicken fried steak on the menu. I thought I'd give it a shot. I didn't notice, but apparently our client was sitting there silently laughing to himself. I had no clue what I was in for. The steak was most of the size of the plate. It was as big as my head, and that's no lie. I've got 3 other people there as witnesses to back me up on that one. There was hardly any room for a potato on that plate. I didn't need the potato anyway based on the size of the steak. I'm still not hungry. Supper is coming up though, so I'm gonna have to find an appetizer or something to hold me over until morning, but I sure don't care to eat much. Those of you that really know me now know the true size of that chicken fried steak.

My Next Job

I think I may have found my next job already. It apparently takes no skill and requires no thinking or action. I'll share what this is with this story.

I am down in Texas this week working on some training projects for one of our clients. So, I had to board my plane early this morning in Sioux Falls. I have already stated that I wasn't too happy with my travel agent for placing me on an early flight. Well, once I arrived at the airport, I found out that I hadn't been placed on an early flight at all. I was told that the reservation had been cancelled because it hadn't been confirmed. So, I was supposed to get to Texas, but had no airline reservation. Well, I'd not travelled via plane for work before, and I'm really not an essential employee to this training project. So, I'm not sure what's supposed to happen now. Should I just buy a ticket and go anyway, or I could just call the travel agent, drag her out of bed and make her fix it, except I don't have her home phone number. So, I figured I'd have to call my supervisor to get approved to purchase my own ticket. He sure was happy I called, at 5:30am. I was already irritated, and he wasn't too impressed by the situation. I found out the guy I'm working with had the same problem, he also had to get his ticket this morning because his reservation had been cancelled also. From there, I got my ticket purchased, and proceeded to where I got hasseled by security for a while, then when I got to the gate to board, and the ticket I'd just purchased didn't scan properly, so I get held up at the jetway to confirm that again. Have I mentioned that I'm not happy with the travel agent? When I got to Texas and met up with the guy I'm working with, he said that this isn't the frist time this agent has screwed things up for him. Apparently it's happened to him three times already. So, I decided that's what I'm going to do next after I'm done working in computers. It doesn't seem to matter if you know what your doing or not, or if you even get the reservations right, or not. Right now, I don't think I could be any worse then our current agent. So, at least of got something now to fall back on, just in case.

Out of the office until......December

That's actually a true statement for me. I'm going back out on the road for more training. I'm going to be down south for the next week, and then, for the short week before Thanksgiving, I'll be in Sioux Falls every day for training. So, I'm back in my office December 1. Wow, that's hard to believe. I've been at the new job for 1 month and 1 day now. This week really was the best one so far. I got to work out lots of customer issues, and get them happy and singing my praises. That's the best part right there. Like the one client that wrote, "Tyler, you're awesome!" Yeah, that's the kind of work I do. And, I mentioned that I give you a chance to see where I work. The building that we work in isn't impossible to get into, but it is watched. People who are wondering around generally get asked to leave (is what they told me). So, I took a couple pictures of my office for you to see anyhow.


Here is what you see when you look in my door from the hallway. That monitor is 22" of sweet viewing. On the wall, you'll notice my "safety award" from AgSense, and yes, that is a Demotivator on the wall. I've actually got two of them in my office, the other is behind the door. One of the girls from down the hall will come to my office to read the one behind the door over and over again, and she leaves laughing every time. She's slightly different.....

Normally you'll see my laptop connected to the dock right in front of this picture with the monitor serving as my second monitor for my work station. In this photo, my laptop is on the chair waiting to go home before we head on our first road trip to Minnesota. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is 4:00am Monday morning. That's when I have to get up to get to the airport to catch my flight. I'm not happy with the travel agent. Not happy at all.

Bcmg a txt msgr

I've fought it and fought it. I see all kinds of people around sending text messages, and it just never did make sense to me. I had received several of these in the past. It wasn't a big deal, but I'd get a text message asking me a question, and I'd return it with a phone call. "Yes, I did get your email. Thanks. Ok, talk to you later. Bye." Then, I'd hang up, satisfied that I had saved myself a dime. Do that nine more times, and I will have a dollar. I just didn't quite see why it was a necessary thing to add. It only cost me 10 cents to receive them, and if I did send some back, it costs about another 10 cents. I think those prices recently went up though, so it didn't make much sense to keep paying per text message, when 12 of them would almost play for the month addition to you cell phone bill. So, since I moved down here, I discovered that several of my friends are quite into this texting thing. So, I collapsed under the peer pressure, and added it. Based on my inbox now, I've saved myself about 10 dollars already. That's kinda scary, although, I'm getting better at the letters on the key pad thing. I don't have a nifty keyboard like some people do, but that's ok. I'll just take it one step at a time. Alright, ttyl. (Talk to you later for those who aren't up on the lingo.)

Taking the Polar Bear Plunge

Yeah, that's a dumb idea, and I didn't do that. But, it got you to read it didn't it. See, headline writing is what gets people every time. I do remember people used to do that out at Northwestern. I never did understand why people would want to go out and cut a hole in the ice when it's 10 degrees, and jump in the water. I don't like jumping in the lake in summer when it's below 65 degrees. Flirting why hypothermia and death just doesn't appeal to me on that level. Anyhow, it does kinda make me feel like I want to be a polar bear here though. I mentioned last time about the drastic change in temperature here, so winter has apparently decided to come anyhow. And that's too bad, because I just realized, that we're into November, and I've not yet been out hunting. Part of me wonders if I'm gonna make it out at all this year, which is kinda sad. Maybe once we get closer to Thanksgiving I'll get the chance, but it's kinda been a tough go of that for me. If the weather is gonna stay cold though, I'm gonna be looking forward to my venture down to Texas here coming up in 10 days. You can have the snow, I'll take the short sleeves, shorts, and flip flops.

Getting In Before the Storm

Well, we are getting our first snow storm of the season, and I'm just happy I was able to make it home. I was sent to Rochester, MN this week for my first business trip. I sat in on some training, and was able to help with some problem solving, and learned a lot through that experience. As it turned out, we actually finished a day early, so I jumped in the car right away and headed home. Good thing, since it started really snowing here around 5pm, and doesn't look like it's gonna let up here for at least another day. I wonder if they would consider closing our office tomorrow? Anyway, it was nice to get in last night, instead of tonight, or trying to plow through the snow tomorrow. Unfortunately, I was planning on making the trip home tomorrow, but had to change the plans due to the weather. Not only snow, but wind in the forecast here for the weekend, that might now make traveling fun either. I'm just happy to have made it back home. Of course, leave it to SD weather. Two nights ago in Minnesota, I'm walking around at night in short sleeves, and now, I'm cold even with the coat on. Plus, the clients we talk to on a daily basis will sometimes tease us. I talked to a couple in Texas today, and one in Tennessee, and they all laughed at me when I told them we were ready for the blizzard. Being nice to them gets harder at that point....

Halloween at the Office

I hope you all remembered to turn back your clocks last night. I only forgot about one. That little clock in your head that tells you when to get up. So 6am rolls around, and I cannot get back to sleep. I did for a while, but as of half an hour ago, I couldn't do it any more. So, here is the Halloween post.

I know yesterday I referenced the Living on Liquid Halloween Post from a year ago, and I also stated that I pretty much agreed with it last year. Well, this year, our team at work decided to that we were going to all participate together for the dress up contest. From what I understand, there are prizes and things involved here. Anyhow, I'll explain that as a tech support rep, there are three of us in the Mitchell office, and in our hall where our offices are, there is one other lady that does cost analysis type stuff. Anyhow, we all got in on this together and our floor theme was the 80's. Now, we didn't go all decked out, like some people did......





We decided to keep it simple, and went with the Revenge of the Nerds theme as the frat guys who always picked on the nerds. We actually decided we were the bad guys, and when certain people would come to our hall, we'd taunt them with chants of "Nerds, Nerds, Nerds." Our costume's were quite simple, and we got alot of laughs and compliments on our idea. Ohh, and we turned our hall into a locker room scene. We were the only hall in the building that was in it together.


Here are the people I work with too. Carl is wearing the sweater on the left. Paula is the one who does cost analysis work. Jeff is the leader of our group at the Mitchell office, as he's been employed the longest in the FM Support team (which I'm in). We all joke in our team to work in the Mitchell office as a FM Support Specialist, you must be born in 1982's fourth quarter. We are all one month apart from each other in age.

Now back to Halloween, you don't have to worry about me going to far overboard. I was obviously the preppy basketball player here, but I'm not planning to get all decked out next year for the celebration. But if it's simple again, I may participate.

One of those "Small World" Expiriences

You'd expect some odd things to happen on halloween. Our office had a dress up day, and I admit that I've always agreed with the Living on Liquid Halloween Post. However, I did actually dress up this year. I'll get to that on my next post, if I get a chance tomorrow, and if not, I'll try from the road on Monday. So, anyhow, the office was fine, I wasn't overboard. In fact, I looked quite normal compared to some of the other "wierdoes" in the office. Anyhow, after work, Char and her roommate had a "Thanks for being part of helping us move" party, and we went over there, handed out some candy to some kids, ate supper, and played some games. One of the people that I've gotten to know down here had her sister visit from Minnesota. Well, I didn't think much of it, but ended up sitting by my friend's sister during the table games portion of the evening. We had some fun moments, and I told her that I was the only non-teacher there, secretly hoping she had another profession. Well, nope, she was a teacher also, so I'm again to lone odd-ball. But that's ok, we talked about jobs, and all kinds of things, and then I asked her where she taught. She said she taught high school at a small Christian school in Prinsburg, Minnesota. I said that I knew where that was at, and she was very shocked. I told her that I went to school at Northwestern in Minneapolis, and I'd driven through it many, many times. She then wondered if I knew any of her former students that had gone to her school. Well, she didn't look too old, but I thought I'd give it a shot. She knew of 4 of her students that went there, and I knew them all. Every single one of them was the same age as I was, and had been in her first or second year of teaching. It was bizarre. Here I am with new surroundings, in a new town, with new friends, who have sisters that have taught former college friends of mine in high school. It just really boggles my mind when you sit back and think how small the world really can be sometimes.