Saturday, November 13, 2021

Ch Ch Ch Changes ...


Testing went much better today, we might have found something buggy, some think so, I think it was a bad connection, but hey, it was a "W," I'll take it.

I had to change hotels on Friday, my regular pad was booked solid with a bunch of high-rollers, no problem. I just slid on up the road a ways to a Hilton.

The view (above, you can see the 5 from here) isn't nearly as nice, but ...


The room itself is pretty damned nice, almost palatial. Then there is, as I mentioned yesterday, the free breakfast.

Food.

Coffee.

Free.

All things I can get behind. So I get to save the company a few bucks, looks good on the report I suppose.

The view to the other side of my room, looking towards the south ...


There might be water over there, I'll have to wait until the sun comes up to tell for sure. Probably more towards the front of the building. Just below my room? Railroad tracks.

Yay me!

Nothing like eleven hour days to appreciate the normal work schedule!

It's all good. Heck, I get paid to do this!

See you mañana. (In a virtual sort of way, of course.)

(I'll be at work. Of course ...)




24 comments:

  1. That is a very nice room, it will be even nicer once the picture gets straightened. The full size fridge is wow!
    Yes, I exhibit both OCD and AR traits. When I worked with systems and machinery that could kill you, they were good things to have. In everyday life, and with people, not so much.

    Hotel/motel rooms. A few years ago I began looking at the AC filter(s) if they were accessible.
    In most cases I cleaned them in the tub using the shower. Rarely were they really clean.

    As nice as any given room may be, there truly is no place like home.

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  2. "The view isn't nearly as nice".... waterfront marina view to gawking at an indoor parking ramp topped by empty office space.....well you are there to work somewhere else, not spend your day looking out your room window. Good sized room though. Fingers crossed on the testing Sarge.

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    Replies
    1. Looking to the south you get an inspirational sign, in full color at that!

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  3. Reasonable coffee Sarge. It makes a dump almost palatial.

    Once upon a time when I had to travel for business much more (back in the days where business travel was thing), I realized what a racket it was. I got put up in some very nice hotel rooms - palatial, as you say. Far better than what I could afford in my real travels. What I realized is that it was something of an incestuous circle: the hotel charges a high fee for business hotels, which the employee pays and is then reimbursed for, followed by the company taking it as a tax write off.

    Hopeful that you are done soon and back on your way home.

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    Replies
    1. We had a great day on Saturday, all objectives achieved, I'll be heading home early!

      Yay me!

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    2. Sarge, I for one rest better with you are back at home.

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  4. Went to MEM once upon a time for training. The corporate travel agent booked me into the hotel at the airport. I swear I remember it being between the runways. Uncle Fred's airline was not a nice neighbor. I think the bed had seatbelts on it to keep the pre-midnight arrivals every 45 seconds and the post 0100 departures every 43 seconds from rattling you out and into the shag rug.

    I've seriously thought about designing my own home like a motel room. That picture up top would be the living space, then a door on the side would lead into a 1200 square foot shop, well lit, bridge crane, 440V - 3 Φ power, rollup doors on both ends, and stock storage along the wall. Room to roll through, and have multiple assembly areas for the wood, electronics and metal work.

    Unfortunately, it appears that the other hand is filling up faster....

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    Replies
    1. Wife has a friend (to me he's more an acquaintance/annoyance to whom my job is to pop his overly inflated ego and yes, he does work for NASA/ULA/BO...) who built a hanger and added at one end a small house, basically an enlarged version of the above. Big vertical folding hanger door, 440/220. But he's an idiot, so...

      Mine would be a small house with an enclosable breezeway between house/garage and the shop, with one wall lined by 10x10 shipping containers and a pull-through center section for converted school bus and...

      But that's just a dream, never going to happen unless somehow big bucks fall into my lap. Oh, well, it's still fun dreaming.

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    2. We'd probably make good neighbors. If we lived far enough apart....

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    3. STxAR #1 - That would be an awesome setup!

      We once stayed at The Westin Detroit Metropolitan Airport hotel, it is literally at the airport. Place was so sound-proofed, you'd swear that you were nowhere near the airport. Nice place too.

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  5. Nice digs my friend. It beats the Hampton Inn and Suites that we had for Red Flag 12-2. Those were the fanciest ones I had ever stayed in.

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  6. Yeah, you USAF types have high standards. We Navy guys always liked Air Force Q's because they had things like hot water and no roaches!

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    1. But it used to be the AF base housing was that way, as both the Army and Navy gave us their worst bases. Hot and cold running roaches, spotty utilities, interior walls only held up by the layers of latex paint covering the lead paint and asbestos. Ah, the good old days at Patrick (formerly Banana River Naval Air Station) AFB, where one could slam the front door and the whole cinderblock house shook.

      (though South base housing was the finest of late 50's architecture, which were expensively remodeled right before it was sold to private developers, who immediately turned around and flattened everything and built expensive houses. And Vandenberg base housing was okay, just, well, not up to civilian standards. Kwaj base housing was, if you got actual housing was okay also, but definitely had that 50's vibe, while the other half either lived in apartments (if single) or in Airstream trailers and why am I wandering so far off topic it's like I can't help myself squirrel!)

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    2. Tuna - Yes, a noticeable difference in accomodations!

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    3. Beans - You must have stayed at some real shit-holes, most of the housing I saw was pretty good. At Lowry in Denver they still had some old WWII-style barracks where a buddy of mine lived. Thing is, ten guys had the entire barracks to themselves!

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  7. Ah, from the wonderful marina view to MASS TRANSIT! Whoo.

    Though, a long time ago, I realized when tired, a bed's a bed. As long as it's dry, relatively bug free (damned mosquitoes get everywhere) and cool on hot nights and warm on cold nights, it could be a shoebox, a tent, a fleabag motel, the back of the van, eh.

    Amenities, like hot/cold running water, decent HVAC, a sink and a fridge are all good. Even better if neighbors aren't drunken louts or the machine sounds are good ones (like airplanes, I've always been able to sleep around airplanes, even that nasty hotel right under the approach up in Chicago, to me planes are cool. Now trains? Dunno, never lived next to train tracks that I know of.)

    Glad things seem to be working out. Would be nice to be able to defend Taiwan against West Taiwan if we have to.

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    Replies
    1. Things went swimmingly on Saturday, so well that we're going home early.

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  8. (Don McCollor)...There are advantages of a sleazy motel. One field test for work, the manager of the good motel apologized that they had overbooked because they had a couple hundred high school students there for a basketball tournament and one of our team would have to stay one night in the run-down one across the street (at their expense). Being in charge of the testing, I made the supreme sacrifice and was the only one that got a good night's sleep that night...

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    1. Hahaha!

      Just to clarify, the hotel I'm in now is by no means "sleazy" - just not as close to the water as the others. It's meant to be a place for long term business travelers.

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    2. (Don McCollor)...Perhaps the best trip was staying alone in an older farm house owned by a friend at work that let us stay and tap into his power to babysit an ambient air sampling project. Had electricity, stove, fridge, bathroom, TV but no reception, no phone (cell service then a half mile away on a hill). Walking in, a dozen mousetraps on the kitchen counter, a ring of traps round the fridge, three more in the oven (one occupied for some time), and others scattered around...Thought that at least I am not going to be lonely...

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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