10:00 AM: Albany

WunderWife dropped me off at the Albany Airport for my trip to Houston. Now I have an hour of sitting around. I half hoped the little “restaurant” would have wi-fi. No dice…Then again I am still in Albany…

*sigh*

One day my town will catch up with the times.

WunderKid3 (my 3 year old) told me, “I go with you.” It broke my heart.

Back when I worked for the railroad, I was on the road all the time. It was normal for me to be gone two weeks per month. This worked fine until WunderKid1 was born. I remember I went away for a week and when I came back, he cried…not happy cried…scared cried…as in “Who the heck is this guy?” It dawned on me that maybe a career change was in order.

The funny part is that after I left, the railroad started farming things out to consultants. I don’t think they guys travel much anymore. Oh well.

It is very windy today. I fly out in a Canadair Regional jet. Not too bad. It sure beats the old Embraer turbo props that used to fly from here. I’m afraid it will still be a bumpy ride.

I’m a bit nervous about this trip. Not the flying part, but the meeting new people part.

The guy I work for is merging his small company with his buddy’s small company. The merger should be finished by the first of the year. Wayne (my boss) has spoken to his buddy (Eric) about me quite often. Before I hired on, Wayne ran it by Eric. They both felt I would be a good fit with the new company and could add more depth to their project list. See, I am a general Civil type guy. I have spent my entire career designing water and sewer lines, pump stations, small road projects and small site grading plans. The company does flood plain work exclusively. They call it H&H, which stands for Hydraulics and Hydrology. So, by adding me, they get someone who they can train to do the H&H work, but who can come in and do the general Civil work for the Houston office as well as for the Georgia office.

All that to say that today I get to meet the various employees and Eric. That always makes me nervous.I know I’ll do great, but its still a big nerve wracking.

I’ll write more when I get to Atlanta.

11:20 Am: Cell Phone Hell

Why oh why is there always one person who insists on talking on their cell phone in a crowded area?

Why?

There we were, all 50 of us sitting in the holding cell that is the boarding area for the Albany airport, minding our own business. Some people were talking to their friends or new acquaintances in hushed tones. You could pick out a word or two, but for the most part it was pretty quite…

Until she came in.

She plopped down and immediately dialed someone on her cell. She talked loudly about the fact that our plane was not there and she was going to be late and what about her luggage, there was a funeral or something and that “Jennifer” was on the plane in Macon when they pulled everyone off, loaded them on busses and drove them to Atlanta.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, she then proceeded to call everyone on her contact list and tell them the EXACT SAME STORY.

Well, not quite the exact story. She started embellishing it a bit by the time she got to the G’s. I found myself wanting to correct her and tell her that, remember, “Jennifer” was only on the runway for 15 minutes not 30 days. I was beginning to get to know her friends and family…make her stop!

A quick glance around the holding cell, proved that everyone else had the same idea I did:

I wonder how far one could shove her cell phone down her throat… but it was just a passing thought.

12:00 Noon: Albany to Atlanta

We finally took off around noon. It was only 45 minutes late, but I only had a little over an hour layover in Atlanta and I was getting worried about making my connecting flight.

I had the aisle seat. Not my favorite. I prefer the window seat. Not because I like to look at the ground but because I get motion sick.

It’s true.

I once was a bastion of amusement park heroics. There wasn’t a single roller coaster I wouldn’t tackle. There wasn’t a single vomit inducing ride that was too much for me…

That is until I turned 22.

Why 22? I dunno..but for some reason I magically turned into an old man that day. Now I get sick just WATCHING rides…so sad…so very sad.

Anyway, back to the plane. As long as I have a frame of reference (clouds, ground, approaching jumbo jet, etc), I’m ok. But I was fine this trip. When I felt a little queasy, I was able to look across the guy next to me. The guy next to me turned out to be a great guy. We chatted most of the way to Atlanta. He was heading to Topeka, Kansas and he worked in the medical janitorial supply business. There’s a medical janitorial supply business? Who knew.

We finally landed and pulled up to the gate. My connecting flight happened to be right next to our arrival gate. Why? Because Jesus loves me.

Even though I could literally walk out of this plane and onto my connecting plane, I did have the thought that my luggage may not make it…

*shrug*

How hard could that be.

1:20 PM: Trip To Houston

I sat next to my boss, Wayne, for the trip to Houston. We talked engineering shop talk for some of the time and about church stuff the rest of the time. He is the pastor of what is called a Simple Church. Basically, it seems to boil down to a collection of home based churches. He’s also done some missionary work in Hattie. He is a rich source of knowledge and has much insight into people.

3:30 PM (EST): I Play Luggage Roulette

Yeah, they lost my luggage.

Bet you didn’t see that coming..

But they assured me that it would be on the next flight and they would deliver it to my hotel.

4:00 PM (CST) Yes The Time Zone Changed

Houston is in the Central Time Zone. Pity. My stomach is still on Eastern Time…

We found our rental car and finally made it out of the airport and started hunting for our hotel. Apparently traffic in Houston is as bad or near as bad as Atlanta’s. That meant it took us awhile to go the required 15 miles or so.

After a bit of confusion, we found our exit and saw the sign for the Courtyard. Hmmm, that’s odd, is this our hotel or not? It’s a Marriott but the name is not the same. A quick stop into the lobby, followed by a brief conversation with the girl behind the counter informed us that no this was not our hotel. We wanted the OTHER Marriott just three doors down. Three doors down, we pulled into the OTHER Marriott. Wayne greeted the girl with a smile and asked, “Hope you have a room for us”.

Nope. They were oversold for tonight and decided to bump us, but don’t worry we got you a room at the other Marriott,the one you just came from…

Since we were on the one way access road, we had to make our way back down the three doors to the original Marriott. They gleefully checked us in. Then the thought crossed my mind that the airport would be delivering my bags to the OTHER Marriott. That is if they ever found my long lost bag…So we had to stop back by the OTHER Marriott and leave my business card with instructions to please call me if and when my bag arrived.

5:00 PM: We meet Cyndi

I finally got to meet one of the people who work for the company we are merging with. She seemed very nice and easy to get along with. This is good because she will be the lead on most of the projects I will be working on. It turns out she is a HUGE Houston Astros fan and loves hockey as well. In fact, she actually plays hockey in a league on Thursday nights.

Mental Note: Always stay on Cyndi’s good side…don’t want to get checked into the wall…

7:00 PM: Dinner

I told Wayne I was turning in my two week notice. He wanted to know if I hadn’t liked Cyndi. Nope, my stomach thinks it’s 8:00 PM and it hasn’t been fed yet.

We stopped at a great little seafood place. For an appetizer, we had some shrimp/crawfish fondue. Oh man, was it good.

I had a nice side salad with ranch dressing. Lots of cucumbers and tomatoes. My kind of place. Then I had a grilled fish filet (they didn’t specify the type) with shrimp and crawfish in some sort of brown wine sauce as a topping. It was pretty good, though I should have stuck with my first choice which was jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon and covered in cheese and spicy peppers…

On the way back to the hotel we called and Delta finally found my bags and delivered them to the OTHER hotel. So we picked them up and finally made it to our room.

Bed is calling me, so that is all for today.

We have an all day seminar tomorrow. Then we may go out to eat or head to Eric’s (owner of the other firm) house.

Until then, take I easy.