On our way<\/p>\n
The next adventure starts now.\u00a0 We decided to pack the car and leave from work.\u00a0 That would save us 40 minutes and we are already at the highway.\u00a0 I had a 2:00 to 3:00 meeting and then we figured we would just slip out the door.\u00a0 Luckily, my PM was nice enough not to keep me over.\u00a0 I packed up my computer, told the co-workers good-bye, and headed out Roboguard.<\/p>\n
Have I ever explained about the door they put in to replace a real person at the door I use to enter the building at Motorola?\u00a0 I\u2019m sure it has a name, but everyone calls it Roboguard.\u00a0 It\u2019s an automated revolving door.\u00a0 You swipe your badge to get entrance into the thing.\u00a0 A woman\u2019s voice tells you to step into the door.\u00a0 If it\u2019s just you, it works well.<\/p>\n
During busy times, people are swiping and trying to get through the door very quickly.\u00a0 They tend to make mistakes.\u00a0 This backs the door up to spit you out on the side you entered from.\u00a0 What usually happens is that you swipe and start going around.\u00a0 Some idiot on the other side swipes, creates a problem and you get spit back out onto the wrong side of the door.\u00a0 Then you are bannered from entering the door for 3 to 5 minutes.\u00a0 Do you know how long 3 to 5 minutes is?\u00a0 If you try swiping too early, the clock starts all over again!\u00a0 I give up and walk the length of the building to the manned door and back up the hallway.\u00a0 Probably takes 3 to 5 minutes, but I\u2019m moving.<\/p>\n
Before I forget, Rick got laid off from his job for a week or so.\u00a0 Things were slow in the bay and I think the supervisors were planning to take off this week since it was a short week anway.\u00a0 They will call back the help when they get ready to start installing the new systems for Q3.\u00a0 Rick wasn’t too hurt.\u00a0 He’s got money and he can sleep late.<\/p>\n
He came out for lunch to join at To Pho for noodle soup.\u00a0 He’s been wanting to try it, but his lunch is very short and they expect them to stay in the building.\u00a0 One of the bad things about hourly temps.\u00a0 Jim, one of my co-workers, came along.\u00a0 The guys all had a version of the noodle soup.\u00a0 Only Rich got it with all the parts.\u00a0 I had curry chicken.\u00a0 Really spicy today.\u00a0 Thanks for joing us, Rick and Jim.<\/p>\n
Outside, it was raining.\u00a0 Not what I expected for my vacation.\u00a0 I want the windows down, my hair blowing, and my arms hanging out.\u00a0 Let\u2019s just hope this isn\u2019t the entire drive to San Antonio.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be a little bit pissed.\u00a0 It is after all my vacation, darn it.<\/p>\n
We are speeding down 355 to join up with 55 heading south.\u00a0 At about the Butterfield exit, there is a sudden stopping of all lanes.\u00a0 We creep forward slowly.\u00a0 No blowing hair going on now.\u00a0 Pretty soon, I hear sirens and see flashing lights behind.\u00a0 The ambulance is trying to cross from the far right shoulder through traffic to the far left shoulder.\u00a0 It\u2019s take a while to weave through the cars.\u00a0 Then a full size fire truck comes up and tries the same motion.<\/p>\n
We reach the accident and it is a cargo van lying on its side with a couple of other cars around it.\u00a0 The cars around me are all trying to come down from 4 lanes to 2 using the right shoulder.\u00a0 No one seems to be very good at picking a spot and getting into it.\u00a0 They are everywhere.<\/p>\n
I get in the left lane and stick with it.\u00a0 There is an 80s style Firebird in front of me.\u00a0 As we get just about even with the accident, this idiot slows down to 3 miles per hour so he can rubberneck.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking at the police officers wondering why they aren\u2019t shooing this guy along.\u00a0 I\u2019m screaming at the top of my lungs for him to keep moving and motioning with my hands to go forward.<\/p>\n
Rich just calmly looks at me and says, \u201cYou know he can\u2019t hear you, but I sure can.\u201d\u00a0 The guy is still looking in his mirrors at the accident, but I get a space to get around him and head out.\u00a0 Did I ever tell you one of my worst pet peeves?\u00a0 Guess what it is?<\/p>\n
Traffic lightens up and we are making good time down the road.\u00a0 We stop for gas and a little dinner in Bloomington.\u00a0 From there, it was only a couple of more hours to our first stop of the evening.\u00a0 We are spending the night just north of St. Louis.\u00a0 I figured I would brave traffic after rush hour and get through town.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah.\u00a0 On the way out of town, Rich is reading his newspaper on his tablet.\u00a0 Then he\u2019s playing with his phone.\u00a0 I look over and asking if he has any plans to talk to me on any part of this trip.\u00a0 With a straight face, he says, \u201cI hadn\u2019t thought about it, but probably not.\u201d\u00a0 For 19 and a half hours?\u00a0 Rich doesn\u2019t see a problem with this.\u00a0 I guess I\u2019ll sign to the radio a lot and maybe a dance a little.\u00a0 Rich only wants Blues on the radio.\u00a0 I think I can dance to that. The cruise control can handle the speed.\u00a0 I\u2019ll just dodge cars.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow, we head out through Oklahoma.\u00a0 I wonder if everyone sings Rodgers and Hammerstein there?\u00a0 We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On our way The next adventure starts now.\u00a0 We decided to pack the car and leave from work.\u00a0 That would save us 40 minutes and we are already at the highway.\u00a0 I had a 2:00 to 3:00 meeting and then we figured we would just slip out the door.\u00a0 Luckily, my PM was nice enough […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,12,13,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2014"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2016,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions\/2016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}