Days 4 and 5

Days 4 and 5 were more of the same. Although I did manage enough time to drive through the Newport/Middletown area. It was cool to see how things have grown up. There is a CCRI (Community College of Rhode Island) campus now across the street from the base. If it had been there when I was stationed there, maybe I would have gotten some school out of the way. The Newport Mall is gone and now there is a nice looking shopping center with a Walmart and Stop and Shop. Newport itself hasn't changed too much. Camille and I are possibly going there tomorrow after we pick up a rental car for her to use during her stay.

I had to go to Westerly yesterday and got a couple pictures of some beach houses. It was rather cool outside so all the beaches were empty and some were closed.

Today (Saturday) I sat in the hotel for most of the day. Camille will be here in a few hours. I just didn't want to get stuck away somewhere when she arrived. I think we are going out to eat somewhere tonight. We'll see how she feels.

Day 3

ok, so today was really not all that. I only got one store done. I drove an hour to Fedex to pick up some packages that they decided to return to sender on Monday. Idiots. Then I drove about another hour to the store. I got three machines done before the store decided to have a fire drill. although it was a beautiful day out and the sun felt just right when I was outside sitting on a guardrail. It was funny just how mad some people got. One guy had to leave his stuff at the SCOT and when he got back, he rang it out and cussed out the cashier. Because of the drill for the first few minutes, they had someone outside checking receipts. the guy threw his stuff on the ground and cussed out that guy too.

So for each store I have to fill out a checklist. Today I used my last one. I had my laptop so I drove all around quicy looking for a hotspot to try and download it not knowing exactly how I was going to print it out. I couldn't find a single free/unsecured one. I found a couple starbucks but they now use Tmobile and you have to pay for the connection. I wound up driving back to the hotel for a connection only to be able to find the checklist anywhere on the company network. I had to email my boss to get a copy which I then printed out at the hotel.

Went out to the Providence Place today. It's a giant 3 story upscale mall. Macys, Nordstrom, Crate and Barrel, Williams Sonoma and such. Had dinner at Dave and Busters which wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that either. I did have some wonderful Ben & Jerry's afterwards.

So I got an email back today, it turns out that one of my favorite restaraunts in Newport is long gone. East Side Marios is now a TGI Fridays. YUCK! I wonder what other changes I'll find when I eventually get down there. I also don't know if Sam and Tammy Kanai are still in the area. Tammy used to work at NWC and Sam was one of my navy coworkers. they got married shortly after I left. But I guess they have different jobs and moved a little closer to Boston.

I haven't really seen anything good to take pictures of. This place is relatively flat compared to home and I have't really been around any historic spots yet. Although I did see a church today that looked pretty old.

Well, maybe I'll get some tomorrow.

Jeff Foxworthy on Kentucky..............

If someone in a store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you might live in Kentucky.

If your Dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead,you might live in Kentucky.

If your town has an equal number of bars and churches, you might live in Kentucky.

If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in Kentucky.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A TRUE KENTUCKIAN WHEN: Vacation means going north or south on I-75 or I-65 for the weekend.

You measure distance in hours.

You know several people who have hit deer more than once.

You often switch from heat to AC in the same day and back again.

You see people wearing camouflage at social events including weddings.

You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both doors unlocked.

You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend or wife knows how to use them.

"Down South" means Tennessee to you.

Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole shed.

You go out to a tailgate party every Friday.

You actually understand these jokes, and you forward them to all your Kentucky

SSDD

Well, I was debating even writing a blog tonight as not much happened. Fixed a couple of Home Depots and sat around in the hotel.

I did however go out to eat at carrabbas and had an awesome Veal Piccata.

I emailed an old co-worker of mine from the War College. Hopefully, i'll get down to newport sometime while i'm here and we can go out to lunch.

I spent some time tonight browsing Myspace and looking for people i went to school with. through one person, i found another who had an I hate Oprah blog. it was cool, he was talking about how his wife wanted to go to boston for some workshop this weekend. I just thought it was so interesting and that its such a small world with be being up here and Camille coming up here this weekend. I know that if her flight came in a day earlier, she'd probably try and go.

Anyway, at least I did manage to find a couple more people from my class who didn't put in their graduation year for some reason or another.

Day 1

Well they hired a new TM for south Boston/Providence and I think he was the old lead tech for the territory. It seems like he's really over his head so far, I could be wrong having never actually met the guy.

I have to do preventative maintenance on the SCOT (self checkout) lanes for a bunch of stores, and right now he's got me scheduled doing maybe one per day, and sometimes two. I would have thought that if he was the previous lead tech he should know just about how long one of these takes. It takes me about 30-45 minutes max on each machine, and there are usually 4 in a store with the exception being Walmart Supercenters. even then, they only have 8. so that's still about 4 hours max.

that's all the work he has scheduled for me for an 8 hour day.

He didn't know what territory code i'd be closing my calls under, it's what allows me to see the calls in my blackberry. I didn't find that out until about 2pm. the story is the same with the contractor here from pittsburg. he has even less work than me to do.

I'm taking my camera out tomorrow to try and take some pictures in the afternoon.

I made it!

Well, I've ridden several airplanes throughout the last 10 years and never really thought much of flying. However lately it seems that the more I fly or the older I get the more apprehensive I get about it. Maybe it's just the recent crashes in the news, like the one that had the tire blow out on landing or the flight from lexinmgton that took off from the wrong runway. I don't know if it's just apprehension or fear, but i'm beginning to not like flying.

We hit just a little turbulence on the descent, and it really wasn't that bad but still it was enough to notice the plane tilting a couple degrees to the left and then all of a sudden a couple degrees to the right and back.

My hotel isn't bad, a comfort inn, but there is a contractor here that is staying at an extended stay hotel. he's here just as long as me and has basically an efficiency apartment. I don't even have a fridge. sheesh.

There is a nice restaraunt outside the hotel though. Bertucci's Brick Oven Pizzeria. It's like an upscale Italian place that is big on pizza too. They've good some good looking dishes and some tempting desserts. I had a really good pizza tonight while I watched the Bengals lose.

Boston - take II

Well, I was supposed to go to Boston in August but things just didn't work out. wound up spending 10 days in the hospital. yuck! doing much better now and I once again find myself with a chance to go. I leave tomorrow for a three week stay. Hopefully everything works out.

I think they have already hired a new TM for South Boston, so it doesn't look like I'll be moving there. However, all the bigwigs will be in boston this week. My boss will be there, as well as his boss and the head of the company and the TM's from a lot of other regions. Being as they are all in the same hotel, looks like I may get to hang with the bigwigs. Maybe it'll get me noticed and I'll get thought of when another TM position comes open. I checked the other day and there are openings in Pheonix, San Fran, and Moscow. Unfortunately I don't speak russian, can't afford SF, and Camille hates the heat. Boston would have been great because of Camille's family.

Camille will be coming up next week and will get to spend two weeks with me and her family from up there.

I'll have my laptop for email and such and i'll try and keep a daily log of what goes on.