Last week in Key West

Okay, I know it is been a long time since my last update. But at least, I'm doing better than my brother Chris. He has only had one new post in January, and that was over a month ago. I guess he is really busy studying and getting straight A's. More likely...He's busy driving back and forth from Mankato and playing video games.

In addition to having very poor internet service from my hotel, a have a long list of excuses. To keep from droning on for too long, I'll try to stick to the 4 highlights...

1) On Feb. 3rd, I was assigned as the new Team Lead for EYW. Basically, this means that any questions from fellow traveling NDF in Key West come to me first. I then do some research and bring the questions up the chain of command if I can't find an answer on my own. I'm also responsible for taking care of our time cards and I'm on call 24/7. This is on top of my regular work schedule. Unfortunately, I was not given the opportunity to turn this wonderful "opportunity" down. I do get paid overtime if I can't get all the paperwork done during my regular shift, but it is not worth it to me. I enjoyed just having to worry about myself without the constant stream of emails and phone calls. It is better now that the 1st-two weeks are over, however. I wasn't given any guidelines or instructions from the start so that was difficult. Now that things are pretty well organized and in order, I'm leaving (see below).

2) Katie came to visit 2/5 to 2/10. It was great to have some company, but as always when you have visitors and are not on vacation, it can really wear you out. We took a day trip to a small island called Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas. The trip took a little over 2 hours by boat and was 70 miles west of Key West. It is a national park and the home of Fort Jefferson. After the tour of the fort, we had time to snorkel and relax on the beach. The water was cold but totally worth it. I saw some living coral and tropical fish, but the best part was the big fish. I saw large pastel-colored fish about 3 1/2' each. Then I came across, barracuda. The 1st one was about 4' long and the second was longer than me. I also saw a very large carp-like fish that seemed totally uninterested in me...or anything for that matter. I think it was depressed.

We spent my next day off, walking around Old Town. The Hemingway House was interesting. It is populated by approximately 50 cats, all of which are descendants of Hemingway's six-toed cat Snowball. We also went to Mallory Square, several shops on Duval St. and Salute, a Italian restaurant on the beach.

3) The day after Katie left, Rita and Renee flew in. They had a rental car so we spent one day driving up the Keys in search of Key Deer and warmer weather. The following day we spent our time in and around Old Town. We ate at several different restaurants, most of which had good food, but slow service. Of course, I couldn't let them leave before going to the Sunset celebration. We saw Dominique & His Flying House Cats and some other street performers.

4) Finally, I've been busy trying to tie up any loose ends before returning home to Minnesota. I will be flying back on Tues, Feb. 27th. I arrive at MSP at 1:40 PM. Anyone available to pick me up? When I get back, I'll have to work at MSP. I don't know my schedule yet, but I'll let you know when I find out. It's late and I still have to work the next 3 days before I leave so better try to get some rest. Hope it see you all soon. Bye!

Funny story...now that it's over

Since Burman has been encouraging me to write more often and I'm also actually getting a wireless signal at the moment, I thought I'd write about my morning...

I got up at 3:30 a.m. in order to be ready to leave for work at 4:30 a.m. I should have known that this was going to be a challenging day when I went to take a shower and there was absolutely no cold water. It seems weird to complain about the water being too hot, but it was scalding so my only choice was too fill the tub a little and wait for it to cool off.

At about 4:00 a.m. I hear the rain pouring down. Definitely not a good morning for a bike ride. My co-workers regularly take the hotel shuttle to the airport so I decide to join them. We usually start gathering at 4:30 and leave at 4:45. At 4:40 we confirm with the driver, a new guy, that we need to leave in 5 minutes. He nods but seems like he doesn't understand English. (Not good.) We see him run out in to the rain to get the shuttle, but he's taking a long time to pull up.

(Side note: I'm trying to work on my patience, but I don't have time for this crap. We are busy in the morning, so being late isn't an option...especially since I was the "acting" supervisor today and had the keys to open everything.)

Now it is about 4:52 and the shuttle still hasn't pulled up so we grab the keys for our rental van which is only supposed to be used to go to work if the shuttle isn't available. Just as we are piling into the van, the shuttle pulls up. So we put the rental keys back and get in the shuttle. The driver doesn't seem to be real experienced and I jokingly say to a co-worker that he probably doesn't have a license. After the fact, I think that this is a very good possibility.

4:57 and the driver starts creeping through the parking lot. (COME ON!) In the downpour as he moves at about 5 miles/hour, he searches for the lights. Out on the road as we drive through a construction area, he shifts into neutral in an attempt to find the wipers. The wipers finally come on, but still in neutral he is stepping on gas and seems totally baffled. (OH MY GOD!)

By the time we finally got to the airport, it was after 5:00 and they are all waiting on me. We rush out to run our things upstairs. I noticed before going up that the checkpoint is open so I assume that someone less has a set of keys and has started opening everything up. About 2 minutes later at 5:05, I come down to the checkpoint and everyone is just standing there waiting for me. Apparently someone opened the main door, but didn't have any of the other necessary keys. (OH NO!) I rush back upstairs, grab the keys, and get the ball rolling.

In summary, there were no flight delays, but it was very chaotic for the first hour. I think my heart may have suffered irreversible damage from stress as a result of the shuttle driver's incompetence. Maybe I'll sue.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Pretty good game so far. Lots of turnovers. I'd be more excited if the Vikings were playing, but I guess we all knew that wasn’t going to happen. This is the only day of the year that I willingly watch TV commercials. Did you see the one with Eileen, Joy, Bob and Mr. Turkeyneck? It was pretty funny.

My next post will probably be about Katie's visit to Key West. If all goes well, she will be here by 3:30 p.m. tomorrow. Can’t wait!