On The Road Again (still)

It seems as though I have not been home in a very long time. In Reality I went to Ft Worth to work the last week of april and have only spent three weekends at home since then. At the moment I am working in a call center in Irving TX. I expect to leave here on or about August 11th and then travel to Jacksonville FL where I will work until September 30.  I guess I'll have to take some vacation time to get any time at home this year. This has been the most disaster prone year in  history, in terms of numbers of events. We have not had a mega-event on the magnatude of Hurricanes Andrew or Katrina, or a Northridge earthquake, but the hail storms, floods and tornados just seem to keep coming. I think we need to see this as a warning sign of the last days. Hurricane season is just getting started and I would not be at all surprised if we were to see something big this year.

Traveling takes a toll on you in many ways, physically, emotionally and spritualy. It may seem exciting to stay in hotels and eat out all the time, but honestly it gets old. I tend to gain weight when I travel. A combination of long work hours with only one day off a week, lack of exercise and restaurant food seem to cause me to gain weight. I look forward to those hotels that have kitchen facilities where I can prepare some meals. As a kid I used to hate that. When ever we stayed in hotels my dad would always try to find motels with kitchens so we could save money and not have to eat out.

The nice thing about my work travel is that most of the time I drive. I hate flying! It would be a lot more tolerable if not for the TSA and the ridiculous security screening. The only thing they accomplish besides hassling the general public is giving the ignorant public a false sense of security.

I am staying in a Marriott hotel, Town Place Suites in Las Colinas which is a short drive from the office. I am always intrigued by the little things they do in hotels like folding the ends of the toilet paper rolls; folding the wash cloths into little fans and fashioning the hand towels to hold them. This hotel however is the most over the top of any I have ever stayed at. They fashioned this towel elephant to decorate the back of the toilet.