Where In The World Is Sum1?

Sleepless In Seattle, Again

Locale: Seattle, Washington

Week of: December 14, 2020

         Here I am in the beautiful city of Seattle, and no place to go.  You might wonder how that's possible, so let me explain.  I'm only here for 1 day.  I'm here to work with the customer in completing the hands-on activities for this course.  It only takes one day to do all that, so here I am.  Being such a short trip, working in the airport itself, plus having the pandemic still going on, it seemed to make sense to not have a car.  Restaurants are open for carry-out only, so I can't even go to the city for dinner.  Many of you have it a lot tougher than this, so I don't feel I should complain too much.

         Since the class was conducted at the airport, I chose to stay at the Hilton across the street, but I have to confess that I wouldn't stay here again.  Why?  It's an old hotel, comfy, clean, but in need of an update.  That isn't the reason though.  There's a Spencer's Restaurant that is part of the hotel; it's supposed to be a good place to dine.  They may have changed things  due to the pandemic, I'm not sure.  What I do know, is that the price you pay (well, my company pays) for a meal is not worth what you get.  I arrived Monday and being somewhat tied to the hotel, I went there for my carryout dinner.  I love Fish n Chips, so I ordered that, and a Caesar Salad, along with a plastic up of beer, and for later, one of those hard cider things.  I won't say the price here, that's not important.  But the fish was 3 'logs', about the size of a cigar in diameter, and maybe 3-4 inches in length, and a ton of fries.  That dish alone was close to $30!  That's what I mean about the price not being in line with what you get.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for a larger portion, what I had was plenty.  I don't think it should have cost that much.  The meal was good (for being a take-out order), nothing wrong with it, just overpriced.  So, I wouldn't stay here again if that's my main dining option.


         The hands-on activities went well, there were only 2 students, so it was nice to teach almost one-on-one.  It wasn't classroom teaching, no lecturing.  It was all demo's, them actually logging on to devices and viewing it's configuration, learning how to do this or that to maintain the system and devices.  This was my first time doing the hands-on activities only, and my first time doing this class since August of 2019.  I get to do this class in person in about 4 weeks in Flagler County Florida, so it was also a nice refresher, if you will.

In Closing

         Today I fly to Montana to do this again, a slightly different course, but in reality, about the same stuff.  I will be in Helena, and I'm told the radio site is on top of a mountain.  I just hope the shelter that houses the radios is decently warm!  Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE!




Jim Dorrell