Where In The World Is Sum1?

Staying Home Next Week

Locale: Bloomington, IL.


         I will be home this week after all.  I was originally scheduled to deliver an online class to the Los Angeles World Airport, but that was changed last Monday night.  Instead, I was now going to visit High Point NC again.  That all changed (again) on Thursday.  The manager of the radio shop I was going to be at, has a family member who tested positive for COVID-19.  So, it's cancelled of course.  Now, I'll be here at home working on preparing to deliver a tailored class next month.


         The class last week ended up well it seems.  Their radio system is unique as I mentioned in my last entry.  One of the things their system supports, is the use of cell phones interfacing with the radios.  Cell phones are really radios that operate in what's called 'Full Duplex'.  The difference between a cell phone and a radio?  Full Duplex means one can transmit and receive at the same time.  Radios are half duplex, meaning they can do one or the other, not at the same time.  Plus, cell phones operate at different frequencies than radios, so that may make  you wonder some.  And of course, there's an answer for that too.  As I've mentioned several times in other entries, our radio system uses the same kind of devices that the internet does for wide area communication.  It's all 'IP' based (Digital, 1's and 0's, not a frequency).  So, we use IP devices to interface between the cell phone network, and our radio network.

         The drive home was something else, and very tiring.  Once class was done Thursday (about 2:30), I drove to Virginia Beach to visit a friend of ours.  I arrived there about 6:30, and while there, I picked up an Akita puppy she had from a recent litter.  I was there almost an hour before heading out.  I drove another 3-4 hours, and finally stopped in Charlottesville for the night.  (Sorry Robert Waltz , I was only there overnight, and far too late, so made no plans to drop by.  We could have made plans to meet, but I'd hoped to take the northern route for a couple of reasons).  I was finally in bed by a little after midnight (I'd woken at 4am that morning), then got up at 6:30 to get the puppy walked and such before hitting the road at 7:30.  The drive was long and tedious, made more so by me following the GPS directions, and not questioning why at a certain point.

         In West Virginia, there's a toll road near Beckley, and a previous driver had set the GPS to avoid toll roads.  When the GPS directed me off the Interstate, I thought it was a shorter, faster route.  That wasn't the case at all.  Because I was on state/county highways now, there were a lot of hairpin turns and slow downs.  As a result of all this, I lost at least 1.5-2 hours of time.  To top it all off, as I was leaving Huntington WV, just on the west side, traffic came to a stop.  MAJOR accident about a quarter mile in front of me!  Thank God I wasn't near it or involved in it.  But, traffic was at a dead stop for at least an hour.  So, I lost three hours of driving all together that day.  That was nothing compared to those in that accident.  I don't know if anyone was killed in that accident, I never heard any news, never saw the wreckage.  By the time traffic moved again, everything was cleaned up, except for minor debris.  As a result of those two delays, I didn't get home Friday night until a bit after 10.  Another long day.

         I've decided to drive on my next trip also.  Sarasota Florida.  I'll leave about noon on Friday, visit a co-worker from Motorola who retired in January (lives in Tennessee), and avoid Atlanta.  This means I will most likely drive through Alabama, north to south along I-65.

In Closing

         I will spend the weekend and next week at home before heading off to Florida.  Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE!