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 |  I travel the country on business, sometimes the world. Come see where I've been. |
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Talk about perks, my job has one of the best ones I can think of! I travel in the course of business, delivering classes for my employer. I am a Senior Training Specialist for Motorola Solutions, and teach classes on a wide variety of subjects centered around 2 way radio communications. I'm qualified to deliver approximately 30 different classes, but about half of those are 'Legacy' classes, and are not in demand anymore. My students are technicians, those who maintain, program, calibrate, and repair large 2-way radio systems. Some of these systems are statewide, and use TCP-IP networking to allow sites to communicate with others. Some are small, traditional type radio sites. The size doesn't matter, in each case the systems must be kept operational at all times, since many of them are Public Safety Systems. So I get to travel, sometimes frequently, 3-4 weeks in a row.... where am I this week? This probably won't have daily entries, but I will make entries when I get to go somewhere, and keep an updated list of coming trips. My schedule changes faster than the weather, so don't be too surprised to see me list an upcoming class, only to remark later on that it is cancelled, or delayed. Delays are fine of course, but a later date might mean that someone else gets to go instead of me,,, Well, here we go with this, let's see where it takes us.  Best Cultural And Regional Honorable Mention |
| Locale: Washinton DC This week finds me in Washington DC to deliver a class to a customer I've never taught before. The White House Communications Agency. Before you all get all excited or upset about my customer, just know that we are no where near the White House for this class. The training location is south, across the Anacostia River from DC, on the Anacostia/Bolling Joint Base. Their system is a pretty unique one, a bit different from other customer's systems. I guess it figures, being they maintain communications for the White House staff, President, and such, especially when he travels. I'm not sure what all they support/do for the White House, but their system is large, and as I mentioned, setup in an unusual way. I chose to drive here for this class, and the drive was pretty interesting. I posted in the newsfeed about seeing a Semi on fire in Indianapolis. The firefighters hadn't arrived yet, and the cab was fully engulfed in flames. I could feel the hear through my car's rolled up window, even though I was on the far right lane going the opposite direction the truck had been going. The other thing that was unusual for this trip, is that my credit card chip decided it was a good time to malfunction. The card itself is fine, it can be swiped, everything is fine with the account. But the chip can't be read. I called the bank about it, and the guy told me it was probably their card reader. I had to explain to him that I'd tried using it in three different locations about 10 miles apart. He still didn't think the chip would go bad. His words, "That's very unusual, those chips don't fail." I couldn't believe that he was refusing to think the chip could fail, and kept insisting it was the card readers. I contacted the Motorola department that handles this stuff, and a new card is on the way. To my house....  Once I arrived here, I had a message from our scheduler. I was scheduled to deliver a Networking class from home next week. Now I'll deliver the same class, in High Point NC. The instructor scheduled to go was a last minute replacement due to us losing two instructors to retirement recently. He can't travel though, so him and I swapped classes. I know it wasn't possible, but it would have been nice to know about 3 weeks ago. We could have planned a 3 week work-cation, and drove here to Washington DC, then to High Point NC, then down to Sarasota Fl, then driving home. How nice that would have been! As it is, I will get home Friday, then fly to Greensboro NC via DFW on Sunday, fly home Friday, then fly to Sarasota Florida on Sunday, and home on Friday. Then I'm home for 2 weeks before having to travel again. In Closing I will spend the weekend at home before heading off to NC. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE!  Jim Dorrell |
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I then went to Taiwan for two weeks; but, although that was nice, it wasn't 'home'. 
