After nearly seven years of work on my project, today is the first day of my oversight role in the field! Normally, I'm relegated to paperwork and meetings but, instead, this phase of my career will involve hands-on, quality assurance involvement in the deployment of new equipment. I'm very excited. Despite my best efforts to make today easier, however, I still had to drive to Albany before I could begin. Probably for this reason, I was up at 0530 (before alarm) and had started teleworking at 0600. No breakfast was offered at the hotel (Red Roof Inn, Erie) so I didn't take any breaks except to do minimal packing and and loading of my car (parked right in front of the door). As a result, I was able to telework until 0915 (3 hours of my work day completed before departing the hotel. Fortunately, my drive also counts as work for the day! I stopped for breakfast at McDonalds (located right next door to the hotel) and took the food on the road with me. Outside, the weather mostly pleasant (sunny) but very cold (1 F). The hotel had been located right next to the Interstate so I was on I-90 again very quickly and headed east soon afterwards. Sadly, my Subaru's TPMS was annoyed with colder temps... After less than 30 minutes, I switched to I-86 and crossed into New York State (0940). I reached the town of Findley Lake at 0945 and then encountered some construction as I made my way towards the bridge that crosses Chautauqua Lake. Shortly after reaching the east side of that body of water, I passed through Jamestown (1000) and entered the Seneca Reservation. At some point near here, I also found myself within the boundary of Allegany State Park. Almost every road sign was bilingual, with equivalents to English in the Seneca Language. In a couple of places, I noticed that the term "ohi-yo" was used in place of the Allegany and realized that it must be the source name for the "Ohio Country! At 1030, I arrived in Salamanca and got gas at a Native American station. It seemed to be warming up (at least higher than single digits) by the time I got back on I-86. Next, I passed through Angelica (1120) and then the terrain started to climb. As I crossed the ridge on I-86 west of Almond (elevation just over 2K feet), the temps dipped to 10 F - brrr... I reached Hornellsville at 1135 and marveled at the large number of windmills on the hills in this area; for some reason, though, there was no wind. I was in Corning at 1215 and Barton at 1245 - this area had lots of cops - and finally arrived in Binghamton by 1325. Temps had settled at 20 F and I briefly thought about getting some steps nearby (Finger Lakes Trail = NCT nearby). However, I had a meeting scheduled at 1330 and needed to stay on task for my drive... Along the way, I skipped lunch. At 1300, I joined a work meeting on my laptop from the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel (just west of I-81) in Binghamton. Fortunately, I was able to connect with my iPhone as a HotSpot and was able to participate in a productive discussion. With that meeting finished (1430), I resumed my drive, using surface streets to pass through town until I reached I-88. From there, I passed through Afton (1500) and Sidney (1510) as I dodged more cops. Wen I reached Oneonta (1525), I didn't stop - this is usually a good rest/gas/food place but I was all set today. The rest of my drive on I-88 included Richmondville (1550) and Duanesburg (1610). At the latter town, I got off the Interstate and used US-20 (no tolls) to reach Albany at 1640. Next, I used I-87, NY-7, US-9 and NY-9D to reach the Holiday Inn Express (my lodging for the week) in Latham, NY at 1645. Luckily, I was able to quickly check into my room and resumed teleworking until 1800. After work, I joined a KofC Council Meeting and spent time with them for the next 45 minutes. As that meeting ended, I ordered dinner at a nearby Panera and drove to pick it up at 1855. On the way, I heard a (new) funny noise from car (muffler?) - dang... After getting my food and eating inside the restaurant (1910), I walked around the aisles of a nearby Home Depot. Fortunately, there were almost no customers and it was very warm. Along the way, I met the Manager (nice lady) and we ended up talking to her for a while - she had lots of ideas for my (non-existent) home projects but I didn't stop her. By the time I finally finished my walk, I managed to reach two miles worth of steps for the day. With my "exercise" completed (2000), I drove back to my hotel and quickly changed into workout gear. After locating the Fitness Center, I spent 40 minutes (2020 to 2100) on the recumbent bike and logged 8.8 miles. I would have liked to do more (and, maybe, even swim) but there were lots of kids (some kind of big school group) roaming around everywhere I went. Instead, I headed back to my room and spent the rest of the evening catching up on blogging, Duolingo, etc. before finally heading off to bed at 2300. It was a whirlwind day of telework and driving but I'm in position for my Big Day tomorrow!
