再见

Greetings Comrades!  
Life is wonderful here in the homeland!  
Many interesting things to see and do!  
Everyone is happy and productive!  
My journey has been very fruitful and profitable.  
I have learned much in my journey.  
I must leave now to return home to the decadent west with their all-night debauchery and  fast food and big cars.  As sit here in the United lounge in Hong Kong airport pondering my travels, I will miss my friends and comrades I have made during my travels.   

再见

Hong Kong at last

I woulda thought a "short" hop from Tokyo to Hong Kong would have been a breeze after that 12+ hour run to Tokyo.  Boy, was I wrong.  3+ hour layover in a hot Uniter lounge, packed plane, sat in the middle seat (my least favorite) in the exit rowthen we proceeded to sit on the runway for an hour while the pilots were trying to "fix" one of the indicator light thingies. Great.  Not want I wanted hear.  The finally got it working and we took off for HK.  Laned some time after 2230 and finally made the hotel a bit befor midnight.  By my reckoning, i had been up for almost 28 hours (sans a short nap on the planes).  Pretty much crashed for the night.

Up early this am (it is afternoon in Texas) and decided I had been sitting way too long so went for a run.  Did 45 minutes on the treadmill (you know how much I hate treadmills) and the a few laps around the hotel property.  Not really far, but a good work out.  Especially since it was already 89 degrees at 0700.  Showered off (BTW fantastic shower) and met up with my coworkers for breakfast.  We decided to take the train down to tour Hong Kong proper.  I will eleborate on that trio later but let's just say it was HOT.  Saw lots of shops/stores/booths selling cheap crap.  Want a Fendi purse for cheap?  Versachi?  How about a Rlex submariner for $116,000 (Hong Kong dollars)?  

I would toss in a few pictures but somehow I cannot access my photos on the iCloud right now.  Bummer.  

When life hands you lemons...

Swap them for some limes and tequila and have a Margarita.  

It helps to stay flexible and keep your options open.  As I sit here in the United lounge in TOKYO nursing a big vodka tonic, I ponder how much of a sense of humor one must have when traveling.  And, yes, I said Tokyo.  Turns out that our flight was going to be delayed by almost 1.5 hours which means we would have missed our connection in Hawaii.  Now, my travel strategy has always been, if I am going to get stuck somewhere while traveling, I want it to be in a nice location. And being stuck in Hawaii didn't seem like a bad option, but it would mess up our agenda, so we hit up the ticker agent and found an alternate route that took us through Japan.  Longer flight, fewer plane changes.  Did get my business seat on the long haul, but it looks like I am flying steerage on the hop to Hong  Kong.  Only 4 hours - I think i can handle that.  Flight over was loooong.  12.5 hours in one sitting.  Granted, we were in those plush first/business class pods, but try sitting on your assets for that length of time and not feel like a slug.  I did knock out a number of movies and a few more chapters of my favorite novel (an exciting story about a woman named Nelda).  

Let's see, the ones I knocked out were:  Iron Man 3, Oblivion (meh), Cloud Atlas (long), The Great and Powerful Oz, Bullet to the Head (gag), not to mention a few more episodes of Game of Thrones.  

My watch tells me it is 3:30 in the afternoon here, but my internal clock says is is 1:30 in the morning.  Long day and we still have another 4-5 hours to go.  

Time for another refill before we have to board the plane.  

Sayonara!

The joys of travel

Gawd how I love to travel.

Up at the crack of early (even the chickens were still asleep), walked the dogs, finished up a report to my boss, took care of the three S's, kissed the wife good-bye, headed off to fight cross town traffic to get to the airport.  Being a paranoid person, I usually strive to hit the airport 2-3 hours ahead of flight time to avoid possible delays in check in.  Besides, you never know what the TSA lines will be like.

Made it to to the airport in plenty of time, breezed through the scanners.  Checked the departure board only find out our plane has been delayed an hour.  That leaves me with 3 hours to kill. Fortunately, I have a premier pass so I get to hang out in the United lounge. Free food, coffee, and WiFi.  

Now I wonder what this delay will mean to our 40 minute layover in Guam.

Vaya con dios

At this point, RC is probably out exploring the streets and trail of Malta.  I hope that he and Mrs RC have an outstanding time.

As for me, my bags are packed and sitting by the back door and I am ready to go off world.  Today it was typical chaos.  Several reports to finish, meetings to attend, decisions to make, last minute tasks to run.  Just one time, I would love to head out on one of my extended trips in a calm and deliberate fashion.  I had hoped to leave by 4:00 pm to mow the yard one last time, but that was just a pipe dream.  By the time I finally pulled the plug, it was well past 1830.  And I still owe my boss a report tonight.  Oh well, nobody ever said life was easy.  Besides, I'm getting the opportunity to visit some far off land, see some interesting sights, sample some interesting food/drink.  This time tomorrow, I will still be on a plane headed west to some far off exotic destination halfway around the globe.    

Dogs are walked/pooped/fed.  One final walk in the morning before I head off to get felt up by the TSA.  Sorry I haven't been posting my inane comments on everyone's blogs, but I've been backed up at work and haven't been on line as much as I used to.  I am sporting a new toy that I hope will make communications easier.  If it works, I hope to post some updates while in transit.  My plan is to play catch up on everyone's blogs while I am waiting to catch the next flight.  If things pan out, keep an eye for some interesting road postings.  Pictures to follow.  

The road goes on forever and the party never ends....    

Christening

They launch new ships with a bottle of champagne.  What do you christen a new lift with? Beer?  Scotch?  Champale?  

Ran back across town to my brother's garage.  My old lawnmower has kicked the bucket and I am in need of a some new hardware to take care of the yard.  My brother had a spare mower (don't ask) he gave to me that I can use for the rest of the summer (puts off the decision to get a new mower).  Of course this mower is almost as old as Stephen, but still fires up on the first pull.  While over there, he wanted to test out the new car lift.  What better way than putting something up in the air?  Now, with a new lift, what would you use to test out the system?  An old 1930 Model A?  Or how about a crappy old '87 Nissan 300X?  Nah, that'd be too easy.  How about an '81 Delorean?  

I kept waiting for it to fall over. 

Of course, let's thrown 30 years into the mix.  A 1951 Ford and 1981 Delorean.  

The -1951 is my brother's ride and the Delorean is my nephew's.  

Of course, while I was being used to help test the system, I took advantage of the available tools/hardware to rebuild my drawer that was damaged during the break in. Was able to come up with a pretty decent fix that should work.  

Of course, being 98 degrees down here, we were sweating like pigs by the time we were done.  Looking forward to the fall and "cooler" temps.   

No excuse

Nope.  Got none.  Sorry for the pause in the action.  I could blame it on technical difficulties but that's not true.  I've actually penned two eloquent, articulate posts (with pictures), only have them turn to crap in the morning when I re-read them.  I've hit a lull in the fire fight and I am working my way back.

Been busy (what's new?).  Work has been:  a) cleaning my clock, 2) eating my lunch, iii) kicking my butt (your choice).  I've been trying to wrap up our fiscal month, finish up some audit reports, get ready for my road trip to the other side of the world, work through some minor catastrophes  support our own internal audit, figure out how to save the company billions of dollars while buying the best stuff.  Typical week - trying to save the world.  Seems like it has been consuming my week.  When I get home I have no real desire in even going on line.  Just come home, take care of the children (play, walk, pick up dog poop), watch some lame show, go to bed, repeat.  And since it has been brutally hot (99 degrees now) down here, there hasn't been much interest in wandering outside of the A/C zone.  On top of that, with all of the chaos at work, I haven't been able to squeeze in a run for two weeks so I am feeling really cranky/lethargic.  I need some serious motivation (translation:  ass kicking) to get me out of my mental rut.

The weekends seem to fly by but my brother did try to kill me last weekend.  OK, maybe it wasn't intentional, but I got recruited in helping him pick up and assemble a new lift for his garage.  Some 3500 lb contraption that will allow him to work on his old cars.  Turned into another adventure where my back is not speaking to me and I wound up sweating like a old horse.  

He plans on christening it this weekend.  I guess it is nice to have a hobby. 

I am still keeping busy with my own plans.  Working in the yard (who cares if it is 98 degrees?).  The old lawn mower finally bit the dust last weekend.  Looking to find an alternative to keep the yard in check.  I could always follow the path an old co-worker did years ago (paved over his back yard) but that just seems like the easy way out.

Getting ready for my road trip around the globe next week.  I love to travel and see the world/new sights, but, honestly, a 23 hour flight is not really something I am looking forward to.