Travel | Piss and Moan

Back at the office

Posted on January 17, 2020 by backuphill

Photo by Asad Photo Maldives on Pexels.com

Weather in the PNW has had me telecommuting for work. Four days this week, the commute was from the coffee maker to the desk because snow and ice was on the ground.

I am back in the office today and I can honestly say this job can literally be done anywhere. I would love the opportunity to demonstrate this to my boss. My manager is already on board, but the higher-ups still think office space is a good idea.

If someone would like to sponsor a trip for me to a warm, tropical island with a well connect resort (with internet connection), I am open to offers.

Please hit up my inbox. PLEASE.

No, like really, PLEASE!

Conflicted

Posted on January 15, 2020 by backuphill

Photo by Michiel Alleman on Pexels.com

There are a few things in life that I just have a love/hate relationship with. I love them and yet hate them at the same time. Those two emotions don’t usually go together and often are in regard to different things, but today (well, really the last several days) I am conflicted because of weather conditions.

In particular, snow.

I love snow. I love the peacefulness and quiet as the snow falls. There is comfort in that. The blanket is leaves, at least for a while, causes he world to slow down or pause. A stillness ensues. I love the look of snow on the landscape – there is beauty in it! Sun glistening off freshly fallen snow. White mountains and trees framed by bright blue sky is stunning. Anyway, you get the picture. There are aspects of snow that I love. As a kid, I liked playing in it.

But, on the other hand, I hate snow. It’s tough to drive in. I can do it, but I don’t like it. I would just rather not, but when necessary I can do it with relative ease. I especially don’t like other people driving in it! People are idiots most of the time, so adding slippery white stuff as an ingredient to travel just makes for trouble. Snow is cold. I know that is an obvious statement, but I don’t like being cold. It is just miserable. I don’t particularly like that snow has to be removed (sometimes multiple times) from the sidewalk and driveway. That can be hard work! No, like REALLY hard work. As an adult, I don’t enjoy playing in it. Not even a little.

I am sure there are more things I love and hate, but those are the ones off the top of my head. So, how can I be so conflicted on this? “Why?” is maybe a better question. But, I don’t really wish to know. It just is what it is.

So, there you have it. One item I am conflicted on. There are many more, but let’s just put this out there since that is on the forefront of my mind as we deal with snow and ice up here in the upper left corner (Pacific Northwest) of the US.

Do you have something you are conflicted with? A love/hate relationship, so to speak?

One eyed travel

Posted on January 7, 2020 by backuphill

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Weird thing happened yesterday. Weird enough that I can count the number of times over the last 35 year it has happened on one hand. It was a fluke really, but it made me uncomfortable.

I have worn soft contacts for a long time, like since about the 5th grade. Having 30+ years of experience, I kind of “have seen it all” when it comes to these things, which is tough because I am pretty much as blind as a bat without them.

Anyway, yesterday they were kind of bugging me so I decided I would clean then in my cube here at work. No biggie. I had solution and a tissue. I proceeded to clean the contact for my left eye (the worst of my two eyes) and then put it back in. I took out the right eye, the best of the two, and proceeded to clean it. No problem….except that when I went to put the lens back into my eye, it was missing part of the lens. HUH?

I looked in my palm and sure enough there was a piece of he contact stuck to my palm, in the contact solution. Weird! These weren’t old contacts. They new as of 6 days ago, so they weren’t worn out or old or anything. Why did it tear? It’s a mystery to me.

So, blind in one eye and just over 1.5 hours of work to go. What do I do? It’s cold and rainy up here in the PNW, so I didn’t really want to drive home, half blind, in the rainy dark. So, I left work and headed home. I am glad I didn’t wait. It was hard to have an hour commute with one eye that is basically is useless – light and shapes is about it.

So, that is a new thing to consider that I hadn’t before. I need a spare set at work. Glasses isn’t an option since they are coke bottles and I don’t wear them in public. When I travel, at least for more than a couple days, I take an extra set just in case. I have never needed the extras, but this definitely has me thinking that I need to consider all my options when I am away from home now.

Ever had anything unexpected like this alter they way you think or behave?

Self important?

Posted on January 3, 2020 by backuphill

Photo by Riccardo Bresciani on Pexels.com

I keep seeing these videos on social media and its getting rather irritating because everyone knows they shouldn’t do it, but they do it anyway. What videos am I talking about?

I keep seeing videos of people driving. They are holding their phone (you can tell because the image “floats” and you can see the dashboard) while they drive and showing you the road, road conditions, night sky, etc. There may be music in the background or they are narrating something that happened. Whatever.

In a day and age where it is illegal (at least in my state) to have a phone in your hand while driving, you would think that people would not put themselves or others in danger by holding a phone while they drive.

It leads me to believe that they believe they are more important than everyone else. “I’m going to disregard the law and safe driving habits so that I can post a video of me driving on the road. Because, after all, everyone is interested in what I am doing and they should probably know the road conditions.”

Guess what? You ain’t that important!

I don’t care that you are on an open road, in the middle of the night, with no other traffic around you. I don’t care what the road conditions are. I don’t care that you need to tell your followers something. I don’t care that you have a song you want us all to hear.

I don’t care.

Get over yourself and drive safely. Period.

Viewing issues

Posted on December 11, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“Want to watch a show?”

“Sure.”

“Let me see what I can find.”

Anyone who travels outside of the US have any issues viewing television or movies on your preferred viewing platform?

When I was in Canada a few weeks ago I was going to try to catch up on a TV show that I watch when I went to Hulu and couldn’t get it to play my shows. I could get to the screen to launch the show, but as soon as you get to the page that typically has the episodes listed it didn’t display any episodes. Was this an issue with Hulu? Was it because it was a TV show?

I didn’t have any issues with Netflix or Disney+, just Hulu (and I didn’t try Amazon Prime).

It just seemed very weird to me as I would have thought that I would be able to access the content no matter where I was in the world. Maybe I was wrong.

What say you, oh world of wise tech folks and blogging friends?

Garbage cans

Posted on December 4, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas on Pexels.com

I recently posted about my time in a hotel room and the lights not being on when I got there after dark. There are several other things about the experience I want to talk about, but I didn’t want to do it all at once. Let’s savor the experiences, shall we?

Anyway, the room was pretty clean. Maids at the hotels, for the most part, do a pretty good job. But there is one thing that they do that I am not sure if it is a training thing, or just personal thing they do to irritate guests…

Ever notice the garbage can liners are tied so tightly that you can hardly get anything to go in them? And then when you push an item into it, it breaks the liner or just causes it to come off altogether?

In this case, every single garbage can liner in the room was so tight that you couldn’t get anything into the cans. Stuff literally just sat on top of the can! I tried to push one item into the can, thinking the liner would open up a little and allow the item to go into the can. Nope. No such luck. It just pulled the whole thing loose. Now there was no point to have a liner in the can at all.

Anyone know? Do they do this on purpose? I have noticed this in several hotels now. It must be an industry thing, but why?

In the dark

Posted on November 25, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Timotej Nagy on Pexels.com

There is something disconcerting about entering a dark room. It is one thing when it’s your room and you are familiar with it, it is a totally different thing when the room is completely unfamiliar to you.

Over the weekend I was on an overnight adventure that required a hotel stay. I got to the hotel after dark and checked in. After receiving directions to get to the room, I learned there was an “outer” door that would lead to and entry way where I would find two doors, one for my room and one for another (an A and B room).

When I got to the room, the outer door was locked (as I expected it to be). I unlocked it and started to step in to the entry room and there was no light. None. I expected it would be motion activated, but no such luck. So, the fumbling with full hands and a phone flashlight ensued and I managed to unlock my room door. (As it turns out, someone had switched off the motion activated light.)

Once I got the room door open, the light switches by the door in the room didn’t work. So, now the fumbling Olympics of feeling your way through an unfamiliar, dark room began. I finally located a lamp on the nightstand and turned on a light. As it turns out, someone (probably the last guest) had turned off the lamp that was plugged into a switched outlet, thus making the switch useless to the next guest.

I have to say it is more than a little irritating to check into a hotel and find two lights, either near or in, your room not working. If you know your guests will be checking in after dark (we are in the winter months here, so it gets dark early), why not make sure the lights will work as expected. OR, better yet, why not make sure there is a light on IN THE ROOM when the guest gets there? It’s the little things folks. The little things that impress and make you want to stay there again. Sure, maybe most people wouldn’t notice, but I guarantee there are many who would.

Yeah, but what about the wasted power…blah blah blah…I don’t care. With LED bulbs the power usage would be minute compared to the repeat business it would generate because people notice the little things. Everyone likes to come home to a lit house on a dark night or evening. It’s these types of things that I mention when I leave a rating online.

A hotel should treat it’s guests like they are arriving home.

It’s the little things. Details matter.

Closer

Posted on November 12, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Ahmed Muntasir on Pexels.com

Getting to the airport is kind of a pain.

I wish I lived closer to the “main” airport in WA state. That would be Sea-Tac International Airport. It truly is the biggest transit hub of the western side of the state.

Actually, let me rephrase that since I live within 30 minutes of two regional airports. They both have expanded their service, but they have a very limited number of airlines that fly in/out of these locations so unless you are looking specifically for flights from those airlines you are out of luck and have to go to Sea-Tac.

Hence, I was at up long before the crack of dawn to get to the airport for a drop off. Long before as in I was up at 2:30am, left the house at 3:15am, arrived at the airport at 4:45am for a 5:45am flight. Thankfully that early in the morning doesn’t necessitate a two hour prior arrival for security lines.

But still…that’s early and I have a full day of work ahead of me on about 3.5 hours of sleep. Oh, did I mention I had two hours to kill before actually getting to work since I was so freaking early?

Gonna be a long day.

Defrost

Posted on October 14, 2019 by backuphill

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Programmers for my car’s electronics got it wrong. Not sure what the thought behind it was, but it’s irritating nonetheless.

My 2018 Kia Niro has been a great car, but after having it a year now there are a few things that bothersome. They are probably small things, but you know when you spend that much money on things you want to make sure people have spent time on the little things because that’s what makes it stand apart from the others.

Well, there are two issues that both have to do with the way the Defrost functions work.

First, the defrost for the windshield has a weird setting. When the function is set to be used, the fan automatically comes on at Level 3, EVERY TIME you start the car and no matter where it was previously set. Thus, it starts blowing cold air the second the car starts. I am constantly turning down the fan. I do like to always have the fan running for air glow, but it would really be nice if it just stayed at the level I set it rather than resetting itself every dang time.

Finally, the Rear Defrost button does’t have an automatic turnoff timer. It just stays on and on and on, until you look down and see it is still on and turn it off. How stupid is that? I think every car I have own previously had an automatic timer on that function.

I was recently asked if I had found anything I didn’t like about the car. There are very many things I could name off. These were two that came up right off the top of my head.

Not the fairest in the land

Posted on September 30, 2019 by backuphill

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There was a clear loser yesterday in the fast food wars. The food from a fast food restaurant was anything but royal.

Headed out of town yesterday and so busy getting ready that I forgot to grab something to eat while at the house. It was an hour drive to the destination, so I wasn’t going to make it without a little food. I remembered there was a Dairy Queen along the route that was easy to get in out of, so it seemed like a decent place to hit the drive thru.

From time of order to food through the window, it was 18 minutes. Not fast food by any means. I happened to notice the time I placed the order because I was on a little bit of a time crunch by then. The line ahead of me in the drive thru was moving very slowly, so I started tracking how long it was taking.

Once back on the road, the food came out of the bag. It wasn’t pretty. Not at all.

Now, I realize it is fast food and the expectations aren’t for gourmet food. However, there is some expectation that the food is decently hot and, after that long of a delay, that the food is relatively fresh. Expectations shattered.

The fries were limp. Crispiness wasn’t even close to the vocabulary. Soggy is more like it. Slightly warm, maybe just above room temp.

The burger was warmer than the fries, but the bun had the consistency of being in the warmer and wrapper for 20 minutes. It had been microwaved to be warmed back up, while still in the wrapper. That much was obvious.

Crappy food after an 18 minute wait. Interesting. Disappointing. Since I was already down the road and running behind, I certainly wasn’t going to turn around and ask for new food.

Mental note made: Don’t stop at the Dairy Queen. Ever.