It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Houston
I have a friend whose job requires him to travel. A lot. Today he left at noon for Houston, and Canada and who knows where else, and he won’t be back for two weeks. He’ll have a few days home, wash clothes, repack his bags and head for the airport again. Frankly, I don’t know how he does it.
I returned this summer from a three-plus month tour in Afghanistan, and I have often been away from home for three, six, or more months at a time, usually to fairly dangerous places. But the thought of always being away, on the road, in the air, sleeping in motels, does not appeal to me. Travel is wonderful recreation as a concept, even if it is often somewhat flawed in reality, and I do enjoy the occasional trip to a new country, region, or sight. Spending every night of several weeks in a new hotel, even worse, the same hotel in a different city would get old rather quickly.
Now that I am nearing the end of my military career and have begun the difficult search for a second career, I am going to be very careful about the travel requirements associated with a job before I even consider it. Perhaps traveling 25% of the time would be livable…anything more, at this point in my life, is right out.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I sometimes think I have slept in at least as many places as George Washington. People frequently ask how I manage to survive my travel schedule, and I generally point back to the military. When we were in Germany we had responsibility for the security of rail shipments. I could go to work Monday expecting to be home Wednesday, and not get back for a week or more. Before this stint of travel, my last trip was to Haiti, sharing a room with 600 of my closest friends and getting shot at periodically. As it is, I know when I am leaving, I know when I am returning. I get my own (fairly nice) room and no one has yet shot at me. I work my guts out when on the road, and when not on the road can generally work from home. I have a fair degree of control over my schedule, and am willing to trade the time on the road for not having a 14 hour work + commute day every day of the week. The flexibility is nice, as are some of the perks of traveling too much, when it is time to travel as a family. But it does get old.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:20 am
This blog is a wonderful idea. I love reading about little bits & pieces of our friends’ lifes on a daily basis. Hopefully you’ll be able to continue with the updates as life picks up pace again.
Miss you all,
Oriane
January 7th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I spent most of the late 90’s and 2000 as on the road tech support.
Technical business travel for small market Telcom sucks. I’ve been to more “one central office” towns than a human should have to do.
Cian, speaking of Haiti, when you were there did you do an interview with NPR?
January 7th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
As a matter of fact, I did. They were there to interview one of our translators, and we sat around and talked while waiting for him to come in from control. The way I found out about it was when someone asked my father what he was doing on NPR talking about Haiti. I have tried off and on to see what it is they used, but haven’t even been able to find out what show it was. While there I was also interviewed by Thomas Ricks, who wrote “Making of the Corps” and “Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq”. The former was very good, the latter I haven’t read. AFAIK he didn’t use our conversation in anything.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I heard it, it was on one of the two daily news shows. I don’t recall what you said, as it happens, but do recall you saying it.
Of course they used some weird name other that Cian, which confused me a bit.
January 9th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I wish that you and your friend could find a decent reason to stop at some place with a reasonable climate… Like Germany only in the United States! Names ring like Wolf, Caitriona and Regina, Moonshadow and Shauna. We need men to match our mountains out here in the Pacific NorthWet. Nice landing strip at McCord if you can’t handle Portland!
Regina
January 12th, 2008 at 7:15 am
I haven’t been to Portland lately, though I have hit Seattle a couple of times lately. Next week is Toronto. I will have to have a chat with them about scheduling that during the winter.
January 12th, 2008 at 8:27 am
So who are “they” that you chat with to schedule a stop somewhere? Your company has scheduling dwarves do they?
January 13th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
In this case, to the sales rep in Toronto. He is already talking about follow-ups and I said “Once it is warm, right?” Sometimes it feels more like goblins. A little more malicious, not quite so stolid.