Language Barriers

I was walking down the hall at my hotel tonight and passed a middle-aged couple going the other way. I did the kind of under the breath, "Hello" as I walked by, and the man replied, "Good Morning" in a German sounding accent. I kind of wondered about that for a second as I continued down the hall. Then I heard the wife wonder about it too, "Good Morning?" He responded to the effect of, "Ya, Gut nacht, good night; Guten tag, Good morning..." (Pardon my German, Tim)

Missed It...

...by that much.

Well, I'm not sure exactly how close the other car was, but it was pretty close. They finally had us go out and do some driving today, and I almost got in a wreck. It would have been my fault as well. We were trying to get from Staten Island to Long Island, and I saw a sign that I was wondering about when the girl in my car said, "Red...RED!" I slammed on my breaks, as did the car that had the right of way, and it was amazing that we did not collide. Miraculous even. I stopped right in front of them, and not even a tap on our fender. Oi vey!

And then we got stuck in Manhattan for an hour (Only an hour?) before extricating ourselves and getting back to Staten Island. Manhattan is definately a night drive location.

Got to see Wood, Woodine, and MaryP last night. The conditions were not ideal, but it was good to see them nonetheless.

Oh, and New Jersey does not smell that bad where we are, but down by the Goethals Bridge to Staten Island it reeks! Just nasty! It had been raining all day too and if anything it smelled worse. In other places the rain usually washes that kind of stuff away, but not in Jersey!

New York, New York

A town so crazy they named it twice. More about that in a moment.

Got in to Buffalo Sunday night and the weather was way nice. Went to Niagra Falls that night and snapped a few pics. It was after dark, so the falls were all lit up. They say that the Canadian side is a better view, but the line up of cars to the Canadian side was ridiculous, not to mention the line to get back in to the US. Yesterday we took off for Albany. We decided to stop in Palmyra on our way. But before we made it to Palmyra we got word that we were not going to Albany after all, but that we needed to go directly to New York. That was good as we only had so much time to get to Albany, but none to get to New York. So we were able to take a little more time in Palmyra.

I had never been before so it was cool that we got to go. It was a perfect time to go. The weather was still warm and the leaves were changing. Greens, yellows, oranges, and reds. And it was that way all the way to New York.

We are actually staying in New Jersey as the hotels are much cheaper there. We ate at Ruby Tuesdays and the service was not very good. That's the word around here that the service is not great in these parts. Which makes no sense, don't people want tips?

Today we drove into the city to get our cars outfitted for testing here. That was crazy! I am glad we will be going at night because traffic is nuts. I was following behind everyone with no idea where I was supposed to end up. We went through the Lincoln Tunnel and when we popped out I lost track of the car in front of me and had 3 choices of which way to go. So I just crossed my fingers and took a route and miraculously ended up right behind the right car. We had to cross Manhattan and I was NOT letting anyone come between me and them. I became a New York driver for 20 minutes. And now we are just sitting around waiting for the cars to be done. It sounds like this is going to be an adventure here. More news later!

Confirmation

I just recieved word that I am needed first in Buffalo to drive one of the test vehicles to Albany to be setup for testing in NYC. I am flying on the 21st. We'll probably be getting in to NYC sometime mid week. I'll kind of have to play it by ear on whether I can get out to Connecticut before the 27th. Something tells me with all the preparations being made, our east coasters are not making a quick jump down to the Big Apple, so I'll have to see if I can get out there.

Interesting Development

So all summer long, I felt like I just wanted to come back to Utah. But the timing of things was somewhat off. I missed enrolling at UVSC by a few weeks, and ended up staying at home while looking for work and a place of my own. It was good to come back and see my friends here on the weekends. But I found myself in a bit of limbo. I had no intention of staying a home as long as I have, but the job search wasn't as productive as I had wanted. I found a company I would have liked to have worked for, but I wasn't what they were looking for apparently, because they never got back to me after I interviewed. I was going to start searching again in earnest, when something came out of left field. A week and a half ago, on sunday night my mom told me I had a call from a family friend we had from our time in Florida. Turns out she was calling in behalf of her son who had just been made a project manager out in New York. It seems things had not gone the way they were intended, and he wanted to bring in people he trusted. This is the same company I worked for in Tallahassee, FL a year and a half ago. They need me to be a navigator for their drive testing in New York City. The thing is that the timing with this company is always up in the air. You never know how long their projects are going to last. Or when they are going to start. My friend made it seem like he wanted me ASAP, but his boss has been more vague about when I needed to be out there. But once it starts it should run at least until Thanksgiving, if not the end of the year. The pay will be good, there should be overtime, as well as per diem which is not taxed. But that means missing Ben's wedding just like I missed Tim's this summer. Hopefully though I can see a set of east coasters before they migrate west for the winter. (BTW, when does the migration start? I'd hate to just miss the exodus.) I just wish they would give me a specific time to be out there.

Pride Cometh Before the Fall

So BYU has shot itself in the foot for the second week in a row. Turnovers and penalties have been the downfall of the team for the last two weeks. The team has the skills to dominate, but not the mental toughness. Anyone who watched a game with me from 2002-04, knows how passionate I can get in regards to BYU football. The thing that was so frustrating during those years were the mistakes, the boneheaded penalties. More so than ineptitude, although that is no good either. This team is not inept, they were in it until the end, they had a chance the last two weeks. But critical miscues throughout the game and especially on the last drive kept BYU from leaving with a W. Over 200 yards in penalties the last two games, that is 2 football field lengths of going backwards.

Another thing that gets me is that during the weeks preceding the first two games against Arizona and UCLA, PAC-10 fans gloated about how much better their teams were, because of size, speed, and by virtue of playing in a tougher conference. The team showed that they were just as good as those others. But then this last week, I heard so many BYU fans start giving the exact same reasons that had been used against our team, as reasons why the team was going to dominate Tulsa. Bigger, faster athletes. Tougher conference opponents. There was talk of going undefeated for the rest of the season. While I think that it is possible, it just felt like fans, as well as some players on the team, lost sight of the fact that the season only goes by one game at a time, and that there is no room for being unprepared for any opponent, because on any given saturday, the amazing can happen. Appalachian State sure taught us that against Michigan. The team just has to prepare to be the one doing the amazing, and not allowing the other team.

I have mellowed greatly since those hard to watch games of a few years ago, but all the mistakes were still getting to me. I can accept when an opponent is clearly better through their play on the field. But I have a hard time when my thoughts start going through the woulda, coulda, shouldas.

The Return

Houston, the Eagle has landed!

Made it back without too much trouble. Now the trouble is figuring out what to do until January. Hmmm....