Busy week, busy weekend, the first of many. After having the 4th off, leisurely feasting, partying, and fireworking at Ryan’s parents, Thursday was busy as hell. I was one of the few in the office since everyone took Thursday and Friday off. I spent a good chunk of the day working up export paperwork for our gear we’re sending to Amsterdam on top of a dozen other loose ends that needed to be tied up at the office and datacenter. That night after getting home, I re-packed my bicycle and packed for my trip.
Friday morning I went to back to the datacenter to double-check my paperwork because I’m paranoid about doing what I can to make sure it goes smoothly and give things a last minute lookover. I also dropped off my bike at Fedex for Seattle. Insallah, my packing was adequate, the fork isn’t going to get broken, nor is a tire going to be bent.
After a couple hours on the road, I got a call from the shipper handling our crates asking about the dimensions. I couldn’t get a straight answer out of them as to what happened, either the crates were too big for the airplane or their driver was incapable of using a tape measure. Turns out nobody from the shipper thought to get the dimensions off the quotes we had worked up, they sent too small of a truck and our crates wouldn’t fit. I don’t have the full story yet, but it sounds like they sent a larger truck later in the afternoon. Then, the export paperwork was wrong. I had asked about the old export schedule code, shipper told me it was old, gave me a new one which I used; turns out what they told me was incorrect. In both cases it was the shipper’s fault, but I’m waiting to see if I get yelled at for it since I wasn’t there to handle it.
My trip was extended a couple of hours because of dealing with work and trying to find internet hotspots where I could send emails. I finally rolled into Bartlesville at 8:30 PM. Saturday I left for the parent’s. Sunday, I left to come home.
This week is rapidly approaching the point of no return. Wednesday I leave for Seattle for the Seattle-Portland ride on Saturday. Insallah, my bike will be intact, I won’t get sick, and Rainier doesn’t erupt. I leave at the ungodly time of 12:55 AM on Monday morning to return to Austin. Insallah, my bike frame or a spoke will not have broken on a 50 MPH descent, and I’m not in the hospital for heat stroke or something. As soon as I get back, I’ll be leaving on Wednesday for Amsterdam.
I’ve been completely obvilious to things lately too. It finally clicked yesterday that J.P. and Gwyn got married on 07/07/07; it also clicked that their honeymoon roadtrip was why J.P. had been fixing up his car lately. I was watching some Discovery Channel programme about the huge bridge being built over the Colorado river in front of Hoover Dam. Turns out going to Hoover was part of their honeymoon too. Speaking of dates, Boeing unveiled their new 787 jet yesterday, on 07/08/07. Cute.
