Well, after about a week and a half off work, I'm back for one of my longer weeks. So far I'm scheduled to work 35 hours of overtime this week and expect to get at least another 4 hours. Believe it or not, this will not be the most hours I've worked in a single week....close...but not the most.
Fortunately the week was preceded by some time away from the Communications Center. I worked my "second job" for a week, teaching a dispatcher class at the state police academy. I usually have a good time teaching the class and this week was no exception. I had another good group of students who stayed engaged in the class and brought their experiences from their agencies with them to help everyone else in the class. This class also provides me with some good networking opportunities, allowing me to meet telecommunicators from all over the State of Ohio.
After class ended on Friday I headed back to Columbus, then packed for a weekend out of town to visit some family and get in a couple of out of state races. Friday the 13th may not have been the best day to start a trip though. Although the day started off good, it started going down hill. As I was driving home I was eating a Starburst fruit chew and felt a crown come off in my mouth....then another...then another. Yes, that's right, I had three crowns all come off at the same time. Not to worry though, I was in Dublin when it happened, and the dentist office was right down the street. I would make a quick stop and get them cemented back on. Easy right? Not so much. I went to the dentist office, which was closed. The receptionist was inside and she tried to help me get in to one of their other offices, but all the other offices were already double-booked and couldn't guarantee they'd be able to get me in and taken care of before I had to catch my flight out of town that afternoon. She did give me some cement to use, which I was able to mix myself and use to get me through the weekend.
I got home and got my stuff packed for the trip. I was at the airport with plenty of time to spare, but storms in the south were delaying flights all over the rest of the country, and my flight was delayed. I got in to St. Paul, MN about 3 hours later than planned, but no worries. The late night arrival did mean that I didn't have to wait in line at the rental car counter, got my car pretty quickly and got to my hotel. Checked in with no problem....well, almost no problem. I got the key card to my room, got to my room, but the door would not open. So I went to the front desk and got the keycard reprogrammed, then got back to my room. Success!! Well...almost...I settled in for the evening turned on the TV, which wasn't working. So I called the front desk and after trying a couple of things to "fix" the TV, finally got moved to another room. The keycard for the new room worked and the TV worked. All good right? Well, pretty much. After a long day of crowded airports and a couple of minor issues at the hotel, I was finally settled in. I set the alarm so I would be up in time to head to my first 5K of the weekend.
I didn't get much sleep, but enough to get up, dressed and head out to the Lederhosenlauf 5K on Saturday morning. The run was a small local 5K held in conjunction with the German American Festival. I ran the 5K, had my free bratwurst, and after hanging around for a little while, headed back to the hotel. I got ahold of my nephew and made arrangements to meet up with him and his daughters. We headed over to the Mall of America. My (almost) 4 year old great-niece rode some of the rides, we got some lunch at Burger King.
The next morning I made the two hour drive over to La Crosse, WI to run another 5K. Another small, local 5K event, this was their first year of running it. The way you can tell how small these events were, is that I placed 3rd in my age group on Saturday and first in my age group on Sunday. Which usually means that their were very few people in my age group. But that's ok. The small local events are sometimes just as fun, if not more fun, to participate in than the larger, nationally known events.
My "bump in the road" on the trip home was when my luggage didn't show up at the airport when I did. Not a huge problem, except that my car keys were in my luggage, so had it not shown up on the next flight, an hour later, I'd have been stuck at the airport for a while. But, all ended well. I got home just fine. It was a good opportunity to get away and get some time off before working a long week.
Fortunately the week was preceded by some time away from the Communications Center. I worked my "second job" for a week, teaching a dispatcher class at the state police academy. I usually have a good time teaching the class and this week was no exception. I had another good group of students who stayed engaged in the class and brought their experiences from their agencies with them to help everyone else in the class. This class also provides me with some good networking opportunities, allowing me to meet telecommunicators from all over the State of Ohio.
After class ended on Friday I headed back to Columbus, then packed for a weekend out of town to visit some family and get in a couple of out of state races. Friday the 13th may not have been the best day to start a trip though. Although the day started off good, it started going down hill. As I was driving home I was eating a Starburst fruit chew and felt a crown come off in my mouth....then another...then another. Yes, that's right, I had three crowns all come off at the same time. Not to worry though, I was in Dublin when it happened, and the dentist office was right down the street. I would make a quick stop and get them cemented back on. Easy right? Not so much. I went to the dentist office, which was closed. The receptionist was inside and she tried to help me get in to one of their other offices, but all the other offices were already double-booked and couldn't guarantee they'd be able to get me in and taken care of before I had to catch my flight out of town that afternoon. She did give me some cement to use, which I was able to mix myself and use to get me through the weekend.
I got home and got my stuff packed for the trip. I was at the airport with plenty of time to spare, but storms in the south were delaying flights all over the rest of the country, and my flight was delayed. I got in to St. Paul, MN about 3 hours later than planned, but no worries. The late night arrival did mean that I didn't have to wait in line at the rental car counter, got my car pretty quickly and got to my hotel. Checked in with no problem....well, almost no problem. I got the key card to my room, got to my room, but the door would not open. So I went to the front desk and got the keycard reprogrammed, then got back to my room. Success!! Well...almost...I settled in for the evening turned on the TV, which wasn't working. So I called the front desk and after trying a couple of things to "fix" the TV, finally got moved to another room. The keycard for the new room worked and the TV worked. All good right? Well, pretty much. After a long day of crowded airports and a couple of minor issues at the hotel, I was finally settled in. I set the alarm so I would be up in time to head to my first 5K of the weekend.
I didn't get much sleep, but enough to get up, dressed and head out to the Lederhosenlauf 5K on Saturday morning. The run was a small local 5K held in conjunction with the German American Festival. I ran the 5K, had my free bratwurst, and after hanging around for a little while, headed back to the hotel. I got ahold of my nephew and made arrangements to meet up with him and his daughters. We headed over to the Mall of America. My (almost) 4 year old great-niece rode some of the rides, we got some lunch at Burger King.
The next morning I made the two hour drive over to La Crosse, WI to run another 5K. Another small, local 5K event, this was their first year of running it. The way you can tell how small these events were, is that I placed 3rd in my age group on Saturday and first in my age group on Sunday. Which usually means that their were very few people in my age group. But that's ok. The small local events are sometimes just as fun, if not more fun, to participate in than the larger, nationally known events.
My "bump in the road" on the trip home was when my luggage didn't show up at the airport when I did. Not a huge problem, except that my car keys were in my luggage, so had it not shown up on the next flight, an hour later, I'd have been stuck at the airport for a while. But, all ended well. I got home just fine. It was a good opportunity to get away and get some time off before working a long week.
