In which I relate the adventures I have had in Texas so far.
A little over a week ago I got my final marching orders for my training on Troubleshooting the Cisco BTS 10200 Softswitch. I got a little over a week’s notice that I would be in Richardson, TX from February 27th to March 4th.
I have had a cheap bright-blue nylon bag since the 80s. It served me well, but it was showing its age. I was always afraid that the zipper would break and the contents would spill out. Since I didn’t want to put up with anything like that on this trip, I went luggage shopping on Saturday. Younkers had a nice sale and I have stepped into the 20th century of luggage (in spruce, no less!). It’s a joy to travel with. Unfortunately the snap on the “deluxe, 3-compartment toiletry kit” broke. Oh well, I’ll see what Younkers will do about it when I get back.
I headed out to the fabulous Central Wisconsin Airport on Sunday. I met with my boss and a couple of other CWTC employees, checked my luggage, and headed through security. This was my first time going through airport security in the post-9/11 era. Things went smoothly and I didn’t have to shuck off too many clothes.
The snow was coming down pretty hard while we waited for our plane to come in. We ended up boarding about 45 minutes late. The plane was a little two-propeller, 19 seat thing. The flight was cramped and noisy, but blessedly quick. We were worried about making our connection since the original layover was only 35 minutes and we were running 45 minutes late, but the Dallas flight had also been delayed so we had another 45 minutes to kill in Milwaukee. The next flight was on a spacious Boeing 717 and we got fresh chocolate chip cookies, which I consumed while reading Angels & Demons. In the end they made up the time and we arrived almost exactly when we were supposed to.
Texas was pleasantly cool without a trace of snow on the ground. We got our Durango and headed to the hotel. I have to say that I am disturbed about staying on East George Bush Turnpike, but these digs are pretty nice. We went out to eat at Humperdink’s and then stopped by Wal-Mart to get supplies. Sleep came slowly that night (as it usually does for me on my first night in a hotel).
We got up early, partook of the complementary breakfast, and headed to the Cisco campus (which is only about half a mile away). The class has the obnoxious ratio of 9 students to 3 instructors. To make things even more odd, 3 of the students are Cisco employees. One employee is from Belgium (Alan, pronounced Eileen), one is from Sweden (Björn), and our main instructor is from England (Richard Dawson). (No, not that Richard Dawson!) I’m hearing plenty of accents in Texas, just not the ones I expected.
The training itself is pretty annoying. So far it’s been almost all telephone provisioning. I am here for the database stuff, which takes up all of one afternoon. Otherwise I am sitting silently confused with acronyms flying around that I have never even heard of. I think some of it is sticking but I am way out of my league. To make matters worse the student/instructor ratio makes it impossible to do anything else without getting caught. But I found out that I get a certificate at the end, so it’s all good. I’ve decided that I want certificates and the like on my walls.
The instructor told the following joke. “When two men are on the phone, it’s half-duplex. When two women are on the phone, it’s full-duplex. When a man and a woman are on the phone, it’s simplex.” Not only did everyone get it, the frightening part is that it got a huge laugh from everyone in the room. I am in the company of the geekiest of the geeks…
Lunch was at Hooters and dinner was at a tex-mex joint. At least I am eating fairly well on this trip…
So far I can’t tell I am in Texas. Okay, it’s somewhat warmer here, but I am in an endless land of frontage roads and strip malls filled with all the same chains that you can find anywhere in the US. I am pondering renting a car for a couple of days and wandering away from the strip on my own. We will see if that pans out.