I have 3...

I'm just so important that I have three cell phones. Yep, three. at&t, Nextel, and Verizon.

Left is my new at&t phone. We ditched Nextel (#2) and went with at&t. So far, so good. We'll have a better review after a few weeks of service, and hopefully the bill will be better too.

I've called and verified the cancelled contract, so the Nextel phone is about as useful as a paperweight right now. I just still have it and am still transferring numbers. Anybody want to buy it? The stupid machine at the store did a horrible job.

The one on the right, the Verizon phone, is the work issued phone. It's bad. Really bad. We're supposed to have that one handy when on the clock. I'm not very high on the priority pole, so mine doesn't ring all too often. Thankfully.

By the way, our numbers didn't change.

Racing for Big Dreams

Today was a little 5k run to support the local church, Agape and their community outreach projects. It was their Support Big Dreams benefit race, which had a great turnout, especaily for such a small town. I registered on Monday and was given #65, by today, there were 95 runners and/or walkers participating. I figured, since I was here, I might as well participate. I have my goal set on a 5miler in Sept. and another 10k in Oct. so, this would make for a great training run. What's it gonna hurt, right?

Well, all of us lined up and began racing at 9:00 this morning, with 3.1mi to go. We were graced with a nice police escort, marked roads, and a very gracious support crew throughout the race.

I ran one of my personal best for the race, with a time of 29'52" and managed to come in 3rd place in the male 20-29 age group. I guess my training has been coming in handy.
Hopefully, the next few races will go just as smoothly as this one did.

My high tech office

Ever wonder what a high tech government office looks like? Well, here's your chance.
Let me elaborate and explain some of the highlights in my hotel office.
1. I have a corner office w/ a view of the hotel parking lot.
2. The goverment doesn't like personal computers. Instead they give us older ones that have their logo all over them. They aren't very good and have lots of security restrictions.
3. Important files get filed on the floor. The rest go in the file stand.
4. The target bag, under the desk holds, my office supplies (i.e. - paper, paper clips, hole punch, cd's, etc.)
5. A cardboard box printer stand is lighter and easier to move than a heavier one.
6. The nice decorative painting over the desk makes for a great dry erase board, and tack board.
7. My desk is approximately 6' from my bed, 7' from my fridge, and another 15' from the room door.

Yep. That's my office. In my hotel room. In Clear Lake, IA.

About Clear Lake, IA

I'm in Clear Lake, IA. Some have never heard of it and some seem to have issues finding it on a map. It's approximately 1.5hrs north of Des Moines, IA and about another hour south of the southern Minnesota border.
The city of Clear Lake, has somewhere between 8,000 - 10,000 people and is mostly a tourist town. As you go to the "downtown" area, there are numerous antique shops, boutique shops, family diners, and little local hardware stores. There aren't very many chains of stores here in Clear Lake, but 5-6 mi to the East is Mason City, which has several of the chain stores.

Unfortunately, this town is famous for being the last city in which Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens played before they died in a plane crash shortly after playing at the Surf Ballroom. The three had just finished playing at the ballroom, then headed out on a late night flight from the local Mason City Airport, which turned out to be their last flight. Because of that, the town held tributes to all three by naming roads after them, holding concerts in their honor, and selling news articles, photos, and memorabilia to support the town.

One of the larger roads downtown is named in Buddy Holly's honor.

The Surf Ballroom, where the the last show was held. Looking through some of the papers from the show revieled that tickets to the show were $1.50 and coat checking was $0.30. That was definitely some time ago!
Just behind the ballroom, is the lake that borders the town. There is an open stage in which church services, concerts, picnics, and all sorts of small town activities are held almost weekly. The lake also serves as their recreation area for all types of sports. It does seem that sailing is more predominant than anything else though. Interesting enough, there is a security camera mounted in the "L" on the water tower.
So, it's a small town, with lots of life. Quite nice working here, just because it's not hectic, but then it's tough, because each store has their own little hours that don't always match those of regular cities. From what we know, we'll be here for a while, so, I should get to know this place pretty good before I leave.

By the way, our weather has been in the mid 70s for the last few days with the humidity in the 40-50%. Very enjoyable. I'm definitely getting spoiled up here, but from what I hear, the winter freeze is coming at the middle/end of September and from that point, it's going to be COLD.

I'll do what I can to keep you all updated.

-RH

rain, rain, and more rain

I woke up this morning to cloudy skies and light rain. Now it's raining even harder. I have an appointment with a client later in the day, and I hope it slacks up by then.

Unfortunately, we're expected to receive scattered thunderstorms all day today.

Now, the bad news: as long as it rains and the rivers are above normal flow levels, we stay here completing reports.

Oh well.

Cloudy skies

It's not a tornado, but it sure looked like one. As I went into the store, everyone came out looking up at it. Sorta like if Superman had of flown by. The really neat thing is that the winds were pretty still, there was very little rain, and nothing was being mentioned on the weather station.

Pretty cool.

Where am I?

Uh, yea. Where am I again?

What a day makes...

This was taken this morning. Overnight, the price fluctuated that much. Also, note that they advertise the Super Unleaded for 3.59. That's the cheapest. The regular unleaded is actually $0.10 more and the premium is $0.20 higher.

Things aren't so bad...

This was taken this morning (8/8/08) here at the gas station just outside of my hotel... And at those prices, it only took $33 to fill up my rental. That is probably 1/3 of what it costs for my regular vehicle.

Update #2 from Iowa

I left the JFO (joint field office) this morning heading for my assignment here in Clear Lake, Ia. Don't let the name fool you, it's not that pretty. It's an old town, quite small, and doesn't have a whole lot of highlights, but there's plenty of work to be done here.

On my way, I passed my first windmill farm. Personally, I thought it was very neat, and I didn't mind seeing them from the roadway. For those that protest them, well, I welcome them.

(I'll work on the photo quality next time)

Oh, I would post a picture of my new hotel, but believe it or not, it's too dark for the camera. It's a Super 8. I have a double bed, a recliner, and a 3'x5' window. Part of my wall is actually underground. You can use your imagination on how it really looks. I move out Sunday!

-RH

Checking in from Iowa...

I'm checked in here in Iowa and am mostly settled. Currently, I'm in Des Moines, Ia, but that location could change. Some of the word coming in is that I'll possibly head up to Cedar Falls, Ia to help with work up there. That's about 2hrs from here and holds a whole lot more needed work than here in Des Moines.

I lucked out and found a good deal w/ the local Holiday Inn. A king bed, nice Phillips lcd tv, and a very large working desk. Not bad, especially since I'm only here to sleep. The neatest this is that they've only been open since March. Still practically brand new.
I couldn't makes these two photos in a panoramic with the software on this computer. Sorry, maybe Bethany will copy them and fix them for me :) These are two photos taking from the back door of my hotel. There's actually quite a bit out there, even if you can't see it. In the middle is the applebee's, followed by a red robin. Off to the left is the walmart, subway, and a mini mall with all kinds of other add ons.

This is just to the right and has the tjmaxx, office max, petland, kohls, and a few other little shops too. Behind them are about another dozen restuarants, lowes, and a home depot. This is quite the boooming little area.
Out the front door is the local country club golf course too. The only thing a non member can do is go to the driving range and I didn't bring my clubs.

I'll check in when I can next time.

-RH

Well, He's Off....

Well, I dropped Robert off at the airport this morning. He's on his way to Iowa to do some FEMA work for the next few months. We certainly will miss him. He reports tomorrow for work and will be working close to 70 hours a week. I will probably be hanging close to Montgomery while finishing up the last of the thesis work.....hopefully that won't be too much longer and I'll be back in Birmingham with a job. Robert will still have his same email address and phone number if anyone needs to get in touch with him or just wants to chat.

New Furniture

Robert and I have been holding off on buying new furniture for a while, but this weekend, friends of ours (Thanks Tamara and Dallas!!) were selling their furniture for a great price. They had to get rid of it, so we thought we'd take it off their hands :).

So...on Saturday, Robert and I made a day trip to go pick up the furniture and spend a quick afternoon and lunch with Tamara and Dallas and their family. Unfortunately, it rained for most of the day between Birmingham and Auburn, but we managed to pile the furniture up in the back of Robert's truck and get it covered up pretty well with a couple of tarps....we probably looked like the Beverly Hillbillies going down the road :).

We've only had a small amount of furniture in our living room for the past year and it seemed to fit pretty well...except we had a major lack of seating and no one likes sitting in the Papasan chair (kinda feels like the chair will tip you out). We now have a couch, loveseat and chaise lounge chair in our living room. It took us all day yesterday contemplating how we were going to get it to fit. Well here is the arrangement we came up with....I'm not sure if we love the way it is yet, but we'll leave it like this for a while to see if it grows on us.

rrring, rrring, rrring

Yea, I got the call.

Remember how we were thinking about going out on some field work for an extended amount of time, but weren't sure about anything? Well, the call came in for me to pack my bags. We're still unsure of the exact location and the exact date, but we know I'm going and we know it's soon.

We'll post more when we know it.

How hard is it to pump gas?

As I climbed into the truck this morning, I looked down and noticed I needed some gas to finish out the week. No big deal, right? Yea, wrong.

I pulled up to station #1, just as normal, when I noticed the pump was flashing "Card Error. Please Come In". As I thought nothing about it, I proceeded into the station to find nearly a dozen others in line waiting for the attendant to activate the pumps. I was already late, so I wasn't staying around.

I went next door to station #2. Something should have tipped me off as to why nobody was there at the pumps. As I pulled up to those, yea, they were out of gas. Every one of the handles had a bag over them, except the premium. Sorry, but I wan't paying that, $3.92 is bad enough!

So, on to station #3. I think everyone and their grandmother wanted gas, but luckily I didn't have to wait long. I went to activate the pump by swiping my card. I got a "card error. try again". So, trial #2, same thing. Trial #3, same thing. Now getting frustrated, I try once more and miraculously it worked finally....

So, after going to three different stations, spending 15mins putting around for gas, I was finally allowed to give up my check for 1/2 tank of gas. Not only is it getting expensive, but now they're just trying to see how bad we NEED it!