I’ve been home from Mexico for 32 hours now. Do I feel like I want to go back? … eh, not really.

I arrived at Intercontinental Airport at around 4 PM or so, just in time to see my coworker Anderson come down a courseway. You know you’re working for a company that requires a lot of travel when you encounter coworkers at the airport who are on different business trips than you. After having dinner at Chili’s Too (the airport terminal’s small Chili’s), I met my coworker and fellow traveller Brent at the gate, and off we went to Villahermosa.

In a way, I wish I had thought to start taking pictures with my cell phone’s camera as we arrived in Villahermosa. We had quite a light show as we made our final approach into the airport, with storms coming into the area. When I was last in Villahermosa, the airport was undergoing renovations; they apparently finished them since then, as the airport looked a lot nicer and there was no construction to be seen. We grabbed a taxi to the Camino Real hotel, checked in, dropped off our bags… went to the bar for a few drinks, and then retired to our rooms.

The next morning, we were picked up from the hotel by our Mexican coworkers, and taken down to the plant. I won’t get into details of what was discussed there (my bosses won’t appreciate that), but the facility was quite out of the way in Cardenas. It’s always fun to enter a facility with guard towers… heh. (I didn’t dare ask if they were manned.) Anyway, after a long day at the facility we returned to Villahermosa. On the way back… I wish I had thought to use my camera AGAIN, as we passed a movie theater, and one of the movies being advertised was “Serpientes a Bordo”. :-) Anyway, after being dropped off at the hotel so we could put away our equipment, we were picked up after an hour or so to go to Rodizio’s, which is a Brazilian steakhouse similar to Fogo du Chao. Although, I WAS surprised… when we arrived at Rodizio’s, I saw that in the year since I had last been there, a Bennigan’s had been built and opened next to it. It’s the first time I’ve heard of a Bennigan’s outside of the United States. We had a good meal there, and then retired to the hotel for drinks.

The next morning was rather uneventful, as we made our way to the airport early and then returned to the United States. The only thing that really puzzled me, though, was the fact that I had my bags searched twice. The first time was when going through security, which is to be expected. The second time was when I was boarding the flight itself. *sigh* Was it because they thought I’d be bringing liquids from the secure part of the terminal onto the flight or something?

I think I’m going to start putting my suitcase in checked baggage. Having to throw out both my shaving cream and my deodorant was not something I really wanted to do, and quite frankly buying replacements I’d only use for a couple of days was a waste of money. As long as I don’t have to put my laptop in checked baggage, I’ll grin and bear it. If that happens, I’m going to look into shipping my damn equipment. I don’t trust the airlines with my electronics.

Ah, well… at least I’m back home, and getting caught up with work. Now I can just relax and enjoy a drink, and hope I don’t have to go back anytime soon. :-)

It’s the start of another week, and in a few hours I’ll be on my way to Mexico on a business trip. I can’t say I’m entirely looking forward to it, but there’s no point getting bothered. At least it’s just for two nights.

I do have to admit the morning didn’t start out too well. I’ve taken a vow: next time I’m at a remote location, I’ll ask someone else to make the coffee if I’ve never used the coffeemaker before. I was jonesing for some brew, and went ahead and tried to make a pot. I put the filter together and poured water into the appropriate spot. I then pressed brew.

… only to find that the coffeemaker had its own dedicated water line running into it, and that pressing “BREW” caused it to get water from there as well. Oops.

Fortunately the overflow of weak coffee was mopped up, and the only real casualty (other than two rolls of paper towels) was my dignity. Still, I think from now on I’ll keep from brewing coffee without familiarising myself with the coffeemaker first.

As for this weekend, it was pretty uneventful other than three things. One was the upgrade to Windows Vista, and the other was the router replacement (both of which I already talked about). The other was an outdoor barbecue that Meredith and Jonathan threw at their house. I must say, the food was damn good, and it was fun seeing the gang again, so to speak. Otherwise, one could argue it was the calm before the storm of this week.

In any event, support tickets have just arrived, and I must attend to them. I’ll post from Villahermosa once I get there.

A little bit ago, I was doing my daily lunchtime web browsing, when I came across this VG Cats comic.

It is a rather somber and depressing comic, when you get right down to it. The thing is, it also reminds me of one of my favorite Doctor Who novels called “The Crooked World”. In it, the Doctor and his companions arrive on a world almost exactly like that of old Saturday morning cartoons. The world itself is also rather malleable and subject to outside influences, so thanks to the Doctor and friends, more “real” concepts start popping up. One of them appears when Jasper the cat finally loses his temper after losing so much to Squeak the mouse, and kills him. Jasper ends up being charged with murder, and wants nothing more than to be punished for killing his friend. The Doctor, however, defends him in court, helping him and everyone else understand the changes they’re going through.

The story itself (especially Jasper’s story) ends on a happy ending, with everyone becoming more somber and wiser. Still, it’s something to think about… at one point, would the toons grow up? Would they learn responsibility? What would they choose?

*sigh* It’s times like this where you wish you could see those toons through a kid’s eyes again.

Well, we’ll see how well this works out; this is an email post sent from my cell phone. Maybe, if I’m lucky, the new LJ plugin will let this post without my having to edit it later on. Of course, I won’t know until I get home.
On the not so bright side, I was able to arrange it where I can get my passport on Friday. Now I can on the Mexico trip Monday without any real problem. Of course, I’d just as soon not go, but that’s not really a choice.
Ah,well. At least my work here is done; I can go home now, with a stop at Hunam Garden to pick up some Chinese. Fun fun…

All right, so, I left the house at around 6 AM in order to get to the office early. An hour later, I FINALLY got past this major accident at Richey Road (two or three miles south of Louetta on I-45, which is where I had entered the freeway) where some guy had run into the wall in his SUV and gotten killed. If I had known it would take THAT long to get around the wreck, I would have exited at FM 1960.

Unfortunately, the Transtar electronic sign between Cypresswood and FM 1960 was not operating, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Has anyone else noticed this? It seems to me that the only time the Transtar signs show accident information, it’s for a location far enough away where it won’t directly affect you. Either that, or it gives travel time information only when traffic is good. When there’s a major accident up ahead that directly affects you or traffic is really backed up, it always looks like the signs are either offline or show a useless message like “Drink, drive, go to jail”. *sigh*

I dunno… I realize I’m still a tad frustrated from having to sit in traffic for so long, but really, if you’re going to have those signs, keep them updated! That’s what they’re there for, after all…