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 |  I travel the country on business, sometimes the world. Come see where I've been. |
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Talk about perks, my job has one of the best ones I can think of! I travel in the course of business, delivering classes for my employer. I am a Senior Training Specialist for Motorola Solutions, and teach classes on a wide variety of subjects centered around 2 way radio communications. I'm qualified to deliver approximately 30 different classes, but about half of those are 'Legacy' classes, and are not in demand anymore. My students are technicians, those who maintain, program, calibrate, and repair large 2-way radio systems. Some of these systems are statewide, and use TCP-IP networking to allow sites to communicate with others. Some are small, traditional type radio sites. The size doesn't matter, in each case the systems must be kept operational at all times, since many of them are Public Safety Systems. So I get to travel, sometimes frequently, 3-4 weeks in a row.... where am I this week? This probably won't have daily entries, but I will make entries when I get to go somewhere, and keep an updated list of coming trips. My schedule changes faster than the weather, so don't be too surprised to see me list an upcoming class, only to remark later on that it is cancelled, or delayed. Delays are fine of course, but a later date might mean that someone else gets to go instead of me,,, Well, here we go with this, let's see where it takes us.  Best Cultural And Regional Honorable Mention |
Fort Lauderdale, Florida Week of 12/16/24 Once again I have failed to write weekly entries. I'd love to say tha work, and life interfered, and it did in a way, but there is really no excuse for not writing an entry. Since my last entry, we've celebrated Thanksgiving, and I've been in Seattle for a week, and worked from home for a week. I'll leave it at that. This past week I was in Fort Lauderdale loving the warmth of the weather there. It was about 20 at home on some days, so being there was excellent. The class was another Networking class, I thought it went very well. Enough about the class though. What did I (we, since my wife finally flew there with me) do after hours? First and foremost, there was the possibility of finally meeting Lilith 🎄 Christmas Cheer   . That didn't happen because the times we could meet just didn't work out. Not to worry though, we plan on traveling (touring really) after I retire, Fort Lauderdale is one of our destinations on an East Coast tour.On Friday, class was completed (as usual) by a little after noon, I had everything packed for shipping back to Schaumburg, so we had the afternoon to be tourists. We rode the River Taxi thru the inland waterways around Fort Luderdale. Man, some of the houses thatr the truly RICH people live in were disgusting. What I mean is, the houses were far larger than needed and were more of a show-piece than necessity. Still we saw some amazing sites (and boats/Yachts). Neither of us had any idea of where we should dine Friday night, a quick check on Google Maps revealed a place whose menu really looked good. Expensive, but excellent, so we went there. In case you can't tell, this trip to Fort Lauderdale was a Christmas present to each other. Our after hours excursions mainly consisted of going to dinner each night. I will list restaurants below as usual. I want to mention that after dining out Monday night she didn't feel like going out. Why? The meal on Monday was a little rich on her palate, and upset her stomach a bit. As a result, I went out alone Tuesday night. Still, it was so nice to have her with me, showing her places that we really don't have here in Bloomington, the closest being in Chicago, which I am not all that familiar with, So where did we dine last week? I don't think will list every restaurant, but it should be more than usual. I do have to warn you that we dined almost like royalty each night. There was one night that wasn't so great. It wasn't because of the restaurant, it was due to Uber. I had the Uber scheduled, we waited for over 10 minutes for it to arrive, only to have the driver cancel the ride. I then cancelled the following car, though I was still billed for it. We ended up having food truck pizza, which was 'okay' at best. Noteworthy Restaurants: Catfish Deweys https://www.catfishdeweys.com/menu-card I've dined here in the past, she loves Catfish, so coming here was a no-brainer. However, their Smoked Fish Dip was not all that smokey. Of course she enjoyed her Catfish, while I had the Low Country Boil. Our meal was somewhat less than stellar mainly because our server never ordered the Smoked Fish Dip. It was still good overall, that small mistake didn't set well with me. Eatapas https://eatapasfl.com/fort-lauderdale-eatapas-food-menu This is a Spanish Restaurant (far different from a Mexican Restaurant). I've dined here twice in the past, and while I'm no Spanish Food conisseur, the food here is excellent! We enjoyed Zorza Gallego (Pork loin marinated with paprika, fresh herbs and white wine.), as well as Boquerones en Vinagre (Vinaigrette marinated anchovies (Which I've had and really enjoyed, she loved them!)) For our meal, we shared their Seafood Paella. Yummmmm. Tiki Tiki https://www.letstikitiki.com/menus/ I've originallty dined here at her suggestion and loved it. Our appetizer was Smoked Fish Dip, it was much better than Catfish Dewey's. Our meals were Grouper Fish n Chips, and Seafood Feast (Yellowtail snapper, shrimp, scallops, herb rice, veggies, lemon butter sauce). Blue Moon Fish Co. https://www.bluemoonfishco.com/menus We dined here Friday after 'playing tourist' all afternoon. It's not a place I'd return to simply because it's not a place I'd frequent. Their prices are pretty high, so it had to be a special occasion to get me there. And that it was, our Christmas present to each other the whole week. I really enjoyed their Rock Shrimp Tempura with Gochujang Aioli, while she enjoyed a Shrimp Cocktail that seemed to be prepared with Prawns. For dinner, she loved something she wanted all week, Lobster Bisque and a Caeser Salad while I had their dinner special (another serving of Snapper with Potatoes, Asparagus, Shrimp, and a sauce that I can't describe. Everything was excellent of course! My Current Schedule - Below is my schedule through the end of my career at Motorola. I have thought about this a lot, at times thinking I wouldn't retire, at times knowing I would. I can't continue to hem & haw over it, I've told my manager about the date, I will stick to it. As you can tell, I don't really want to retire, I'm not ready in some ways, but this old body on mine says I should. If anyone is in any city I'll be visiting between now and the end of April, I'd love to meet up. I'll even buy you dinner if we chose to meet at night! (e:smile} Dec 23: Christmas/New Years 'Relaxation' Dec 30: Christmas/New Years 'Relaxation' Jan 6 - Sacramento Jan 13 - Sacramento Jan 20 - Work From Home Jan 27 - Virtual Class (Teach From Home) Feb 3 - Washington DC Feb 10 - Vacation Feb 17 - Vacation Feb 24 - Harris County Tx (Houston) Mar 3 - Work From Home Mar 10 - Vacation Mar 17 - Washington DC Mar 24 - Virtual Class (Teach From Home) Mar 31 - Schaumburg (Cross Training A Co-Worker) Apr 7 - Schaumburg (Cross Training A Co-Worker) Apr 14 - Work from home Apr 21 - Work from home Apr 28 - Work from home RETIRED! That's it for now. Until my next entry, write all you can, and love everyone, especially those special people who fill your life!  Jim Dorrell |
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is better than suspended upside down in the 'void'. 
