In which Orny wins, and loses
In December I spent a couple weeks in Columbus Ohio, scoping out a new project for work. But things got kind of quiet after that, so the holidays made for a nice little break.
However, you knew that would end. The consulting business usually picks right up again in January, and I was quickly staffed to another project, since the Columbus gig didn’t need my specific skill set.
So yesterday I flew to the client site. Did I mention that it’s on St. Thomas, in the US Virgin Islands? Yeah. That’s a good 500 miles further south than Miami, yanno.
The flight from San Juan to St. Thomas was particularly interesting. I’ve been on small planes before-most notably when I commuted from Boston to Scranton Pennsylvania in 2006-but this one took the cake: an eight-seat Cessna 402. It was the pilot, me, and one of my coworkers, and we sat right behind the pilot. Others who have taken that flight have been allowed to sit in the copilot’s seat! I got some real dramatic video footage of takeoff and landing, which I might share later, and we had a great view of the islands, since we never climbed above 3900 feet during the 30-minute flight. When we de-planed, it felt like we ought to have tipped the cabbie for the ride. The van we rented in St. Thomas could hold more people than the plane we arrived in! Really!
At least in theory, it’s a consultant’s dream to work the winter months on a Carribbean island. And, to be honest, what I’ve seen of the island so far is nice: beachside bar at the hotel, huge looming mountains just inland, swaying palms, and 80° F, of course. Nice change from last week in Boston, when it was just 7 degrees, or -9° F if you take the wind chill into account. Fun. I will conveniently ignore the fact that today Boston set an all-time record high of 66° F. Figures!
On the other hand, I am and have been sick as a dog. I could feel a cold coming on all last week, and it really took control Friday night. I spent the weekend shooting golf ball-sized balls of crap out of both my lungs and sinuses. I travelled anyways, since I thought I’d turned the corner on this thing, but the four-hour flight from Boston to San Juan was a major trial. The cabin temperature was kept at a steady 95° F, which meant I spent the whole day fighting nausea. And last night my throat hurt so badly that I couldn’t swallow, which limited me to about three hours’ sleep. Euhh. Zombie Ornoth. Hopefully tonight’ll be better, but indications aren’t good so far.
The other negative is that the project seems like it’ll be pretty strenuous. Euhh. But so far, so good. If I was healthy, this’d actually be pretty fun.
Photos and more stuff will be forthcoming, I’m sure, but give it time.