US Air

[Gary W. Graley]

JUST got home a few minutes ago, man I'm beat!

Started out the day with an emergency call from Sao Paulo Brazil, need someone there NOW. Had a fellow in Mexico City about finished up there and was heading to Lincoln IL, caught him in Houston where he was changing flights. Had him head to Brazil via Philly.

Now to get someone into Brazil, without a visa, he had to have his venezuelan passport, which was here at his home. His wife was down in Florida visiting relatives, so no one was there to let me in. He gave permission for me to break into his house, a feat that at first I wasn't too worried about until I drove there and saw neighbor's windows staring at me, felt like eyes were on me the whole time as I smashed through his window. I did take some tape with me to tape the window so when I broke through, it didn't all go to pieces but held together nicely.

THEN, had to fly to Philly to rendevous with him prior to his flight to Brazil, he had become a US citizen and used his US passport to go to Mexico, but that didn't pull enough weight to get into Brazil, but his other passport would allow him in without a visa.

Met him there, passed over the passport as well as a few parts to hand carry.
That bit was done then.

The funny thing was, when I landed in Philly, a message was on my cell phone from my wife, saying US Air called my house to let me know that my return flight from Philly was cancelled...uh? I was in flight to Philly and they call me at home to let me know I'm screwed? wow what foresight?

So I had to wait a few more hours in Philly for the next flight, but then that flight was over booked, no kidding, the guys/gals from the cancelled flight now are being crammed into a prop job that can't hold everyone, so they wanted volunteers to wait for the NEXT flight, at 10:30pm they'd provide a free round trip ticket for my troubles, took it. Then that flight left around 11:30pm about an hour late as well, so I just got home a few minutes ago, oh, another neat thing, my friend I met, grabbed a white trash bag from the trash guy in the airport, took out his dirty clothes and gave them to me to take back so he didn't have to carry them to Brazil, I looked like a bum walking around with this sack all night
But I got home at last, very tired,
G2 over and out!

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Sometimes ... this is what it takes to keep civilization running, Gary. You can be proud of yourself!

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Sometimes ... this is what it takes to keep civilization running, Gary. You can be proud of yourself!

Thanks Esav! It's not just a job, it's a bloody adventure!
Boss let me sleep in a little, which was nice of him, heading back to work
now, and I think that I'll get a new pane of glass and fix that door for my friend. He only allowed that we break in because he had planned to replace the door....but....I don't think we should have dictated when he should replace it so it would only be fair to make things back the way they were, or close at least.

Right now there is a thick piece of plexiglass on the inside covering the entire window area, had to pry that off when I stuck my hand inside! So it's not OPEN open type of thing right now, I also ran tape down over the opening to keep any cold air from seeping through, for now. I've not installed a window pane, but imagine it's not too hard, I hope.
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Pane is restored, which makes me feel better knowing his house is back to how it was, actually better as the previous pane didn't fit it's position properly. And he made it to Sao Paulo safely albeit extremely tired! But his luggage didn't make the trip, yet.

I'll not want to do this again! He was instrumental in getting the equipment back up and running, even with the limited sleep he got on his way down in coach class, company policy, not mine! Thats about a 12 hour flight! not nice in coach class for sure.

G2

 

[Don Luis]

Your story reminded me of the times when I did mainframe support before PCs and networks were common, things like checking in and out of a hotel but not actually using the room, two nights in a row without sleep, sleeping at airports and flying in those small propeller planes with only two rows of seats, I did some traveling around Mexico by bus too. I used to have a prepared suitcase in the house always ready. Luckily things are better for me now, I´m in software support, mainframes are very stable these days and we can connect remotely.

Why is it that we often put in nights and weekends but don´t get any extra free days ?, then again I usually come in a bit late to work and as you can see have time to log in and visit the forums so it´s OK I guess.

Luis