nlbarber

The radio alarm clock greeted me with "Winter Storm Advisory--3 to 5 inches of snow accumulation today, more toward the foothills". Which is where I am, with the Federal Center in Lakewood and the hotel on the fringe of Golden. It is supposed to stop by 1-2 AM tomorrow, which I hope means no problem when a friend drives me to the airport at 5 AM.

On the good news side, the database testing is going well, for the water-use team at least. And I haven't heard loud grumblings from any of the other rooms (groundwater, water quality, surface water) either. I've about finished one of my two assignments, and the other should be easily completed today.

I fly to Denver tomorrow for the first of the two annual database tests. This trip is complicated by my needing to come home early for my father's surgery, which should actually be over by the time I land Thursday midday. Afterwards, he'll be recuperating at my place for a while. (My brothers and SIL-next-door will be coping with everything while I'm in Denver.)

And the travel arrangements were complicated by GovTrip, the travel system we use to do all our travel paperwork these days, getting hacked about the time I wanted to make my reservations. Once I was able to get into GovTrip, I found the federal gov't contract carrier for Atlanta-Denver flights has changed again, from AirTran to United. My flights on United have been few and far between (they don't compete much in the Atlanta market), so it's basically a new system for me to figure out. The combination of late reservations and time restrictions on when I wanted to return has me on a United Express flight on a small Embraer plane for the 3-1/2 hour flight, and getting there a good 6 hours before I really wanted to. The return, on the other hand, will be on a Delta flight--because there was no United flight that was anywhere close to my travel time window. Takes extra paperwork to not use the contract carrier, but my supervisor approved it in this case.

Today's effort was online check-in. I got through most of it, put in my credit card info to pay for the checked bag, and the system blipped back to the beginning leaving me wondering if the payment went through. After ten minutes on hold I talk to Customer Service in India (apparently) to find out it did not, and I must start again. Grrrr.....

I have been Identified. Had my biometrics collected. Whatever.

My office is in the process of getting our new government IDs, mandated by Bush's Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 ("HSPD-12"). To make government "more efficient" and of course "more secure" (ever the Bush mantra), this card is to be used for identification, building entry (except our little satellite location probably won't), computer access (except it seems unlikely that the technology for that will be worked out anytime soon), and who knows what else. I did make an attempt to look at some background on why all this was happening, but bogged down in ultra-governmetese like The GSA HSPD-12 Managed Service Office (MSO) is the executive agent responsible for providing Federal agencies with interoperable identity management and credentialing solutions that provide end-to-end services.... There's more of the same if you're interested.

The cards cost each agency $100+ for each employee, plus an annual fee that I can't remember. (Multiply that by the number of U.S. government employees, and compare to the cost of the little photo-on-plastic that worked before plus whatever building security card needed for one's local office, if any. Sure hope we needed to be that much safer and more efficient!) I foresee lots of extra expenses for damaged cards--the things have magnetic strips for contact card readers and an antenna/wireless transmitter/something-or-other for non-contact readers, all sensitive to heat or damage from warping, and the card is supposed to be kept in a hard case when not in use. And you can't store it next to any other card with a magnetic strip. I'm having a hard time deciding where I can put the thing, and I at least have a nice desk job. Think of the techs we have out wading streams!

Today was the "enrollment" step. I carpooled downtown to an ID center (in one of the main Atlanta Federal Buildings) with 4 people in my section, after our information had been transmitted (they call it "sponsoring you for the ID") to the GSA contractor. One by one we went into a little room (actually a mini dining room off the building cafeteria), handed over 2 forms of ID to be ID'd for the ID, verified our social security number, had a picture taken (don't smile--this is for facial recognition), had all fingers fingerprinted individually, then the 4 fingers on each hand together, then the two thumbs together, then the two forefingers separately again on a different scanner. No retinal scan--I'm almost disappointed.

In 3 to 8 weeks everyone will need to go back to actually be given the card, at which point each person will have to pick a PIN and do other arcane rituals to complete the process. Maybe by then I will have figured out where to keep this fragile card.

Day two at the ag. show--hot. Lots of people, but it tailed off dramatically mid-afternoon, which normally happens on Thursday but not Wednesday. I talked to fewer people, I think, but still had some good conversations. Also showed off our realtime streamflow page on the new toy, when the iPod Touch was connected to the somewhat flaky WiFi in the building. The show is down in attendance and vendors, for sure--there are always some booths where vendors pulled out at the last minute, but there are more this year. And the Ginsu knife guy isn't here! He's been a fixture since 1994, at least. Must try to find out what's happened to him, at least.

Talking to fewer people means I got to sit more instead of standing on the concrete floor, so the feet are in better shape today. But it got pretty hot--the high was 87, I think, and inside the building the air doesn't circulate real well. Luckily another exhibitor was giving away little battery-powered personal fans...

Word from sister-in-law, who's cat-sitting for me in the evenings (the pro cat sitter is doing mornings and giving Agatha her pill), Agatha is looking more confident, and has moved back to spending more time on my bed instead of staying under the guest bed. The other two are doing their usual "Mom's away from home, and we're starved and neglected" routine. I'm very relieved--I was not at all sure how Agatha was going to do adapting to this, especially when I disappeared on her.

After I got to the office, I saw the notice on the GaDOT's traffic site: DeKalb Gridlock Alert for East Side I-285. A little late, after my 10-mile commute took over an hour.

Because normally my commute takes 20 minutes I don't generally check the traffic map, and the radio reports didn't clue me in to how severe it was. When you completely close westbound I-285, all roads in the area get clogged. Seems there was an tractor-trailer rig on fire...

Best thing would have been to work from home for the morning, had I but known. But I was clueless--even the traffic backed up on Lavista going the other way made me think "malfunctioning traffic light?" And by the time I'd gotten that far into the traffic snarl, there probably was no good choice.

Yesterday the early arrivals at the office discovered that the A/C unit that covers the zone where my office is located had died. Things weren't too bad (assisted by the 1-1/2 hour all-hands staff meeting, held in another zone) until mid-afternoon. Around 3, with the temp in my office at 83°F, I told my supervisor I'd be working from home for the rest of the day.

Fish, however, decided that I had arrived to provide him with companionship. When I wouldn't let him settle on the mouse pad with a paw over my wrist, he moved to lie in front of the keyboard with his head over my right arm, tail over the left, and feet pushing gently against my chest. Purring.

He was very lovable, but it didn't really make for productive working conditions. Or for much cooler ones than the office with a malfunctioning A/C. He's a solid 16 pound, furry, radiant heater.

It's the April-in-Denver database test this week. So far, testing is going well, weather is cold (an inch and a half of snow on the car yesterday morning, more tomorrow evening maybe), hotel, as noted during the January trip to a training class, is adequate. I have punted on the hotel breakfast options, and just finished a bowl of cereal with strawberries in my room.

Off to testing!

I email to know if you can make a specail order of powerplant for me ,If yes then i will like you to get back to me with the smallest sizes that are avilable with the prices range on them so that i will make my selection and get back to you with the quntity that i may need okay,

Regards

Can't tell what email address it was sent to, but I will guess the "water-use web" one, as that's where pages with the word powerplant would appear. I can't really see the point of the spam, though, unless it's just checking for live email addresses....

I had an uneventful trip home from Denver Friday, the only remarkable thing being the half-full flight...again. Has air travel declined lately, or is AirTran having problems? This might explain why they got the Atlanta-Denver gov't contract...except they had it last year too, when all flights tended to be packed.

I note that Concourse C in Denver is becoming a much more pleasant place. The construction zone in the middle I think must be for a moving sidewalk (anyone know? my google-fu has been unequal to the task of finding out), but already there are a number of new eating options. I think I can quit stopping on Concourse B to buy my sandwich to carry on. Oh, and they've added free wifi--not real fast, and you have to watch a 30 second commercial, but good enough. I wish Atlanta would follow suit.

After getting home, I did nothing for >24 hours in my usual post-trip fog. Sunday was a little more active, with laundry chores, a little exercise (my Jazzercise DVD), going to the Georgia Tech women's basketball game with the folks next door, and then sort-of watching the Super Bowl (first time in years!) while cataloging a shelf or so of books in Readerware. After I've done another shelf or so it will be time to do another export/import into LibraryThing. Stayed with the game through the exciting ending, and thus went the weekend.

The Training Center staff member who gave the introduction session this morning included a few warnings about watching out for altitude sickness, keeping hydrated, and watching for abrupt weather shifts while in Denver. He threw in that tonight's forecast was for 'chance of scattered snow showers', and that that was Code Red for 'could snow like h*ll'.

The day was pretty, temps dropping some--the high was around 50, I think--but windy as the front moved in. Gary and I hiked the short mile or so to Subway for lunch, past the prairie dog colony with all the curious-but-alert prairie dogs keeping an eye on us and the magpies scolding in nearby trees. Now (9 PM) I can hear the wind still blowing hard, and a quick look shows snow blowing every which way.

(5 minutes later) No snow, still windy. Tomorrow is supposed to be clear, regardless of tonight's precip or lack thereof, but the high will be mid-30's. A lunchtime walk will be less attractive, I'm sure.