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Another Week
Dec. 29th, 2006 08:39 amWell, it's Friday again. I absolutely love Fridays because it means that the weekend is almost here. and, with Monday being New Year's, I've got a long weekend again.
The beginning of 2007 brings new and exciting things for me as always. Florida in January for the freedom Scientific Dealer Meeting. That was really neat this year because I got to hear about the new and updated products. I'm really looking forward to any news on the PAC Mate and GPS. That'll be a nice couple of days in Orlando, which will be great. Although, our so-called winter hasn't really been all that cold. We had our snow storm on December 1, but now the snow's all gone and we've been pretty much in the 40s. That's just not right for Wisconsin in December, but I'd be nuts to complain so I won't.
The end of June and the beginning of July is the 2007 ACB convention. I've got our hotel booked for Friday the 29th of June through Friday the 6th of July. Yesterday I learned about a rather interesting transportation service that originated in the UK but has now started in the Midwestern part of the US called the Mega Bus. In order to make it work, we have to go down to Chicago, which is really the wrong direction, and then back up to Minneapolis. I see it though as kind of like flying on frequent flier miles. Many times when using miles, you have to take really strange routes to get to your destination, but the savings are worth it. As an example, according to the web site, I can book my tickets 2 months in advance. Travel between Milwaukee and Chicago is free, and travel from Chicago to Minneapolis is, I believe, $16 per person. Amtrak is $126 per person. Then, I discovered that the Mega Bus option lets us off quite close to the hotels, so that's even better, and we get in two hours before Amtrak, yet another plus. So, that part is pretty much set. Yes, I'm cheap, I admit it. But, several months back on the national ACB email list there was a discussion about conventions on a budget, where people put away a little money each month in preparation for the big event. We don't have any credit card other than our debit card, so we can't just charge the entire trip to a card, so this is our only option. We want this trip, I've all ready gotten the time off from work, and we're going to make this happen. This will be my third convention, and I'm really looking forward to it. Alabama in 2004 and Las Vegas in 2005 were fun, but I'm really expecting this one to be extra great since we should be getting the charter for the new Wisconsin affiliate. This has been a major project that I've been involved with since 2004 when I was elected as alternate delegate for the state, and then delegate in 2005. I want to see this through to the end, and now the end is so close I can taste it!!!!!! It also is extremely nice to have the convention so close to my old stomping grounds. I lived so close to the Minnesota border as a kid that my parents and I would go there for most of our shopping, 99.9 percent of our medical stuff, and I even went to school in Minnesota for my fifth grade year since my local district didn't have an available vision teacher. So, I think it's pretty obvious that I'm looking forward to this event! What I think would be really cool though is to try to set up a time when any LJ users who are there could get together and actually meet in person. It's so cool to read what everyone has to say, and then when people do their voice posts others get to hear the people, but it'd really be interesting to meet in person. I'm a terrible organizer though, so chances are I wouldn't be the one trying to put that together. SMILE!
So, those are my two big 2007 highlights so far. I'm sure there will be others added as time goes on, but for now those are it.
Today I get to go and finish working with one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. I've been working with him since September, (not constantly, but on and off), and today we're going to use up both transportation time and training hours. I wish all the people I could work with would be like this guy because he goes and experiments with new things. It's really cool. I've got a couple of others like him too, all vets, and all older. I think it's so cool to see people going from knowing pretty much nothing to being able to write letters, send emails, and surfing the Internet on their own, and knowing that I was responsible for making it happen. It's things like this that make me really love my job.
Well, speaking of that, I really should get going so that I can get something to eat and then call my cab. Later everyone!
The beginning of 2007 brings new and exciting things for me as always. Florida in January for the freedom Scientific Dealer Meeting. That was really neat this year because I got to hear about the new and updated products. I'm really looking forward to any news on the PAC Mate and GPS. That'll be a nice couple of days in Orlando, which will be great. Although, our so-called winter hasn't really been all that cold. We had our snow storm on December 1, but now the snow's all gone and we've been pretty much in the 40s. That's just not right for Wisconsin in December, but I'd be nuts to complain so I won't.
The end of June and the beginning of July is the 2007 ACB convention. I've got our hotel booked for Friday the 29th of June through Friday the 6th of July. Yesterday I learned about a rather interesting transportation service that originated in the UK but has now started in the Midwestern part of the US called the Mega Bus. In order to make it work, we have to go down to Chicago, which is really the wrong direction, and then back up to Minneapolis. I see it though as kind of like flying on frequent flier miles. Many times when using miles, you have to take really strange routes to get to your destination, but the savings are worth it. As an example, according to the web site, I can book my tickets 2 months in advance. Travel between Milwaukee and Chicago is free, and travel from Chicago to Minneapolis is, I believe, $16 per person. Amtrak is $126 per person. Then, I discovered that the Mega Bus option lets us off quite close to the hotels, so that's even better, and we get in two hours before Amtrak, yet another plus. So, that part is pretty much set. Yes, I'm cheap, I admit it. But, several months back on the national ACB email list there was a discussion about conventions on a budget, where people put away a little money each month in preparation for the big event. We don't have any credit card other than our debit card, so we can't just charge the entire trip to a card, so this is our only option. We want this trip, I've all ready gotten the time off from work, and we're going to make this happen. This will be my third convention, and I'm really looking forward to it. Alabama in 2004 and Las Vegas in 2005 were fun, but I'm really expecting this one to be extra great since we should be getting the charter for the new Wisconsin affiliate. This has been a major project that I've been involved with since 2004 when I was elected as alternate delegate for the state, and then delegate in 2005. I want to see this through to the end, and now the end is so close I can taste it!!!!!! It also is extremely nice to have the convention so close to my old stomping grounds. I lived so close to the Minnesota border as a kid that my parents and I would go there for most of our shopping, 99.9 percent of our medical stuff, and I even went to school in Minnesota for my fifth grade year since my local district didn't have an available vision teacher. So, I think it's pretty obvious that I'm looking forward to this event! What I think would be really cool though is to try to set up a time when any LJ users who are there could get together and actually meet in person. It's so cool to read what everyone has to say, and then when people do their voice posts others get to hear the people, but it'd really be interesting to meet in person. I'm a terrible organizer though, so chances are I wouldn't be the one trying to put that together. SMILE!
So, those are my two big 2007 highlights so far. I'm sure there will be others added as time goes on, but for now those are it.
Today I get to go and finish working with one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. I've been working with him since September, (not constantly, but on and off), and today we're going to use up both transportation time and training hours. I wish all the people I could work with would be like this guy because he goes and experiments with new things. It's really cool. I've got a couple of others like him too, all vets, and all older. I think it's so cool to see people going from knowing pretty much nothing to being able to write letters, send emails, and surfing the Internet on their own, and knowing that I was responsible for making it happen. It's things like this that make me really love my job.
Well, speaking of that, I really should get going so that I can get something to eat and then call my cab. Later everyone!
