life as a dog…

On my way back to Wauconda.  Same client.  It’s a really quick trip.  I am in Illinois for only about 30 hours.  The last time I was up there was July.  It wasn’t boiling hot, but it was muggy.  This time, it looks to be quite the opposite.

Day 1 – Wednesday

Instead of flying into O’Hare like I did last time, I booked through Midway.  It was much cheaper, though it meant I would be spending at least an extra 30 minutes on the road in Chicago.  As it turned out, that was probably a good thing.  The weather in the midwest is horrible today.  O’Hare is getting all kinds of delays.  I was only saddled with a 15 minute delay…or so I thought.  We ended up being about 1.5 hours late.  Thankfully, I didn’t have to be at the job site today.

That delay did, however, cause me to land at Midway right at rush hour.  I had to drive from Midway to the north side of Chicago.  Yikes.  A drive of about 50 miles.  I figured it would end up taking 2 hours or more.  But I was surprised… it didn’t take but about 1.5 hours.  I guess I’m just used to DC drivers.  The driving was slow here, but it kept moving – something it tends not to do in DC.  Bedtime was early this night… a 6:00am crew call on Thursday caused that.

Day 2 – Thursday

Oy vey, it was an early morning.  Alarm set for 4:30am.  Crew call at 6:00am.  And I just was not ready for this kind of temperature.  It’s been pretty mild in DC so far this season. I think maybe the low temp has been in the mid 30s… and only a couple of times at that.  Just haven’t had time to digest a –1 temperature (with a wind chill of –21.  Ouch.

The event itself went off as planned.  We were scheduled to be finished at 1:30, but managed to finish about 12:30.  8 hours before my flight.  I was hoping to catch an earlier flight (2 or 4 hours before my scheduled flight), but the price difference was too high.  Had the weather been nicer, I would have done a little sightseeing.  But the temp didn’t make it past 6 degrees.  Just too cold to do anything.

By 6:00pm local time, I was starting to get really tired – burning eyes tired.  I’m glad I was given a fairly high boarding number (A30).  I was in no rush on my way home (since I couldn’t pick up Harley until the morning).  That mean…window seat for sleeping.

POST

So my trip to Chicago (or rather, Wauconda) was very short… possibly the shortest trip I’ve ever taken – less than 36 hours.  I have to admit… I really wouldn’t mind living in Chicago.

I’m not sure where I’m going next.  There’s talk of Las Vegas or Vancouver.