After a week of travel from Southern Virginia to Missouri and back, I can tell you that sort of life (e.g. business travel) is not for me…even though being in the Army for almost 30 years certainly entailed a lot of travel. It's just that I now have a hard time doing much of anything, "by the clock". Working as I do from home, part time, means I can do what I have to do, when I want to do it. So long as I meet my business deadlines, I'm OK. Matters not when I do it. But, last week when I was at Fort Leonard Wood gathering materials for future articles in Army Engineer magazine, and reporting on the 2008 Engineer Regimental Conference in St. Louis, my day started promptly at 0600 and ended around 2100, with a need to do certain things at specific times. I stopped wearing a watch long ago, so I found myself having to use my cell phone to keep track of time. Also, there's nothing like "relaxation" while sleeping in a large hotel, or motel, and often eating meals alone is no fun either. After a 13-hour drive back home, I again realized how much I like living where we do, and how much more relaxed I am in familiar surroundings. Was my trip worth it? Certainly it was, or else I would not have gone. I did find the time to take some photos besides those related to Army engineer stuff, such as the one above I shot at 0600, looking out my hotel room window at the glass-faced building across the street. You have to go to the big city to get such an image, so I guess I'll have to train myself over the next year to get ready to do it all over in 2009.
