After the longest time I have ever been in one job position and the longest time I have ever had from accepting a job and starting a job we are finally back in LA—Lower Alabama.
There were a lot of memorable things to write about and share but sometimes things happen at the speed of life and this was one of those times. Traveling during the corona time is challenging so we’ll start with that.
The itinerary changed more times than I care to remember, too. My normal München/Atlanta/Mobile flights were not running. There was a choice to fly from Nürnberg to Frankfurt (a flight that begins the descent before it finishes the ascent) to Houston to Mobile. Another option was Frankfurt to Atlanta to Mobile (which later changed to Houston vice Atlanta). Oddly, I would have had to leave earlier to drive the one hour to Nürnberg for the flight than if I were to drive the three hours to Frankfurt for the flight.
There were options to travel through Boston and San Francisco but the oddest option was to travel through Doha. Most of these included an overnight stay and had 30 hour travel times. I avoided all of those though. The best way ended up being to fly into Pensacola rather than Mobile, not because of price but time.
Even still, it was over twenty hours in airports and airplanes. Twenty plus hours in a mask stinks. Doubly so if you chew rather than eschew the chicken curry for the cheese and onion tortellini.
Eventually we arrived and the first thing I discovered is that despite the fact that I had thought it out, my estimate of the time needed to get things set up was off by at least a month. The guy who set up all my flight arrangements thought landing on Tuesday and starting work on Monday was a good idea. And as a point of reference, I’m wearing that guy’s underwear.
But this is where Serendipity rears her head again. The District here is in maximum telework still. But it isn’t mandatory. Maximum non-mandatory. I can say it all day long but I can’t really grasp how that oxymoron works. So day one I went in to fill out some paperwork and get my new mobile phone (my Mobile mobile). After calling to set it up I discovered that I cannot set up my email without getting an email. More oxymorons, right? I can’t get an email at all until I can log into my new laptop. So on to step two.
My new laptop was not ready until Tuesday. So I went in to pick it up, but I cannot log into it until I get a new CAC. That sounds easy, so I went downstairs to the CAC Office where I discovered that I can’t get a new CAC until I have a user ID. Guess how I find out about getting a user ID? Yep, an email.
For those keeping track, I need an email to be able to do some training to get a CAC to be able to log into my laptop to set up email so I can get an email that will allow me to be able to set up my Mobile mobile. After which time I’ll be able to telework.
All of which needs to be done during a time of maximum telework.
But not mandatory.
The saga continues. More to follow soon (I hope).