This afternoon my badge access to the labs went into effect. As that my office is physically inside one of those lab buildings, this now lets me come and go as I please. I also got my laptop and docking station this morning but until my network access is switched over to Arizona from Maryland (why did they think I was there?) the laptop, docking station and monitors are decoration.
I am feeling better about taking this job. I was really vexed over the long weekend about these "assignments" that come out of left field from the corporate office in Florida that I can't get to until I'm on my home computer that they want turned around right away. I also couldn't log in to get the family signed up for medical benefits, and I really didn't want to write a check for COBRA.
Well, that's all taken care of, and although I'm not seeing playing time on the field my turn to step up to the plate will come. I probably ought to enjoy this lull while I can, because things can and will get frantic later on.
Like I did two years ago, I'm staying down in Sorry Vista two to three nights per week. The commute really isn't that bad but I don't want to get burned out on driving. The vanpool drivers continue to exempt themselves from the vehicle code and common courtesy while on the freeway, but they seem to know where the state troopers and the county mounties hang out. I see the marked (and sometimes unmarked) patrol vehicles strategically placed along state highway 90 every day I make the drive, and on some (if not most) they're also watching drivers in Huachuca City, which has the local reputation of a speed trap.
Next Monday, if I'm not too tired, I hope to attend my first meeting of the Cochise Amateur Radio Association. I think Wendell will offer to drive me there. I know where it is but I don't know how well I would find it at night. I attend meetings of the Radio Society of Tucson whenever I can get to them as well as the Southern Arizona DX Association of which I'm also a member. So will I join CARA? I likely will for as long as I'm working down there. Membership in ham radio clubs is a great deal more affordable than other clubs.
In the meantime, I'm being bombarded with lots of calls from recruiters. I'm beginning to think that some of them suffer from ADD. I don't like talking on the telephone (truth is I hate telephones) and I especially don't want to take these out of state jobs that they want to tell me about. Most of them won't leave messages, but they'll call two or three times a day. A recruiter based in Georgia has already called me 8 times this week (I'm now keeping score) and one of Florida is in second place with 5 calls. I get emails from them too, mostly the impersonal "Hi, I hope you are doing well. Below is a job description...".
Not to mention that my office is inside of a building where cellphone reception isn't the greatest and I wasn't going to step outside to yak on the phone since up until this afternoon my badge wasn't working to let me back in.
Anyway, we'll see tomorrow if that guy in Georgia can get past ten, and the lady in Florida narrow the gap to first place. I could block the numbers, but I suffer from this morbid curiosity about how many times they will call before they give up.
And I haven't stated this yet in this post, but I believe that some of these calls are schemes to get personal information with the purpose of identity theft. I know of two agencies that have street cred, and neither one of these has been calling me lately. Of course, one of them knows that I just started a new job, and the other one in my opinion is not as good.
That's a wrap.
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