Tag: travel

  • Sacramento, CA

    I’ve been spending some time in Sacramento for the purposes of checking out a laboratory that my company uses to analyze environmental samples to either better understand a site we are actively trying to remediate, or as part of the actual remediation process. Yes, my day job is part of a team cleaning up other folks’ messes.

    And while I was pleasantly surprised that it was not purely for show to visit the lab and make sure they were on the up and up (checking the box, as it were) and not “dry-labbing” their results (e.g., making up some reasonable numbers and putting them into a report as results when they never actually analyze the samples; and yes, I’ve seen it happen in the distant past), I got several bonus out of the affair that were unexpected: a better understanding of “exotic” service offerings that have come up on my radar in the past that I couldn’t find a lab to perform, some good chatting about other possible partnering opportunities, discovering some of the best Thai food that I’ve had in years (dinner was even better than lunch!), getting something on the order of 30k steps in and getting to see a lizard (gecko?) in the process, and (best of all), getting to meet someone in person I had only previously known via WordPress, Bridgette White.

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  • Heading to California

    For a few days, anyway. I’ll be doing my science-y kind of thing for work and visiting a partner laboratory in Sacramento to assess how they do things in an up close and personal manner to make sure they are doing things with an eye towards getting quality analytical results [spoiler alert: they probably are; this visit is mostly just ticking a box].

    While I don’t have a ton of time to do much, let me know if you live in the Sacramento area and want to grab a coffee (or two). I might have time one evening or in the morning before I catch my early afternoon flight home.

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  • Leaving on a jet plane

    Photo by Lukáš Vaňátko on Unsplash

    I haven’t heard John Denver’s song in multiple decades (until today) and yet… It comes to mind for whatever reasons such things come to mind when I started to think about my impending road trip beginning about midweek. It doesn’t even fit with the theme in which the song was thought to be written for, which is generally how these things work. I’m not going off war, nor standing outside the door of a young beau looking for a last kiss before I leave, and I plan to be back home by the end of next week (so I know when I’ll be back again).

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  • The long drive, connectivity and tech

    Image of a writing journal and a pencil.
    Photo by Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash

    In my post where I mentioned I will be busy this summer with things that take me away from posting here quite so frequently, I alluded to a lack of connectivity for a spell as being one of those reasons. Well, those plans are starting to firm up and I will be incommunicado near the end of July for about 5-10 days.

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