I meant to post here before we left for Thailand on Wednesday, but the days leading up to our departure were a whirlwind of activity — packing, finishing tasks, preparing our house for a lengthy vacancy, et cetera. Last week I had thought I was already prepared and ready to take off, but of course, as crunch time approaches, you tend to find out otherwise. As it stands, I made all the preparations that I’d wanted to, and then some.
Work was a bit of another story. We’re creating a new website to market one of our big products, as the existing website is overly complicated and too verbose. After my epiphany a few weeks back, wherein I told management exactly how long it was going to take to launch the site (months, thanks to all the continuous meetings and screwing around), my comments were apparently taken to heart and the development process was completely altered. Now, the one guy who always held up the content development by insisting on doing it his way, then changing his mind eighty million times, has been asked to just write the damn content himself and get it over with.
That immediately made a huge difference, and as a result, the first phase of the site is almost ready for launch. Management set a new launch date of February 15th, but unfortunately, the site content was not delivered to me until midday on February 12th. Given that I only had the 12th and 13th to work on it (because of our trip), the launch did not take place. However, nobody above me is up in arms about it — in fact, they’ve been perfectly understanding, given that they each had their own hand in causing the delay. I worked on it until four in the morning on Tuesday night, while I digitized a last few DVDs and copied files to my notebook computer. Beyond that, I’m not even going to worry about it again until I get set up in Thailand.
Another factor contributing to the launch delay was another employee, who is currently judge, jury and executioner on both the support and development of the very product our new site hopes to sell. He’s been eliciting my help (by phone) off-and-on for weeks as he’s been implementing the new GUI that I designed. Realizing that I was about to situate myself in a time zone 180 degrees opposite from his — thereby making it difficult for him to confer with me about the product — he spent much of Monday and nearly the entirety of Tuesday bringing me into one impromptu conference call or meeting after another, so that I could help him polish off some UI implementation problems. We pretty much went through his whole back catalog of issues and solved all of them, so hopefully he can live without me for a couple of days.
Our departure on Wednesday was prefaced by a bit of good news on the HOA front. You may recall my posting here a few days ago about the letter we received from our HOA’s Compliance Committee, in which they warned us that some wall, somewhere on our property, was dirty enough to violate their cleanliness standards. You may also recall that I didn’t have a clue what wall they were talking about, so I called them up.
The Compliance Committee chief paid a visit to our residence the next day and explained that the wall in question was the one separating our lot from the lot on the street north of us. My understanding had been that the maintenance of this wall was the responsibility of the association, and I stated as much. He gave me an elusive answer about the developer’s original intent, which was for the association to clean roofs and lot perimeter walls, and how it wasn’t really feasible or some shit, so they were asking homeowners to take care of it.
At this point, I wasn’t too concerned about the wall itself or whose problem it was. For $35 bucks I could have it cleaned and taken care of anyway, so I called the guy we usually hire to do pressure washing. He said he could come out before we went on our trip, so I expected to have the issue out of mind by the time we left. The only problem was, he didn’t show up on the appointed day (Friday), nor did he call. On Monday, I found out that he had been in the area but didn’t know our address, never mind that he had asked for it when I made the appointment, and I had given it to him. So you didn’t bother to call and ask? I thought. But whatever; the Compliance Committee guy himself had said “not to worry about it” since they had not yet sent us an official letter of violation anyway.
\But as I mentioned, things took a turn for the better on Wednesday morning, when CC guy showed up at my door and said, “You know what I found out? That wall back there isn’t your responsibility, it’s ours.” Well, I’m glad to see you listen when somebody speaks, even if that somebody isn’t me. So, we’re off the hook for that, and I’m happy because that’s just one less thing for me to think about while we’re away.
So wow, all I’ve talked about so far is work and HOA stuff. I suppose you’d like to know how the actual trip is going? All right, I’ll indulge you. So far, everything has been pleasantly trouble-free. Our initial flight to Atlanta was right on time, and despite the mere 45-minute window for our connection there, we made it with plenty of time to spare. (That flight was a few minutes late taking off anyway, so it was hardly a stretch.) Upon arriving in L.A., we endured a bit of rigamarole and confusion at LAX, which is now far less inviting and far more disorganized than it was in 1999, which was the last time I flew through there.
Still, we eventually made it through all the madness and got aboard our Thai Airways flight to Bangkok, where we’re trying out Thai’s new Premium Economy Class. The upgrade cost was $250 per person, per flight, for a total of about $1,000. It may sound like a lot, but it’s still thousands less than Business or First Class, and with lots of the same benefits. Most importantly, the seat pitch (distance between the rows) is huge, with enough room for me to actually stretch out or cross my legs, plus the seats recline and have pop-up foot rests like your average La-Z-Boy. Beyond that, each seat has its own standard, 110V AC power port (I’m running my laptop off it right now), and we get lots of other classy amenities, like big, comfy blankets and pillows, and meals served on actual china with actual metal silverware. And for the first time ever, I actually got a solid six hours of sleep on a plane. (Which is good, because this flight is 17 hours long.) Would I pay to fly Premium Economy again? You bet your ass I would.
After an initial meal after the onset of the flight, we slept for a while and then had breakfast. After that, I caught up on this past Sunday’s Battlestar (which I copied from the TiVo on a whim late Tuesday night) as well as an old episode of Star Trek TOS I’d been in the mood to see for some reason. That wore out the battery on my laptop almost completely, so I plugged it in. Now, not only do I have AC power, but my battery is even recharging.
We’ve got about another three or four hours before this flight lands in Bangkok, at which time Apple’s sister Mary will be meeting us at the airport and flying with us to Hat Yai on the final (and, mercifully, shortest) leg of our journey. By the time we get to Apple’s parents’ house, it’ll probably be around noon or so, and we’ll have most of the day ahead of us. Meaning that I should probably set up and do some work. I’m not sure when I’ll feel like going to sleep; that whole mess is gonna be up in the air for a few days, I imagine.
Now, as Apple said to me a few hours ago, the only thing left standing between us and a perfect trip will be our luggage — and whether it arrives on the carousel in Bangkok or not. 
As I mentioned, we’ve had one semi-tight connection along the way, a couple of plane changes and one cross-airline check-through. This has presented no trouble in the past, at least most of the time. All we can do is wait and see. (Of course, as I write this, we’re still in the air. By the time I actually get it posted on my site, we’ll have the answer.)
