[clue-talk] What I like and don't like about the N800

[dennisjperkins at comcast.net]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Nate Duehr <nate at natetech.com>
> dennisjperkins at comcast.net wrote:
> 
> >> It's a business trip.  Replace the customer's systems on St. Thomas
> >> and St. Croix.  Not much time to relax, altho both islands have (or
> >> had) a couple of excellent, gourment-style restaurants.
> 
> Saw your note after the good-natured ribbing from Dan about it being 
> power plants.  Telco Central Offices are just as "exotic", and usually 
> colder than a witch's tit inside, too.

I'm usually working in a cool room or shelter in a power plant because the analyzers need a certain temperature.  Going to and from that room might be very different.  Freezing outside to hot.  Or wearing "greens", steel-toed boots, safety glasses, etc., and walking thru a building that is making coke.
 
iling list> So I understand how you feel.  Join the tech corps, travel the world, 
> see ladder racks and 19" cabinets the world over!  Whooo baby!  Travel 
> ain't all it's cracked up to be.  But it's more interesting than some 
> jobs, in many ways.  I kinda miss it.

I only do it a few times a year, so it's usually a nice break from my usual routine.  Occasionally everything goes smoothly.  Sometimes things go very wrong.  One time I worked 80 hours two weeks in a row.


> 
> But back to ribbing you... my last major trip was to a Central Office in 
> New Jersey, just north of Newark.  Not a nice island.
> 
> (Thank God it wasn't Camden!)
> 
> So... not only did all I see was the inside of a 40 year old CO building 
> (and have a couple of nice dinners -- like your experience), but I also 
> got to play the "name that stain" game using the hotel carpeting... and 
> enjoy the lovely smells present in that particular section of "The 
> Garden State" any time I went outside.
> 
> The CO was built at the bottom of a river bed (smart...), and the 
> basement had flooded so many times they'd abandoned it completely other 
> than the loading dock and elevator shaft.

I heard about one of those places when I worked for StorageTek in 82.  The tapes were submerged in water and mud and they wanted the tapes cleaned.
 
> If I never go back to New Jersey in my life, I think it'll be too soon.
 
> And I'm not listening to those of you who say there ARE nice parts of 
> New Jersey, somewhere.  That area is so bad, you can't get it out of 
> your head.  :-)

Sure there are.  They're where the roads go into PA.   :)