More of the Same

I guess it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Can’t say much has changed. Working on rolling out services to more and more clients in the same area. We have 4 new members of our team, so we can finally begin some of the expansion we’ve been waiting on. Tomorrow the backhaul to Long Beach/Pass Christian goes in, which will bring our coverage area up to St. Louis Bay, where we stop. They’re also working on the link east to Mobile, AL. After these expansions, the only place we have to go is north! If you scroll down a couple posts, you’ll see a link to the network map, if you care. Really things are going pretty uneventfully well. Or at least I guess it’s uneventful at this point because we’ve been at it for almost 3 weeks. The guys were hooking up some additional government and medical sites today. Joe spent a lot of the day talking to Cisco trying to get the donation stuff in order. Things are looking really well - we just have to fill out some grant paperwork. Thankfully, grants are one thing OSU taught me to do well! When it’s all said and done, we could be sitting on at least $50k of switches and routers from them. Here’s hoping....

I’m trying to finalize my travel plans tomorrow. It’s going to be a little disappointing not being able to see this thing come to completion, but I think that would require at least another month down here. Just not possible. It’s really crazy how the travel industry just takes advantage of "last minute" plans. A ticket for next week? Under $100. For this week? $500. And I know the flights aren’t full. I’m going to go to the airport tomorrow and try pleading with them. I hear the "relief worker" routine does a pretty good job. Then there’s cars. Once I get the airline squared away, that’s the last part of my trip that needs planning. And this is almost IMPOSSIBLE. Apparently, if you’re under 25, no matter how responsible you may or may not be, you pay double the regular rate. NOT COOL. I’m down here giving up time and money VOLUNTEERING to help people. In order to take a 3 day little side vacation, I have to pay double everyone else. Unbelievable. I hear you can maneuver around the age restriction with some corporate accounts, so I’m going to see what can be done tomorrow. If you know of any tricks, please pass them on! Sorry, that was a little off-topic, but it was the last thing that happened today and still fresh. I’m going to have to sign off since we have a pretty early start tomorrow. Got a lot to get done. Drop me a line or something, let me know you’re all still out there.

-Matt