Heading up north

I don't talk about work much here on my blog, and I avoid it for a number of reasons:

1. If I complain about my current company in a forum like my blog, I could get fired. Plus, if I come across as a general malcontent, other people won't want to hire me. Of course, I have nothing negative to say about my current employer.
2. I generally don't feel like talking out it after I've come home from doing it all day.
   
3. I signed an NDA but can't really remember what it says I can't talk about, so it's easier just to not talk about anything.

Anyway, I do talk about work a little bit when it starts to affect the rest of my life too, and this is one of those cases.

On Monday, I'm hopping onto a plane and heading up north to Ottawa. We have a vendor up there that we work closely with for our satellite communication doodads, and my boss wants me to go up there for training and to resolve some outstanding issues that we have with them. I leave Monday morning, stay the night, and come home Tuesday evening. It should be a nice little trip, although there are a number of reasons why it won't be as productive as we hoped it would be when we booked the trip.

I don't mind doing what needs to get done for the team, and I definitely don't mind doing the things I'm supposed to be doing for my job. What I do mind is when work starts to encroach on real life. It's not like I come home at night, crack a beer and watch the evening news. I have things that I do when work is over: Wikibooks, Wikimedia, and Parrot. Plus, I have a lovely young wife that I like to spend my time with when I'm able. Getting on a plane and leaving the neighborhood is an all-day-and-all-night thing: No evenings to sit with my wife, no time to hang out on my computer and get cool things done. Sure I might be able to grab some wifi in the airport, and maybe my laptop battery will last long enough for me to do some reasonable work on the plane, but that's hardly the same and it's never a guarantee.

I'm going to be missing the weekly Parrot planning meeting on Tuesday, so that has me a little disappointed. However, I also haven't gotten too much accomplished on Parrot this week worth reporting anyway. Maybe next week will be better.