Hello again from Sumner, WA
Saturday afternoon – March 27, 2021 (Third post of this travelogue)
Well, I survived a week of teaching. These classes consume a lot of energy and tons of walking. By the end of the week, I am beat. Both classes went well and the students were great. My measure of a great student is good participation, good sense of humor and willingness to learn. All the students (with the exception of maybe one person) had all of the characteristics.
At the Auburn plant, Boeing has built a large modern training facility. It has been in use for over a year, but I have not taught there. Our old facility was in a warehouse area with no significant climate control. In the summer it could be brutal. This facility seems to have the best of the best.
Boeing requires wearing a mask at all time, so it is a bit of a challenge to teach the class. Probably the biggest challenge is that the students can’t see my smile when my terrible sense of humor takes over. If they thought I was serious when I was doing my “crazy Jim” thing, I could be in a lot of trouble {grin}.
I have this week off and then teach four days the week of 4/5. Unfortunately that is on the day shift which is 6:00-2:30. NTT is paying for our room this week, so that really helps on the out-of-pocket expenses.
Our check-in to this hotel got off to a rocky start. The picture of the suite on the website showed a table in the room. It turned out that either I was looking at the wrong page or they had the wrong picture. In any case, none of the rooms had a table that Pat could work at. I went next door to the Candle Wood Suites (an IHG property) and they had one suite with a table, but it was occupied. The lady that checked us in at this hotel was less than friendly. I went back to the front desk the next morning and the person at the front desk (Carmelo) was most helpful. He said he would look to see if they could find a table we could use. I went back a bit later and he had a great little table and chair waiting for me (see picture). It works perfectly for Pat.
I had mentioned the weather previously during our trip up here. It was all pretty good. Until…..we crossed the Washington state line. Almost immediately we hit rain. I am not sure what the rainy season is here but it must be now. We have had rain and overcast most of the time so far. At times the rain and wind make it very uncomfortable to be outside. The highs are in the low 50s most days.
Two of the reasons I stay at this hotel when I teach in Auburn, are the rather rural area and the wonderful view of Mt. Rainier. I talk about it being rural, but it has really built up in the past few years. There is a very large Amazon distribution complex about a mile away. That said it still seems a bit rural. One day this week we got a quick glimpse of Mt. Rainier out of our window. Today the view was a bit better (see photo)
More to come.