Globex Corporation Newsletter

OK, it's been 3+ weeks in the Cowboy State (yes Ed, that means lots of hats.....) and I figured it was about time to make a real post. Just some observations about the city of Cheyenne and what I think about it.

The first thing I noticed was the elevation, particularly while moving stuff into my second floor apartment. We're at a little over 6000 feet here and I really noticed it in a cardiovascular sense. I'm pretty acclimated now. I noticed other things about the elevation as well. Notably, any sealed container that I brought with me was bulging pretty noticably. Shampoo, hair gel, coffee, you name it. If I sealed it in the RC, the pressure change was noticable even before I opened it here. Bread making has also been an exercise in Bernulli physics. It doesn't take quite as much yeast to make bread rise here. I've gotta keep that in mind everytime I make a loaf of bread here. No disasters yet, but some pretty big loaves.

Cheyenne's a pretty cool town, it was obviously bigger and more important than the RC in frontier times. One word, railroad. You can tell there was money here, Cheyenne was probably the last big city before the railroads entered the Rocky Mountains. That Denver ever got as big as it did is amazing to me, you can't run railroads west from there, only north and south.

Nobody here can drive. Having lived in Southern California, I've seen all different sorts of drivers. Here, the traffic laws seem to be mere suggestions, posted speed limits aren't taken too seriously. Still, I managed to pick up a traffic citation already for running a stop sign. Never mind that I've seen people do that repeatedly on my block. My guess is that they really like the SD plates on my car. That and I was stupid enough to do it right in front of a cop on Super Bowl Sunday. I did it, I'm not complaining about that. The cops here all speed too. And I saw one jaywalk in front of me downtown.

Cheyenne is home to about 50,000 people. There really isn't anything close, though, and it has a much smaller feel. I'm not saying that's bad. I like the feel here, everyone seems to be pretty friendly and I'm really enjoying myself. I haven't been out too much, but the two times I've been to bars people have been extremely friendly.

The job is interesting. I spend most of my time watching sports, which amazes me because it's more than likely what I'd be doing if I had cable at home. But people pay me to watch sports, and I'm not too proud to take the money. I watched a Phoenix vs. Minnesota hockey game the other night and thought about TSA as I think he told me that those were his favorite teams. I've never watched a lot of hockey, so getting used to the format is a little different for me.

I find myself getting into trouble because I make assumptions about the way my current company does some technical things and the way previous employers did. Trouble probably isn't the right word, I always ask if something is done the way I assume it is. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong. I just have to remind myself that I don't know everything.

I live in a nice and quiet neighborhood. A guy from my shift at work lives in the basement of the building I live in. Nice guy and we share a couple of days off.

The aircraft I see here are different than the ones I'm used to seeing. The airport is small, as most people drive to Denver to fly anywhere. The air force base doesn't have a runway as they are soley a missle base. The air national guard flys C-130 transport aircraft, not B-1's so that's been a little bit of an adjustment. The C-130 is one of my favorite airframes, though so it's been fun to watch them fly. I know that doesn't interest anyone but my dad, but this is supposed to be about my observations.

Finding net access in this town is different than finding it in the RC. I'm at the library right now. I like there system, but I'd really like a cup of tea right now.

Thanks to all who have checked in. I'll try to have more regular updates in the future.

BOJ