There's a storm across the valley; clouds are rolling in

[austin_dern]

Occasionally the boss summons me back east for a couple days or more, sometimes because there's a presentation, or because he wants to get something involved worked out, or he just thinks he hasn't seen enough of me. There had been a little talk about my coming east in April or May ahead of the boss going in for shoulder surgery, but we got to about three weeks from the scheduled surgery date and hadn't done anything more than talk on the phone, and I certainly thought I understood the projects in mind, so I figured I was safe. I was mistaken.

The boss decided he really needed to see me for a couple of days so that all his programmers could be up to speed on what was needed before he went out for an operation which would leave him out of New Jersey, and unable to fly, for a minimum of ten days if all went well and perhaps two months or more if it were complicated, and what are the odds that a person who's had multiple freak scuba-diving accidents would have a complicated surgery? So that's how a day that started out pleasant and cheery turned to my telling bunny_hugger that I'd have to be away from her for --- well, the boss could only use me three days as he was to fly back to Florida for pre-operative work (I don't know what either) Thursday --- at least a half-week or so.

After confirming that he really really wanted me there, enough to pay for buying-tickets-half-a-week-before fares, I looked at United's flights to Newark and was horrified at the expense. Yeah, the boss would be reimbursing me everything, but I was still horrified at the cost. I don't want to make myself too expensive, particularly since I'd like to nudge the boss into a higher base wage for myself. But there are other flight options. One of them is Frontier Air, which has started flying into Trenton-Mercer airport, and is trying to drum up business by pricing fares incredibly low. For a last-minute fare like this the ticket came in under $400, and the car rental was similarly not insane.

There's drawbacks to flying into a tiny airport, like, there's not a flight every single day. I'd have to do a Sunday-to-Sunday visit. And I'd have to fly out of Detroit, requiring I take the Michigan Flyer bus from East Lansing to Detroit to start things out and that always is just a little out of synch with any flights I might have. But it'd get me there at not too offensive a cost.

Trivia: The French Republican calendar month of Ventose was translated into Italian as Ventoso, into German as Windmonat, and into Dutch as Windmaand. Source: Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, EG Richards.

Currently Reading: Tudor Historical Thought, F J Levy.

PS: Odd Proofs, because May was rather a banner month for proofs involving prime numbers, and I realized there's a certain curious parallel between a recent (purported) proof of the Goldbach Odd Conjecture and the Four-Color Mapping Theorem.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you were angling for a raise.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking about it. I do believe I'm doing as much work as I was when there in person, and more than I had figured on when I agreed to take the cut I did.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I did notice that. I think you are expected to take a certain pay cut for "intangibles," which would include being allowed to work at home, but on the other hand, you're not getting benefits either, so the pay cut is even greater than it looks.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Being able to work from home (even if we pretended going to the office were practical from here) is a great benefit, and I know roughly what I'm saving on commuting and lunch and incidental costs (not to mention depreciation of my car), but I don't think it quite works out evenly.

I should point out I'm thinking very abstractly about asking for a raise; I need to ponder things like how much I'd want to ask for, or accept.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Do anything to avoid Newark.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like Newark. It feels like The Airport to me, probably because of childhood memories. It was always the airport we went to, since the alternatives were JFK and LaGuardia, and it takes forever to get to JFK, and going to LaGuardia just gets you to LaGuardia.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I don't mind Newark airport, except that it's usually expensive to fly there from here (notably more expensive than Laguardia, for instance).

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I do like it on most grounds, although it is a bit of a pain to get around since it was designed in the days before you needed to screen passengers (I remember when you could go up to the gates without a boarding pass, even), and so the quarantine area is all screwed up, sadly.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I've only flown from LaGuardia a couple of times but it seems even worse to me on that count.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that I have actually flown from LaGuardia, but it's got an interesting history, as well as a great story of a Mayor Throwing A Hissy Fit behind its construction. Also, according to urban legend, it's been sinking since the day it was built. (It has been way too small for its needs, and located in the middle of a city, since its opening at least.)