In a factory complex in Cardenas, Mexico, there lives a dog with three legs. He has no known “proper” name, but the locals refer to him as the Three-Legged Dog. Now, this dog is smart. He always knows where to go to get rides from the trucks traversing the facility. More to the point, he has his way with the ladies. On several occasions, while the other male dogs are fighting with each other, presumably for the right to one of the females… he’s already off to one side having his way with them.
If you have some food, and some time… if you feed him, the Three-Legged Dog will impart his wisdom to you.
Yes, I’m back from Villahermosa. It was a long and sometimes frustrating trip, but all in all I got almost everything accomplished that I needed to.
I arrived in Villahermosa at 9 PM on Tuesday. Once through immigration and customs, I was met by the VP overseeing our Mexico facility and the Mexico facility’s general manager, who ended up taking me to a brief dinner at Bennigan’s. (Yes, they have a Bennigan’s in Villahermosa.) After a small meal (I had eaten at the Chili’s in Terminal B of Bush Intercontinental Airport), we went to the hotel I was staying at. It was the Holiday Inn Express in Villahermosa. All in all, it was a very nice hotel, complete with hardwood floors and a walk-in shower. I ended up setting my alarm for 5:15 AM, as we were leaving for the facility at 6:20 AM, and went to bed.
I woke up the next morning, to see it was 6:05 AM. Apparently I hadn’t noticed that the clock was 12 hours off. Crap. After rushing to get ready, I made it downstairs only a couple of minutes late, and we made our way to the facility. While on the way, the VP told us about the Three-Legged Dog. He ended up becoming a recurring theme throughout my stay there, as he was constantly referenced as an authority on how to get things done with the ladies. (This was despite my saying I didn’t need help as I already have a gf, but I digress…) I managed to get quite a bit done, and at 5 PM we made our way back to the hotel (with a stop at Office Depot for some equipment). I got online and did some work and talked to Misty, and at around 8:30 PM met up with the VP and GM to head to the airport where our CFO was arriving. His flight arrived (30 minutes late), and we all went to… well, Bennigan’s for dinner, which was packed with soccer fans watching the match between Mexico and Panama. After we finished eating, we went back to the hotel to rest.
The next day I got up at the appropriate time, and met the VP and CFO for breakfast. We made our way to the facility, where I completed the network hookup and inventory with one small exception (a print server was malfunctioning and I didn’t have a local replacement, so I wired something up temporarily). I ended up going back to the hotel at 6 PM with a couple of the hands that were in from Houma; later on, I met up with them and the others at Rodizio for dinner. Much fun and joking was had there, especially as one person wanted to meet with some hot women. He even asked the manager to get some over. After doing so, he looked at me and said, “You see, the Three-Legged Dog would be proud.”
I looked at him askance, and replied, “No, the Three-Legged Dog would say, ‘Why the hell are you asking the manager for help in getting women?'”
After we got done eating, we all retired back to the hotel. The next morning, I was up at 4:45 AM, in order to make it to the airport for my 7 AM flight. I was back in Houston by 10 AM… and back at the office by 11:30 AM. Bah. (I hadn’t planned on going in, but my fellow tech/assistant was out and I had to get the replacement print server configured and shipped out by the end of the day.)
So, all in all, it was a very productive trip. I didn’t really want to go, as work had been piling up at the office (and continued to do so while I was gone), but I got almost everything done that I needed to. All I can say for now is that it’s a good thing the other IT guys are getting passports. Now one of THEM can be the one to go when they’re ready to implement the time clocks. :-)
How ironic that the Mexico-Panama match was played here, in Reliant.
Even more amusing: while we were in Bennigan’s, the two aforementioned shop hands were in the bar as well. They told us later they were hoping Panama would score first so they could start whooping and hollering, to see if they could start a riot. :-)