Miami - Day #2

Hello from Florida – Day #2

Well – nothing near as exciting as the loud dude on the airplane today.  Then again, nothing as gross as an old dirty sock behind the couch, so I guess today was okay.

The day started with me getting up at 6:00 and getting to the beach by 6:30 to watch the 7:08 sunrise on the Atlantic.  I really hate to say this, because as I write this, the temps at home are near or below zero and I am “basking” in 65 – 75 degree days, but . . . even though the temp is 65 degrees, the breeze coming off of the Atlantic was COLD!  It didn’t help that I stood in it for 45 minutes, but when I came in I had to brew myself a cup of hot chocolate (or cocoa, depending on where you’re from).

I did get some pictures of the sunrise (which was the point of going).  At first I was a little bummed in that my camera is not good enough to capture the oranges and pinks that lined the clouds during the earliest parts of sunrise – so many of those pix look a little gray.  However, due to the inability of my camera to capture such fine detail, it was also unable to capture the crisp edges of the rising sun – instead turning it into a large orange glow that filled the horizon.  So, while being a little unhappy, I was – at the same time – very pleased with some of the pix (you will see a few of them included). 

After that . . . a pre-conference meeting where we go over all of the details with the hotel staff, and finally meet our on-site AV contact who I’ve been emailing and calling for the past few weeks. 

The majority of the afternoon was spent setting up our equipment.  It always takes longer than you think, as you have to work around the hotel’s staff that is setting up their equipment, some of which needs to be set before we can set our equipment.  We also had one instance of equipment failure.  But after some thinking, figuring, and praying we resolved the situation.  Not to our best liking, but all in all – everything will be fine and hopefully no one will know the difference (knock, knock, knock on wood).

The evening was spent getting dinner, and then being back in time to Skype with Gracie (and Lisa too) before Grace went to bed.  Skyping with dad is a big deal for her, so I try to avoid getting tied up during the evening hours –although it doesn’t always work out.  We talk about her day, sing some songs, and just be silly.  What did we do before technology?

Anyway – the program starts tomorrow morning and we (my colleague, Alec, and I) have to be in the ballroom at 6:30, so I’m going to wrap this up.

Be well.  Thanks for reading.  Have a great day.  

JBD