The Walterland Blog

This past Friday I ventured down to the MVD (in Arizona it’s MVD, not DMV) to try to get my Arizona drivers license. I was trying to rent a car for the weekend and didn’t want to go through the hassle of attempting that with a PA license. Anyhow, this turned out to be a pretty pain free process. I had to fill out a form, pay $25 and get my picture taken.

The first time I went through the process I noticed they spelled my name wrong. Since it was my last name I figured I should address that right then and there (they had me as Todd Walker). That would probably turn into a hassle down the road that I didn’t want. So, now I go back through and explain what had happened. Everything got worked out, but the odd part of this… the woman confirmed everything through Social Security. So, even though my social security card has me as Walter, whatever database she referenced at Social Security has my social security number issued to a Walker. I should probably look into getting that straightened out as well, but I honestly don’t even know where to begin.

On a side note… my AZ drivers license doesn’t expire until 2041, my PA license expired next year.

-Todd

I went out this morning to take out the trash, as I usually do most Thursday mornings before work, when I noticed a sound. I couldn't figure out what it was but as I was looking around I noticed a whole fleet of helicopters just kind of... hovering around down in Mesa. As this is out of the ordinary, I went back inside and Katie turned on the news.

Apparently, there was a pretty big residential fire that was spreading... and all the helicopters were from all of the news stations in Phoenix. Right after that story they showed the remnants of an accident that had occurred earlier on the 60 loop, which was pretty close to the fire too... the helicopters could have been hanging around for that as well. This was a pretty big accident and caused a ton of traffic.

Because both of those events were relatively close to our house, I was wondering how much extra traffic I was going to face heading into work. The answer... a bunch. It took me 90 minutes to get in this morning. Depending on the time I leave my house in the morning I can usually make it in about 45 minutes. Today, it took me twice as long. Good thing they have a lot of good radio stations here.

-Todd

Last week, the ops crew went around the building pulling ceiling tiles, and running cables... This didn't strike me as being particularly odd until someone brought attention to it. They certainly have enough cables run to every corner of the building. So, why would you need to do half-ass runs along the ceiling...? Well, I'll tell you why...

Evidently, in order to install the new "White Noise System," they needed to go through all the motions described above. They were pulling ceiling tiles, cutting holes, and installing the new speakers... this feat took them several days.

They layed out a nice grid for this system so that every step I now take, sounds like I'm living inside a computer. I heard it's to cut down on background noise. This did not compute because my office is normally as quiet as a cemetery, but I gotta admit... I kinda like it better than before. I can no longer hear my neighbors dictating to themselves.

I'm not sure what a system like this runs... I still think it's a waste of money. Maybe it's just me...

-Todd