Half Way Through 2021!

 Just a few weeks after the previous post about the T&E course as Pax River, the COVID-19 shutdown impacted operations.  Previously, I was accustomed to frequent travel - not necessarily every week, but probably averaging three trips a month.  This had gone on for many years.  Working in this field requires interaction with users, and other meetings best conducted in person.  But we all rapidly shifted to on-line meetings, more phone calls, and various innovative ways to keep the work going from home.

The working from home part was relatively straightforward, as I had been mostly working from home (when not on travel) for several years.  But starting in mid-March 2020, it was all working from home!  Across my different projects:  one used WebEx, one Zoom, and one Teams.  So I got to experience the best and worst of all three systems.  

I did not travel by air from the second week of March, 2020, until the very end of October, 2020. Counting that trip, I've only traveled by air 3 times in the past 15 months!  I have had 3 other business trips in which I traveled by car (6-hour drive each way), as the powers-that-be considered travel by air to be too risky whereas travel by car was acceptable.  

Looks like things are opening back up slowly, at least with respect to business travel by air.  I hope that more in-person interaction can happen soon. Also I hope that professional conferences can resume - especially in nice-to-visit places.   I also hope to resume offering in-person professional education courses, and maybe to expand some of those offerings. 

Business has remained very good during "these troubled times."  I've had plenty to do and have been able to start up a couple of new projects during this time.  I do admit that I've enjoyed being at home so much!  I always said that the part of traveling that I enjoyed was the work that I do, not the airport, hotels, and living out of a suitcase.  So I'll be quite content to travel again, but I won't be disappointed it the frequency of travel remains somewhat lower than before.

As always feel free to reach out to me directly.

Dennis