Carrie caught the tail end of this sunset, but I think it shows exactly what Seldovia, AK, is all about.  We had a hard day of Halibut fishing, to come home to this view was a treat.  We did not have the land of 24 sun, but we had about 15 hours of sun.  It never really got dark the entire time we were there.  The Sun would set, but we could always see some light in the sky. 

Not a time for Northern Light viewing.

From the Tom Peters Blog.  Such a good Quote I wanted to share.  Link

Found this on a greeting card in a Boston paper store. Frankly, it doesn’t get much better than this:

“Ever notice that ‘what the hell’ is always the right decision?”—unknown Hollywood script writer (courtesy The Borealis Press)

Everyone knows that I am allergic to just about everything.  Well I went in and got test a while back and now have begun my Allergy Shots again.  One of the main problems I have had with allergy shots is the amount of time it takes for them to become useful.  I hated when my dad gave me the shots when I was a kid and I would just forget to tell him when it was timr for the shots.

Now that I am grown, I need some releif from the allergies that are in the air.  The test showed that I was allergic to every thing that the State of Texas tests for.  Not a big surprise.  Three weeks went by and now I am doing the Allery shot build up.  A new part to all of this is the rapid build up.  This is where they sit me down for a couple of hours and gigve me shots every 30 minutes until the vile has been finished.  They are checking me through out this process, but it takes a 2 week process down to a 3 hour process.  As a project manager, I know the importance of crashing the project, so I really like this option.

The arms itch a little more, but overall the rapid build up has worked very well.

This is my final post for my work experiment.

I finished my work while in Costa Rica being just as effective there as I was in the office.  I was able to use the dial up connection at the house.  The only drawback with that was that Dragnet, Dells VPN, sometimes did not work, so I had to resort tot he web to communicate on email.

I was able to solve and execute on a process that was designed while down there and was able to get many people on board who needed to be updated several time a day.  Even though I was in Costa Rica, I was able to get the work done necessary to complete inovices and send them to the customer.

Some lessons learned are:

1. Find high speed access if possible.  Dialup works, but it is difficult.  Costa Rica is not the ideal place to work remote.
2. Have a back up plan incase the original plan

Well this is my second day to work here in Costa Rica.  Monday was as planned.  Tuesday was not.

Monday I went to my friend Kerry Dresslers house to log on to the high speed Internet.  I logged on and everything was fine.  I used the vonage phone for my conference calls and to make any additional phone calls I needed.  Email was up and down, but I was able to download at the end of the day to respond at night.  Overall a good day.

Tuesday we got on the road to go to the Dressler house and were surprised to see the work crew tearing up the road.  Therefore I had to revert to Plan B.  Glad that I had one.  I signed on to Racsa and got logged in.  Email started to appear and I got on my conference call.  It worked out better than my plan A.  I think I am going to stick with it for Thursday.

Five days until I fly down to Costa Rica.  Everything is lined up. 

I fly to Tampa Monday, then ack for a night then on to Costa Rica. 

I will take some time off to be with family, then next Monday I will go back to work.

Today I got approval from my boss to work remote in Costa Rica.  I am glad that he can see the value of this.  I get to spend time with my family, take care of some Costa Rica business, and Baby Beth is able to visit Grandma and Pa Pa for an extended amount of time.

I have lined up a high speed internet connection where I can plug in my laptop.  I plan on using that as my primary place to work.  I also got Racsa connection on my computer as a back up. 

I have not told many people what I am doing, as this is way out the norm.  But I plan on making the best of it while I am here. 

Today I took the necessary steps to get my laptop and calling card working for international travel. 

I also talked to my boss.  I know that this is way out of the ordinary, but so is the work that I am doing.  He needed to check with HR to make sure it was OK.  He stated that if it was in the states, it would be no problem. 

I think that it will be no problem as I am not asking Dell to pay my down there or anything.  This is looking good.

Next thing is to find a place to work down there.  Thoughts = Internet Cafe, friend with high speed connection, through Racsa at the farm.  There are pros and cons for each. 

After reading the 4 hour work week, I decided to put one of the suggestions to practical use.  If you are going to work, work where you want to.  So here is my experiment. 

I want to work for two weeks in Costa Rica.  I know I have an advantage as my parents are down there, but I never actually worked down there. 

Steps

1. get approval from Dell to work remote
2. Get laptop and calling card in working order.
3. Try to get Cell phone service while travelling.
4. find a suitable place to work in Costa Rica
5. Use this as a test case for future work. 
6. Document the experience. 

So off I go.  I will document the experience here.