Another trip to the Garden of the Gods

The other evening after work I went over to the Garden of the Gods hoping to get a few more pictures and maybe try to catch the sunset. Once the sun drops below the mountians it gets dark pretty quickly. Anyway, I went over to the park, walked down some of the paths and took a few shots. They are posted on the site... http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/kwh5999/my_photos so, if you have a moment and nothing to do.. feel free to browse. Lots of rocks to climb on, and as you will see there is a fellow up on one. I passed him and walked on.. and when I returned about 45 minutes later he was in the same position. I didn't know if he was going up or down, it was starting to get dark, but I figured he knew what he was doing. I didn't hear of anyone spending the night on a rock out there.

I'm hoping to get up to Pikes Peak next weekend. There is a train that runs up there and I'm told it's a nice trip. So, a few of us may ride up and see that sight. Pics to follow on that trip.

Else not a lot of exciting things to report. Another round trip to Tulsa and back. Makes for a quick weekend - Home Friday night.. then back Sunday. But, in another month I will most likely be headed to Germany - looks like that will be the next site - at least as far as I'm told now.

Ok,,, wrapping for now.. thanks for checking in. Y'all take care.

Joe

Cripple Creek and Cave of the Winds

Things have been pretty busy here in Colorado Springs lately. Due to a snowstorm the weekend of April 10 I could not get back on time. So another night at home and then back to Colorado Springs Monday the 11th. Several people that went home that weekend and got caught at home. Most were able to stay home rather than being stranded in transit which makes for a long trip.

So the week wrapped up with pretty much more of the same regarding work. I'm starting to get a bit more comfortable with the software but still learning. One always wants to be able to answer all the questions that may come up and for the most part I'm starting to get there. In any case I was able to finish the week without major issues. The team is good to work with and anytime I can always call someone or get help from the experts.

Saturday I met up with a couple of fellow trainers and we took a road trip do a little town west of Colorado Springs - Cripple Creek. An old Gold mining town that has pretty much stopped most of the gold mining and turned main street into a row of casinos. So now that's where everyone goes for a different form of gold mining. The drive is scenic so I took a few pictures which of course is out on the web site. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/kwh5999/my_photos so feel free to browse if you have a mind to.

From Cripple Creek we drove to the little town of Victor. Victor is what Cripple Creek used to be prior to bringing in casinos. It was like driving back into time and felt a bit odd when we arrived. Nothing much there, very small so we just kept driving through. From Victor we took off south through Phantom Canyon and had a great drive on a two lane dirt road that wound down from roughly 10,000 feet to the canyon bottom which was around the 6k foot level. It was a nice slow drive, great scenes and of course no guard rails. This made for some uneasiness with the passengers when you could look out the window of the car and basically look down into the canyon. Then, when the road winds around blind corners and squeezes into a one lane turn it can be a bit dicey.

However, it was a great trip, had a good time and really enjoyed the ride.

On Sunday Bob and I took a tour through the "Cave of the Winds" which is right here in the Colorado Springs area. The cave was discovered back in the 1880's and tours were started pretty quickly. I've posted pictures out on the site so check them out when you want to.

The tour was ok. We decided we paid $16 for an $8 tour, but I guess they need to rake in tourist fees some way. The reason for the name is that at one point the wind would blow through sink holes at the entrance of the cave and would make a sound like someone blowing over a soda (pop) bottle. When they built the structure over the entrance that blocked the air flow and they don't have the sounds any longer. Back when tours first started they would enter through the sink hole area be given candles and away they'd go. Must have been a very interesting trip at that point.

Still it was interesting as caves go, so enjoy the pictures.

That's about it from this end. Thanks for checking in.

Joe

Week Two - Colorado Springs

By the end of week two I'm starting to get the feel of the product I'm teaching as well as some of the processes some of the clinics follow. It is still a learning process to understand some of the medical talk and try to figure out the difference between a procedure and a lab order. It seems to help if you have some of the medical knowledge and by the time I get this down - I might, just might have some of the terms learned.

Colorado Springs has been an interesting place to work. I'm staying at a hotel about 5 or 6 miles from Ft. Carson - where I go each day to work. Sometimes I'll go over to the main hospital and the last week or so I've been going to a couple of the outlying clinics to work. By outlying I mean away from the big building to the smaller ones that are scattered around the Ft. Carson area.

The work is good - I'm learning a great deal and starting to get a feel of how this software is helping document information about a person's visit to a Doctor. One would think we would be using this kind of technology all over the place - and as we migrate toward a 'paperless' society this will be one step in that direction. Many people worry about the loss of data etc., and ask about back up or recovery of files. These same questions can be asked about paper file storage in a building. Not much thought is given to backing up those paper files - but electronic stuff.. Better have copies ready in case something goes wrong.

I got to go home Friday - so I'm updating my blog from good ol Broken Arrow. I go back tomorrow for another couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll be posting some additional photo's soon so keep checking for that.

No other major updates - keep in touch and thanks for checking in.

Joe

Colorado Springs - April Fools Day

Hello All,

Well, this is the second version of my latest update. As I finished it the system failed and all was lost, so I have to update again.

I arrived in Colorado Springs last Sunday evening around 1030 pm, go to the hotel and settled in by around 1130, then up early to go to work. Work starts daily at 0700 which is not too bad - we normally end the day at 4:30 unless we have a team meeting - generally scheduled at 4:30.

Anyway, the week started with a tour of the facility and we started some job assignments. Basically this week we were 'shadowing' people or working in the classroom. I did a little of both. There is still a lot to learn about this product and when the client asks you a question on how it works.. you really need to be on your toes to provide an intelligent answer.

Colorado Springs has had some interesting weather. Wind / rain / snow / some warm / frost / and sunshine. That was Wednesday. The weather seems to change fairly rapidly here so you have to prepare for just about anything - at least this time of year.

Today - Saturday, a well deserved day off - one of my fellow co workers and I took a driving tour of the Garden of the Gods here in Colorado Springs. I took a few photo's so you can check them out at: http://photos.yahoo.com/kwh5999

The day was the first warm day and we enjoyed getting out to see nature things.

The job is good - so far it's fun - I expect it will continue. We do a lot of direct OJT with the students so knowing what they do can be paramount to a successful training event. They ( the students) appreciate our help as we try to assist them with the new system and help them gain profiency - which I'm trying to do at the same time. I might be just a little ahead of them.

With that.. I'm going to call it a day.

Thanks for checking in.

Joe