Not staying in touch....

Holy crap! Has it really been 17 days since my last blog? Well, as you can see, I am still alive but not remaining in contact... Summer is in full bloom here (read boiling hot) as it is in your parts of the country... (I see you have hit the 100+ mark a few times in the East. With that delicious humidity, it must be a joy to be outside). Here, we are on our way to a record setting summer of days over 110 degrees... (the record is 18 consecutive days and 32 for the season and I believe we have 12 already with the rest of July, August and September to come). So, besides the pre-dawn golf games (tee times between 5:30 and 6 am) so that I can get in the a/c before the real heat comes (still in the 90's at dawn), not much has been happening in the Arizona desert. Work has been at a stand still since my last Mission Impossible gig at ASU.

No incidents occurred during my clandestine gig (of which I am very pleased) although I almost got caught returning a key when I finished my shift. The head guy asked me to return a key to the secretary's desk in the offices. I retrieved the key from the other guard and sneaked back into the building, returned the key, and was on my way out when my partner called saying someone just entered the building the same way I did... I changed my escape route, vaulted (okay, I walked fast) down a different set of stairs and emerged from the building unseen and uncaught... (Mr. Phelps completes the mission with no losses). After a well-deserved nap I was done with that gig. But the following morning, when I returned the rest of the keys, the key I left on the desk was missing. I showed them where I had left it and they said thanks and I left the building. An hour later, my boss calls asking where the key is.... several hours and numerous phone calls later it was discovered that the secretary had removed the key and forgot to inform anyone...so Mr. Phelps's (that's me by the way) reputation was unscathed and will result in more gigs down the road. I just took some courses (first aid, heat stress, hypothermia) at work as well as the kick-off meeting for the football season (ASU and Cardinals), but the work schedule is non-existent til August.

That is, until I received a recorded phone call from the other security company I work for (a whole once). The message said to call the office for a possible gig in San Diego. So I called them and I'm in... Comic-Con 2010 at the San Diego Convention Center. It is a sold out event and is the largest comic book convention in the Western Hemisphere and second in the world to the convention in France (useless trivia for the day). We are leaving tomorrow the 20th and will return on Monday the 26th... there are no restrictions on hours and the hotel and meals are taken care of... there are a few other details to find out, but I'll do that today. San Diego's average temp these days is around 75 during the day and the 60's at night...(better pack some sweatshirts) so I'll be out of the heat for a week. Don't get me wrong. I love it here but a break is a break and a paid vacation/work gig is something I'm not passing up. And then I found out that Cardinal's camp is still a possibility... Hopefully, my bosses can work out living arrangements for me in Flagstaff and I can spend the month at football camp... (the director of security for the Cardinals also asked for me to attend)... So keep your fingers crossed... this could be an exciting time for the security dude...