What a week! I spent my last week at the "old" job at the main office in Austin, TX, working past midnight pretty much every day trying to put some finishing touches on a project.

When suddenly Friday came around it was time to hand in the company phone, laptop, access card, security token, and credit card. Sign some paperwork, say a few quick goodbyes, and then race off to the airport to catch the flight home to Philly. On Monday I'd start a new project at a new job.

Of course, that's when the weather gods conspired to keep me in Austin for one more day. My flight was canceled due to heavy storms and I was now stranded at an airport hotel with essentially nothing to do. It really didn't feel like the "weekend" — it felt like "work" without being able to get anything done.

There will be very little travel in the new job, and most of it will be day-trips between the East Coast cities — a welcome change! I really won't miss the road warrior life at all.

- another post from my phone.

Sitting at the airport in Philadelphia on a Saturday morning in December. Christmas muzak is blaring at me from everywhere. I'm watching fellow travelers walking, sitting, talking, waiting, reading, eating.

It's still early and the frenzied airport day has not yet begun. Soon luggage will be lost, connections will be missed, travelers will be late and even lost. But it's the weekend and there are few, if any, "road warriors" in the terminal.

People are going home, going to visit friends and relatives, going away for personal reasons. The airport is different on the weekend. There are no harried business men or women clinging to power outlets along the walls in terminals trying to recharge phones and laptops.

No last-minute tweaks to that PowerPoint presentation. No sorting of receipts for the expense report. No loud phone conversations while running to catch that flight.

It's a Saturday morning at the airport.

- another note from my phone

Sitting on the R1 train on my way to the airport again. Today I'm off to Greensboro, NC, to see my girls. It has been a few weeks since I visited them, and I feel better prepared this time around.

I guess we're settling into some form of routine. Just as the calls during the week have taken on a certain predictable format, so have these visits. In a way we're "achieving" less during each call and visit, but we're doing so with significantly less tension and stress.

Overall I think this is all slowly moving in the right direction. It seems I "achieve" more by pushing less .. hm .. a life lesson that has taken me a lifetime to learn.

- another note from my phone

Sitting on a flight to Vegas with at least another 3 hours to go. Contemplating the absurdity of this trip. Flying clear across the country for a single meeting.

As I was going to airport, the cab driver told me that he was going to San Diego this coming weekend. It'd be his first time flying in over 10 years.

Sitting here on this flight, my 5th in 7 weeks (including 2 transatlantic trips), I'm actually a bit envious of him. He was so excited of going to Sand Diego .. he was going somewhere.

I've completely lost that sense of excitement. Travel has become a painful form of long-distance commuting. I'm wasting precious hours of my life waiting in airports, airplanes, hotels, conference rooms .. wasting time going nowhere.

I have to change this somehow.

- another note from my phone

Friday evening. Flight is delayed. Again. More time at the airport. Risk of missing my connection.

Flying in 2009 is a joke. Do these airlines have computers? Do they use them? Not everything can be weather-related. Is there any other industry that shows more incompetence?

I travel almost every week, and it is rare that a flight is on time. In fact, being less than 30min late is essentially "on time" these days.

- another note from my phone

We have begun our descent into Charlotte, NC. It's a bit bumpy, but nothing too exciting. In another 20 minutes we'll be on the ground. Then it'll be another 5 or so minutes until we reach the gate, and another 15 minutes to get off the plane.

It's a 15-minute walk to get to the E concourse, and then 35 minutes before boarding the next flight. This is business travel in a nutshell: waiting, walking, sitting, and waiting some more. This is long-distance commuting.

I used to think that travel — all forms thereof — was exciting, but that was a long time ago. Maybe it's because I'm not really going anywhere: it's meeting after meeting, late arrival at some hotel in some city, and quick ride back to the airport to catch the next flight somewhere else.

The sense of adventure is gone. How can I get it back?

- another note from my phone

At the airport again. This time waiting for a flight to Austin, TX, where I'll spend the whole week. It's yet another Sunday ruined due to travel and it's really starting to get to me.

The only reason for all these Sunday flights is that meetings are scheduled without any consideration for travel time by "locals" who only need to endure a mere 30-minute commute to get there.

Is it that they don't think it through? Is it that they don't care? Both? Neither? Who knows? Of course, it doesn't really matter, the end result is the same: I spend my Sunday evening at the airport while they spend it at home.

This must end — life is to short too waste it traveling to meetings.

- another note from my phone