I’ve been in Cabo since Monday. We’re installing a Cisco Callmanager Express phone system, 2 servers and some workstations for a property developer here. I’ve been working and staying in a series of cabinas right on the beach. My job is pretty sweet

Here is the view outside of my office. Very peaceful.

One thing though. Working in a spanish speaking country and not being able to speak really sucks. I’m going to have to learn some Spanish since it appears that I’ll be coming back here several times, plus we have other jobs in the works for this area.

Cabo is a very poor area. From what I can tell, the local homes are concrete shacks. But there are many expensive resorts, and many more being built. We should be busy here for a long time.

So now that I’ve accomplished the CCIE goal, I’m setting a new one. Since I neglected my health for so long while I was studying, my new goal is going to be fitness oriented. I’ve decided to run a marathon.

I have a copy of The Non-runner’s Marathon Trainer. This book outlines a 16 week plan to start from scratch and be able to finish a marathon. I think this will be perfect.

Just for the record, a marathon is a 26.2 mile race on foot. Also for the record, the longest I’ve ever run is a 5k which is about 3 miles. And that was a long time ago. Essentially, I’ve done no exercise for over a year. The last thing I did was the 36 mile Circle the Bald bike race in April of 2006.

Having decided to do this, I needed two things. First, I needed some good running shoes. I went to Dick’s while I was in Dothan and bought a pair of Asics. They are pretty good. Hopefully they won’t hurt my feet. We will see.

Second thing is to pick a marathon and sign up for it. I’ve decided on the Atlanta Marathon. I will be signing up soon. It runs on Thanksgiving Day. This is plenty of time to train.

I will begin my training next week when I get back to Athens. The first week will be a warm up. After that, I’ll be following the guidelines in the book. I’m not going to let my work schedule derail me either. Just as I didn’t let my personal life impede my studies, I will not let work interfere with this personal goal.

Not to get ahead of myself, but finishing this marathon will be a nice segue to my next goal, which will be to train for and finish the Brasstown Bald Buster. But we’ll talk about that some other day.

I have no doubts that I will successfully finish the marathon. I’ve always known that I could accomplish anything that I set my mind to. Getting my CCIE only confirms it.

This is coming to you from Dakota Coffee Works in Dothan Alabama. I just finished running out to the car to get my ipod so that I could drown out the religious discussion that was taking place between a kid and some kind of preacher. The kid was trying to convince the preacher that the world trade center was brought down by Bush using explosives and the preacher was trying to convince the kid that the smoke plume with satan’s face on it was real. Sadly, this sort of festering bullshit is commonplace here in good old Dothan.

Mom is doing as well as can be expected. She got her last session of chemo finished yesterday but she’ll be feeling the effects for the next 2 weeks. It’s a good thing that I’m down here helping her out, because she needed it in a bad way.

This will be the longest consecutive time I’ve spent in Dothan since the summer of 1995 when I experience my last summer vacation before my senior year. I think I spent about 3 days in Dothan after I graduated in 1996, and then i left for Athens. Dothan has grown a lot, meaning that there are a lot more restaurants and churches. But it hasn’t changed at all, and that is why I will leave here on Friday with a sense of relief. I did the right thing by getting out of here.

I’ve got a couple more days here then I’m heading over to Savannah to stay with my inlaws for the weekend. That should be fun. I’m looking forward to it!

Number 17924. I did it.