Pause.

IMG 7870

Even though we live in the Mountain Standard Time Zone, my workday is pretty much relegated to Central Daylight Time to approximate the meeting schedule of folks on the East Coast. I am not alone in this approach, I have peers that live on the west coast that work an EDT or CDT schedule and don’t seem to be the worse for wear. At least twice a week this leaves me with a couple of 6:00 a.m. meetings on my schedule. I try not to be blurry-eyed when attending these meetings, especially when I’m leading the whole affair. 

I’m not a morning person. I try very hard to be a morning person and many Professional Growth books tout the advantages of starting your day before God, but try as I might, I’m just not a morning person. I fake it fairly well. Since I work from home and, outside of team meetings at work, I can set my own schedule, I occasionally divide my work day into chunks with a brief nap in between. It works.

This morning I started my day at 5:30 a.m. and I just felt a little “off”. I wasn’t physically ill, aside from a slight bloody nose that can be attributed to the dry desert air. I just didn’t feel quite right. I decided to do something I haven’t done in a very long time and I called off from work today. I sent a message to the team director and basically said “see you tomorrow”.

I then went back to bed for a couple of hours.

Upon waking I found myself feeling “mostly reset” but not what I would call optimal. So I decided to watch a couple episodes of “Bewitched” (my favorite show of all time) and just rest my brain. I didn’t focus on reorganizing anything or getting anything accomplished, I just relaxed.

I have a hard time doing that.

I then ended up taking another nap, this time about 30 minutes. Upon waking I can now say I honestly feel like I’ve hit the reset button. I feel great.

Because I never take spontaneous time off from work like this, everyone in the family has inquired to my well-being and the director did ask if everything was OK when I reached out to him this morning. 

Sometimes we just need to take a mental health day and let the world pause the best we can. I’m ready to tackle the rest of the work week starting with tomorrow morning’s meetings. This is the proper way to start my 54th ride around the sun.

14 July 2021 by Ponderings and Musings 0

53.

So the other night at dinner I told the family that I rode bus 53 from 4th grade until the beginning of my senior year in high school. It was the first bus (of two purchased that year) in the district to have the higher backed seats, emergency escape hatches in the ceiling, and an extra escape door in the back (for a total of two). Unlike the buses purchased by the district the previous decade, it did not have a Ford engine and it did not have a Blue Bird body, instead, it was the first diesel bus in the district, made by International with a Carpenter body. There was a “half” seat on one side in the back row. Bus 54 was its twin; 53 replaced 43 and 54 replaced 42. The buses purchased the next year were still International but with bodies by Blue Bird. The bus driver’s name was Bernie and had taken a liking to my sister. In kindergarten she could ride up front with him by sitting on the heater. It was the 1970s. Seat belts were just a suggestion. He’d turn left on the Springbrook Road and to tame the unruly students in the back, he’d pull over and scream “sit down and shut up!”. We’d sit there on the Springbrook Road until we were calm and then off we’d go for the rest of the route. My sister were second to last on the route home. Bernie was always pleasant and I believe he sold cars when he wasn’t driving bus. His brother Ed was a barber in town. His sister in law drove bus 54.

Chris mentioned he doesn’t even know the numbers of the buses he rode in school. I think Jamie and Mike stared at me in disbelief and Earl just shook his head up and down because he’s heard all these stories before.

I shared this for two reason: 1. It’s something I remember and I never have a shortage of stories to share and 2. 53 was at the forefront of my mind.

I turned 53 today. It’s hard to believe I started this blog at age 34. I’ve probably talked about bus 53 before.

13 July 2021 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Write It Down.

It’s a shame many schools have opted out of teaching cursive writing to students. Studies show typing notes on a keyboard, or even more expediently, skimming through a provided PowerPoint presentation, does not lend itself to comprehension or retention like writing something down.

Earlier this year I went to a “paperless” approach to work and over time I’m finding I don’t remember the smaller details about my various projects nearly as well versus when I was writing things down. I’m going to move to a more hybrid approach over the next couple of weeks to see if I can reverse this trend.

The thing about cursive writing, and penmanship in general, is that it was another expression of person’s individuality. I’ve always been curious as to what a person’s handwriting looks like. Some folks don’t have a lot of care as to what their handwritten prose looks like, others put a great deal into making it unique. I love that. It’s a shame it’s being lost with these younger generations.

While it is slower for many to write things down by hand versus typing it out on a computer keyboard, it has a certain sense of style. Perhaps in this day and age we just need to slow things down a little bit.

12 July 2021 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Storm.

A very impressive storm came through the area yesterday evening. It’s rather fun getting to know what Monsoon Season is like here in southeast Arizona.

Some reports showed wind gusts around 75 MPH. We had a couple of cactus skeletons behind the house come down, as well as one of the trees. None of this did any damage and this morning we cleaned up the mess, as well as swept debris off the porch and gazebo.

This was our first test to see how water tight the house really is. The leading window into the storm leaked a bit but that’s already been recaulked. Otherwise the house held up very well.

The National Weather Service is predicting thunderstorms all week for our area; perhaps we’ll continue to be treated to Mother Nature’s show.

11 July 2021 by Desert Life. 0

Caturday.

Truman is very comfortable in home and with the family all living together. We had guests this week and he was a gentleman for the most part. He’d retreat to a secret location when he had enough of the younger humans that were visiting. We’d usually find him stretched out on the floor of our bedroom.

I find it charming when he stretches out like this; it’s a display of trust. Or perhaps it’s just comfortable.

10 July 2021 by He's A Feline. 0

Working From Home.

I’ve successfully worked from home over the past decade. When the pandemic lockdowns came about early last year it wasn’t really a change of working pace for me, as I just kept doing what I do from my home office. Others throughout the company were not familiar with working from home and so they had to make adjustments, but after a couple of weeks we were all communicating and collaborating just fine and all went well. In fact, our company found productivity actually went up during the pandemic. Maybe it’s because people realized that working from home allows for better pacing, less water bubbler chat, and reduced distractions.

Tech companies are now finding that many of their employees want to continue working from home. Some companies are not pleased with this and are coming down pretty hard on bringing people back to the office. I attribute this to a lack of management skill or creativity; in the tech world it’s pretty easy to determine the output levels of remote employees on your team. In team lead positions I’ve rarely had an issue that needed to be addressed and on the one occasion I had someone doing something they shouldn’t have been doing during normal business hours (trying to work and drive Uber at the same time), it was easy to figure out what positions must not have really been necessary to begin with.

I’m keeping an eye on the work from home policies of tech companies and considering their practices when making tech related purchases. I know Tim Cook from Apple wants folks back in that giant spaceship they built in Cupertino. They spent billions of dollars on the place. It’s a shame a sizeable number of employees don’t want to come back to being full-time in the office. And, reducing commuting time, and subsequently the carbon emissions associated with commuting, is better for the environment.

With the right attitude, creative leadership, and a clear focus, we can help clean up the environment by reducing commuting times and subsequently reducing carbon footprints. I’m hopeful many companies will reconsider outdated practices and do better with embracing Working From Home.

9 July 2021 by Geek 0

Cock Fights.

Virgin Galactic’s Sir Richard Branson and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos are duking it out as to who can get to “space” first this month. I put space in quotation marks because they’re not orbiting the planet or anything; they’ll both be getting to the very beginnings of space and very briefly leave the Earth’s gravitational pull.

While I certainly understand the “cool” factor of flying to space like this, I’m not sure I understand the scientific benefits. When SpaceX provides a ride for astronauts to the International Space Station or launches satellites or brings payloads to wherever they need to go, it’s for science stuff. Or, in the case of Starlink, they’re making the Internet available to remote locations. And that’s rather cool (aside from the pollution it’s providing for astronomers). When the likes of Sir Richard Branson or Jeff Bazos go up, it’ll be to say “look what we can do” and is essentially an expensive amusement park ride. Yes, there is innovation required to make these events occur, but just imagine how the world would benefit if the funds for these joyrides were used to help combat hunger or homelessness.

I really like Sir Branson and Mr. Bezos are just trying to outdo each other, much in the way muscle cars were raced in the mid 20th century. With these two I don’t really care who gets to “space” first.

I just wish the human race could win from these endeavors.

7 July 2021 by This Ain't No CNN. 0

Memories.

11 years ago (and some change), the family was out to dinner for the evening at Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse, New York. Our dear friend Scott is now living Minneapolis-St. Paul and we miss seeing him. Perhaps circumstance will bring him to the desert soon.

6 July 2021 by Gayish. 0

Holiday?

This day off from work doesn’t really make sense to me, this day after Independence Day. It’s a work holiday and I suppose I should be relaxing and enjoying the time off but in actuality I’m just kind of sitting around waiting for the work week to start tomorrow.

Perhaps I need to learn how to relax.

The fireworks were yesterday. The parades were yesterday. The barbecues and the adult beverages and the little worry of getting enough sleep because it’s all holiday: all yesterday.

I’m a little surprised folks didn’t want to have the long weekend Friday to Sunday instead of Saturday to Monday. I mentioned this to my husband; he indicated having Monday off gave us a day to recover in preparation for the work week. I suppose. He doesn’t need to worry about recovering, he’s retired.

I guess it’s nice to have the time off today. Perhaps I should just focus on the here and now and not concern myself with the upcoming work week.

5 July 2021 by Fun and Games Dept 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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