The Saturday Morning Post - A couple of weeks in, a couple of weeks out

We are a couple of weeks into the year already.  As they say, time flies when we are having fun.  The older we get the faster time seems to spin, my boss describes time as we age as being like the toilet paper roll spinning faster as it approaches the end of the roll. 

I have been busy.  We are wrapping up a major year long research project in the office, trying to make sense of 40 plus interviews and over 300 survey responses (68 pages, single-spaced of survey narrative answers.) I am doing a reader report on the manuscript for a book - well written and needed. I am finishing up a book review.  

We have a board meeting coming up.  My boss's last board meeting. We are a couple of weeks into the year, and a couple of weeks out from me taking over.  My workload has gone up, my email volume has gone up.  We are scrambling with introductions, I am shadowing him on as many calls and meetings as I can.  His immediate boss, soon to be my immediate boss is already starting to ask what I think.  I answered one of those recently with I don't know, I need to find out, but I don't feel comfortable doing that until after my boss retires.  I have referred to the time after the first of February as AC short for After Charlie. 

A week after I move into the managers chair, we have a new person joining our staff (my replacement.) I have been coordinating getting her set up to start, computers, phones and such.  The last time someone started, the IT department met her at the door, opened the door just wide enough for the box to fit through and handed her a computer and told her to call when she got it working.  We need to do better. I made sure the work order to IT included everything we can supply. 

Life is good at home.  With COVID working its way through the Greek alphabet, we have been mostly staying home, or walking where there are not many people. 

I have another camera new lens I look forward to learning use.  For Christmas I went very wide 180 degrees plus, this one is less than 5 degrees angle of view, the longest I have ever used. And totally manual.  I know how to do that, but it has been a while.  

I had new eyeglasses made over the holidays.  I had medical flexible spending money that I needed to spend before the end of December or lose it.  I had my head examined (well my eyes are in my head.) New progressive bifocals in Polo frames, distance only television watching glasses in Prada frames, and progressive sunglasses with mirrored lenses made.  Yes, three pairs of new eyeglasses.  

I had insurance benefits and a lot of flex dollars I needed to spend or forfeit (I had budgeted for an MRI on my spine last year, that still has not been scheduled and set aside extra for the out of pocket cost on that - typically about $800.)   

The optician started to describe various lens options and costs, and I said "the one's I have are varilux and I have been really happy with those." He said those are the best, but they are more expensive. He showed me the price, and I said, okay, now we need to spend more, let's do another pair (hence the TV watching glasses in the Prada frames.) I think he was a little surprised by someone wanting to spend more, not less. It was kind of fun to go shopping and not worry about the prices, what it would be like to be rich. 

A part of me is offended by a system that encourages spending more than is needed, because it is use it or lose it money.  But that is how Congress and the tax code set that up.     

 

 
 

Fabulous Friday - Snow Day!

 I grew up on a farm in rural Michigan, well with one exception,* until I was in the 8th grade, we had winters, and every winter we would eagerly anticipate schools being closed and SNOW DAYS.  Extra random weather related days off, days at home. Then I started spending winters in Florida where it is not suppose to snow.**  A weather related closure in Florida, is usually a hurricane and in 20 years of living there I only had two or three days when my office was closed because of a hurricane (I was lucky, the weather was worse after I moved away.) The first winter after I moved "back north" I experienced a few snow days, the first one I tried to ignore, I got stuck in the middle of the street at the end of the driveway.  I have learned not to ignore them, but to revel in them.  

Living in DC, my office follows OPM, the office of personnel management directives on the office being open or closed.  With enhanced telework, the feds close less, but we had enough on Monday the 3rd, the office was officially closed, but then we were already closed adding an extra paid day off to the New Years holiday we were closed already.  Still it was a great day to relax at home. 

I am not a winter weather lover,  every January and February I question the sanity of anyone living this far north, let alone moving here after 20 years in the semi-tropics.  But a snow day, and pretty, random day off is fabulous. 

*I went to the first grade one winter in Phoenix - a long story. 

** In 20 years in central Florida, Orlando and the east coast near there, I saw snow flurries twice. Just a flurry and flit.  

Thursday Ramble - People Sometimes Disappoint Me

YouTube has largely replaced broadcast and cable TV for me.  There are some really talented content producers.  There is a whole cluster of English Narrow Boat channels I look forward to my Friday evening with Foxes Afloat, a couple of times a month I go flying with Max, once a week or so I go hiking and taking photos with Thomas, and there are a bunch of others.  With YouTube there is a greater feeling of connection between the creator and the audience.  Even those with 100-200-thousand subscribers often respond to comments, and you get a glimpse into their lives that hollywood never gives.  YouTube is a more personal experience. 

One of the challenges with this is people will sometimes disappoint.  For sometime I have been watching a young blogger from Toronto.  He is fun, and nice to look at, and not afraid to say or show much of anything (within the limits of what YouTube will allow, he basically makes a living from the advertising revenue and needs to not get banned by YT.) 

He recently announced that he tested positive for Covid.  Then he went onto say that he wasn't going to get vaccinated, but he wanted to fly to visit a lover in Sweden, and had to be vaccinated to enter Sweden, so he was and he got sick anyway.  Then he tries to say he is not anti-vax, and only had the vaccination because he was forced to.  I watched this one late in the day.  The more I thought about the illogic of what he said, the more disappointed I was, the more angry I was.  You can't say you were not going to get vaccinated, and say you are not anti-vax.  His logic is tragically flawed.  

I did the only thing I really could do, I unsubscribed.  I will miss his offbeat sexy humor, and his killer abs, but I can't put pennies in the pocket of someone who sees nothing wrong with not following science, only following it when he feels forced to do so, and then not really because he wants to protect his health and the health of others, but to satisfy his sexual appetite. 

Disappoint me, and I know where the delete key is. 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Moments frozen in time

The essence of photography is capturing a fraction of a second, for later viewing.  This moment, probably 1/60 of a second was taken in the other house - the house in Lexington Kentucky probably 15-20 years ago.  At the top of the stairs with an open railing overlooking the great room, was our shared office.  On the plans there was a option to enclose it as a bedroom, the house was essentially finished when we bought it and the office/loft worked wonderfully for us.  The top rail, is visible just to the left of the box of Kleenex over my shoulder. There is a stack of training manuals on the top shelf, this is where I prepared probably 100 training programs.  The plastic tub with a green label, is some kind of foot cream, my feet dry out terribly in the winter, nothing seems to really help other than a pedicure and letting them sand my feet with the cheese grater.  The plastic storage bin, is filled with computer bits and pieces and probably a camera, it is on the shelf in my second closet today.  I really should sort it out again.  I was younger, a little more hair on top, a lot less grey on the chin. The framed prints on the wall behind, we left to the estate sale people when we cleaned out the house.  There is so much there, so much meaning in a moment frozen in time.  

Travel Tuesday - Love Hate Relationship with Cars and Driving

A few months ago I did a series on some of the cars I have owned, lots of cars.  Most were utilitarian, a handful were spectacular. I love cars, I enjoy the design, the style, to comfort, the performance.  In the right moment, I like pushing car near its limits going through a tight corner.  But at the same time, I drive because I need to, not because I especially enjoy it.  Truth be told at times I hate driving.  Driving is better in a comfortable car, putting the top down on the little car on a pretty day, always lightens my mood.  If I won the PowerBall, there are a few fantasy cars I would try - a Rolls, a Ferrari, but even then I probably wouldn't draw great pleasure from driving.  I am weird that way.  

The photo above?  We live in an area with a lot of nice cars, a lot of people with a lot of disposable income and good credit. The kind of a place where a teenager learns to drive in a Porsche. A fun place to live, I am not from here, I started driving in a 1965 Ford pickup truck.   

 

You Tube Monday : Opening Doors to Opportunity

Opportunity, it looks a lot like the unknown, like risk, like something to be avoided.  And often we avoid it.  Or we try to force our way in, only to find we are unable to get that door open.  When we accept opportunity on it's own terms, the door magically swings wide.  Lots of symbolism, lots of life lessons in this series.  Nice short video with a big message. 

The Sunday Five: A little Renovation

 We are still trying to make plans for a kitchen replacement. The joys   

1: Have you ever moved into a new house? 

2: Have you lived through a major renovation? 

3: If you could change one thing about your current home, what would it be? 

4: If money was unlimited, how large of a home would you buy? 

5: Any great family stories of homes in past? 

My answers: 

1: Have you ever moved into a new house? Three times, I worked in the business I built two of them. 

2: Have you lived through a major renovation? Both bathrooms in the condo

3: If you could change one thing about your current home, what would it be?  Well there is that kitchen 

4: If money was unlimited, how large of a home would you buy?  Maybe 2,000 sq. ft., having offices would be nice. Anything larger is just more to clean and maintain.  

5: Any great family stories of homes in past? In 1977 my grandmother moved to a home on the east coast of Florida, and remarked that it was the forth home she had owned, and the first one with an indoor toilet when she bought it. 

Please share your answers in the comments.