Starting The Weekend

I stacked up a pair of productive days at work, so that was a very nice feeling.  I am still about twenty hours behind, but it is better then the thirty I was the other week. This week there was a sense of movement in the right direction. I did log in with sixty plus hours this week, a goodly portion of it on a few long days of travel.  Consequently, I am glad the weekend is here.

I came home a little early this afternoon and tried to take a nap but there were a variety of interruptions that kept it fitful.  I woke and went out and met Tony for dinner at Patxi's, then circled back home, where I am settling in to the start the long Labor Day weekend.  The plan is to pick Tony up at about 8:30 tomorrow a.m., grab breakfast in Fremont, then head up to Pleasanton for the Highland Games, my favorite festival.

Tonight, I am going to watch a few things off the DVR - Copper (on right now), and then a pair of episodes of The Bridge.  I've got some movies stacked up as well, so I might watch one of them as well.  I am really looking forward to the weekend - besides the simple chance to just relax, I am going to do some house cleaning, start the process of getting ready for the fall.

TR has family in for the weekend, so that is a good thing. I am hoping to get a chance to talk with her tonight, but we'll see how that goes.  Family, when it is functional and loving, is an amazing thing.  I imagine it is also amazing when it is not functional, but just in a different way.  I often describe my own family as being "mostly functional". That might be a charitable description. (I say that with a sense of humor.)

A Good Night's Sleep

It is pretty amazing what a good nights sleep can do for a person.  Last night, I curled up and fell asleep and slept the whole night through.  It was sweet.  Nothing interrupted me and I woke in the morning feeling recharged.  The power of a good night of sleep is an amazing thing.  On the heels of the good night’s sleep I hit the ground and I’ve been pretty productive this morning.  I am anticipating another hour or so of productivity, then my last meeting, then I am heading home with the intention of repeating it all again.

 

The Thousand Names

So, there is this thing called a personal life. I do have one.  I just sometimes forget where I set it down and then I wander around for a while looking for it.  I am about to enter into a sweet little cycle here - first, there is the three day weekend associated with the Labor Day holiday, then I work for three days, and then, due to my 9/80 work schedule, I will be off for another three day weekend.  That should provide me with a nice little decompression schedule for the high work cycle.

I actually flexed out early today, leaving around 1:00 PM and driving home so I could take a nap.  It was not a particularly good nap.  The landscapers were here at the apartment complex with their variety of machines making an equally impressive variety of noises. I slept, but it was fitfully. It did manage to take a little bit of the edge off.  When I was at work and I ran out for lunch I realized that I was dangerously tired, so I thought I would pop home before it became risky to drive.

I fitfully slept about two hours, then woke up to have breakfast (a homemade sausage and potato soup), and a nice call with T.R..  My plan was to watch Ray Donovan off the DVR, but instead I ended up in the phone and had another nice conversation with my mom and step-dad, both in good spirits at the age of 77. By the time I went to watch Ray Donovan, my DVR was fully engaged recording several shows at once, so I decide to let it rest for tomorrow.  I am planning on working short but productive days for the rest of the week, focusing down on what needs to be done.

I start reading a new book while I was on vacation, but I haven't gotten very far into it.  I like the writers style so far and I suspect it is going to turn out to be a decent fantasy tale. The novel is called "The Thousand Names: Book One of the Shadow Campaigns" by Django Wexler.  I am looking forward to dedicating a little more time to reading, perhaps tonight, as soon as I finish this entry. Right here, right now.

42 Hours

It is late Wednesday morning and I’ve already worked 42 hours this week.  Sunday through Tuesday was business travel back east.  Tuesday was a full day of work, meetings, and then an afternoon flight home.  On the plus side, I did make the flight out of Dulles in the late afternoon. The drive from HQ to the airport had a few Popeye Doyle moves, but nothing too drastic. 

There was a ground delay on the Dulles end of the flight due to a broken air conditioner in 1st Class, but the plan was mostly empty, so there was room to sprawl and we were not packed in the sweltering heat.   I got home about 11:00 PM last night, crawled into bed and went right to sleep.  A calf cramp woke me with a sudden stab of pain in the middle of the night, but other than that, it was a good night sleep. 

I am flying low and slow today.  I think my body still needs another night of sleep or a slow and relaxing day to unwind. I’ve got a couple of things here at work that I would like to accomplish here today. I’ve already got one of them off my plate and so I am hoping that I will be able to clear another later today, maybe two. 

Since I took that Friday almost two weeks ago to get reorganized, well, the chaos hasn’t really subsided, but I am not able to cut slowly through the chaos and there is the promise that it might subside at some future date.  Sometimes I think that promise is the only thing that keeps me moving forward, even though, as far as promises go, it seem to be mostly a lie.  

There isn’t much to write about in my personal life in the last couple of days.  (The reason is in the first sentence of this entry.)  But, I am hoping to be able to get out and do some personal things, to spend some me time, over the next couple of days and, most importantly, into the Labor Day weekend when I get to go to one of my favorite festivals - the Pleasanton Highland Games.

Three Good Things

Let's start this entry with a triplet of good things.  Last night I finished up Orson Scott Card's "Earth Afire", the second book in his Formic War series. I enjoyed it very much and found it to be classic Card. I am looking forward to the third book, which I think is due out later this year.  The series comes with my readers readers recommendation.

Then, today, I slipped out and met Ty to see "The Worlds End"', the third movie in Edgar Winter's Cornetto Trilogy (the trilogy that really isn't a trilogy).  It was up to par with the other two entries in the franchise, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.  I enjoyed it very much - I may slip out and see it again. 

From there, I came home and basically napped the rest of the afternoon away, then went out and met Tony at a Chevy's for dinner.  Initially, we'd been headed to Frankie, Johnnie and Luigi Too in Westgate West, but, alas, it has closed.  Fortunately, Chevy's was close by and the food was good enough. 

I had a moody day today.  I have a little bit of the work burnout going on - too many projects, not enough resources. I may write about it later, but for now I am going to drop off for a phone call.

A More Mindful Day Underway

After a couple of chaotic days I seem to be in a better place this morning, at least as far as my monkey mind is concerned.  I started early this morning and managed to clear a lot of ordinary chatter from my in-box, which, the business cycle willing, means I should be able to get some project work done today.  My meeting calendar is relatively light, which can make all of the difference.

For me, at work, it is often a daily struggle to stay focused.  Part of the problem is the high rate of interruption and the lack of clear guidance from my upper management.  Part of the problem is my reaction to those factors.  I can’t really control the first (though there are steps I can take to keep the rate of interruption down - mainly turn off my email and IM and not answer the phone on-demand), but I can control the second through meditation.  I just finished a nice little session of sitting meditation that has me nice, calm, and focused. This is the state that I like working in.  It is kind of tragic that the frantic business cycle keeps interrupting it.

I don’t seem to have had much of a personal life this week, mostly due to the demands of work.  Next week will be even more demanding, since I have to spend a couple of days on travel as well. In those few hours of personal time I have managed to read some in Orson Scott Card’s “Earth Afire”, which I have been enjoying.  I think Card is a very good story teller.  I actually carried my enlightened nuns book to work with me every day this week, but I have not had a chance to open it and read anything.  I am going to make it a point to give it a few minutes this morning here as I am getting set to slide into what I hope will be a very productive day.

TR is in the process of having new fixtures installed in her house, so I have been getting my virtual “new stuff” fix through her the last couple of days, which I have enjoyed.  I think one of the significant disadvantages of living in a rented place is you often cannot redecorate to your preferences.  That ability to redecorate is what sets the environment that you live in.  You can do certain things, but you can rarely get in and change the infrastructure.

Well, I’ve meditated, I’ve written, I’ve walked and I have managed to get some productive work out of the way today, so on that note, I think I will focus in on other tasks and see what else I can accomplish today.

 

 

A Bad Day At Black Rock

It’s been a bad day at Black Rock.  I keep trying to reset the day and I keep banging into a wall.  I was hoping for a productive morning, but instead, it has been a morning of small interruptions. All valid of course, but interruptions none the less. Little nickle and dime things that mainly serve to irritate me.  Because I have had the edge of a head ache (allergy related) for the last couple of days, it is making me more irritable then usual.  Though, thinking about it, work can make me nice and irritable anyway. 

Then boom, it is seven hours later. That is one of the interesting things about working in draft - the reader generally has no idea of any time lapse that occurs.  The day was not good.  On the plus side, I did manage to get one thing done - however, it was not the single thing that I wanted to try and get done today.  I am going to count the single thing as a win though and make a break for the door.  I may come back online from home for another entry tonight.

 

Redefining A Lucky Day

I swear that, sometimes, I count it a lucky day if I get as much as an hour of productive time here at the office. Under that standard today is a lucky day.  It was mostly a day of one off tasks and chaotic meetings and weird data requests.  We have a real bad tendency here at the office to try and make decisions off single data points. Layer that on top of a tendency to strip numbers of context and a tendency to rely on over-simplification and you end up living in a world of data driven decisions that really aren’t. As an analyst this both amazes me and frustrates me.  I shouldn’t complain too loud though since it also employs me.

On the plus side of the day lunch was very good.  I went to the Mexicali Grill in Santa Clara for the enchilada suiza, which is one of my favorite dishes at that restaurant. That was a nice break from the office.  I often people watch when I am on lunch and simply sit and wonder at the other people on lunch - what they are like, what their workplaces are like, what they are thinking on their lunch hour.  It is pretty each to imagine a room full of people all sitting there watching each other wondering what each person is thinking.  Consider it a massive human people watching feedback loop.

From lunch, I had to dash back to the office for an afternoon teleconference, which just wrapped up. That brings me right into the current moment.  I feel like taking a nap, but I have almost an hour left, then I can head home. My plan at home tonight is to watch the movie “Ruby Sparks”, which TR recommended. I may take a nap before I start the movie. I may just take a nap.

 

 

Frustration Paralysis

There is a wall on Monday’s.  I slam right into it when I hit the office door. Unfortunately, I don’t have the common sense to bounce off and go home.  I am not really sure why it is there.  I think it may have something to do with the rhythm of our work.  I am sure many people in the corporation, like me, struggle with the problem of too much work and not enough available hours.  Consequently, they work over the weekend, moving things around. Unfortunately, many of those moving things land on me. (I am sure they, whoever they are, catch their share of moving things as well - it’s not some great work conspiracy aimed at me.)  So a significant part of Monday is spent moving things around.  Then, once I have them moved around I can actually work on something productive.  It’s frustrating, but it also is what it is.  I would like to live in a more ordered work universe, but I don’t see that happening under our current leadership.

Outside of the Monday Morning Collision I had a pretty good weekend.  It was mostly nice and relaxed.  I saw a pair of movies that were enjoyable, though not great.  I had a couple of good meals.  I watched a spot of TV. I finished reading the latest Dean Koontz “Odd Thomas” book.  I started reading Orson Scott Card’s “Earth Afire”.  I had a great conversation with T.R. about synchronicity and the multiverse. I spent most of Sunday afternoon alternating between napping and reading. I found the dual Ergotech monitor stand that I was looking for at the Fry’s on Brokaw in San Jose. So, I there really isn’t any space to complain about anything significant.

Here at work Friday was actually a very productive day.  After slamming into the wall of “too many moving parts” I stepped back and spent most of the day simply getting re-organized and that turned out to be highly productive.  Today, once I get through this sweep of morning chaos and a couple of meetings, I anticipate having a very productive afternoon because, at least for most of my tasks, I have them lined out and I can, hopefully, start ticking things off the list.  I am sure I will battle with Frustration Paralysis, but I am sure I’ll be able to punch through it.

(Okay, and right there, I just barely dodged spilling a cup of coffee on my keyboard when it slipped through my fingers.)

I didn’t meditate much this weekend.  Just a morning session on Saturday, I feel that, in my journey toward simplicity, I am once again nearing a breakthrough point.  It seems to be a very cyclical journey to me.  I struggle, I advance in tiny steps, then I breakthrough and rise quickly and then plateau and start the cycle again. I’m at the point where there next step toward simplicity is going to be fairly radical.  I purge things, objects, stuff, and I think I cannot purge much more.  Then, I become aware of the weight of the things I am carrying and I suddenly learn that yes - of all those things I held onto, well, a good portion of them can be sent upon their journey.  What an interesting journey it is.

 

The Crossing

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