I was doing some research, and in the 1880s, they celebrated the possible end of winter and feasted on the groundhog. Unfortunately, I have not found that on the menu today, and I will write this at BJ’s Brewhouse, enjoying their excellent pork chop. Eric, my usual waiter, got me the last one–Excellent (you must get here before 6PM to get the chop).
Groundhog Day 2023 started with me waking for my alarm and deciding I wanted another 1/2 hour of sleep. I also had light nausea throughout the day, making me want to head home and pull a blanket over me. But I resisted and made it through the day. Today was a sunny day meaning that any local groundhog would have seen its shadow. We have top-level predictors that ensure that there are no slow ground-based varmints and ground animals drown here–we thus have no groundhogs. Still, by tradition, we have 6 more weeks of winter (so also was the ruling in Pennsylvania today) from the sunny day. Puke!
Aside: Constipation is a new normal. The surgery that removed 25 cm of my colon seemed to remove the nerves that let me know it was time to go. Thus I am running on empty or packed full. I am trying to develop habits to prevent the swings and find a happy (and easy) medium. So far, no accidents and no need for potty training!
Returning to the story of my day, I continued the rushed morning reading my emails, work emails, text, and the all-important Slack channel messages, but nothing important this morning was revealed. I then continued the ritual that resulted in me being summoned to work (i.e., eating breakfast of toast with peanut butter with liberal coffee supplied via a French Press, showering, and dressing).
I took Air Volvo in almost no traffic to Clubhouse, our office building not on WHQ Nike Campus, and arrived in time to start all my status meetings. But instead, our leader is going on vacation, so we had our last meeting to plan the next two weeks. I am leader-light as I will be doing status meetings and should only have to smile and nod as our colleges should report in the status meeting. I get the “we will review the issue internally” statements if folks don’t show up or an unexpected question arises in a status meeting. I also am a backup approver, and I even read two design documents today and approved them. So back in the saddle again.
We start working a 7/24 schedule with me doing status meetings all weekend for the next two weeks, beginning on Sunday. I had some crises of the moment to deal with today (thus the reading of designs) and was busy much of the day. I left after 4:30, learning that I am a Python resource and PySpark may be my next chance to supply amazing service to my group. Oh my!
Returning to the middle of my day, I had lunch at Serena Williams building at Nike WHQ. We started at 11:45 to beat the crowds and find a table. Scott had read in this blog that I was discomforted by folks sitting next to me at tables and kindly offered a new time to avoid the lunch crush. I was not complaining but more surprised by my reaction. I still can’t sit next to strangers without feeling threatened. Thanks, Scott. We talked about more work I am interested in joining. There is so much exciting stuff out there!
After lunch, I headed to Susie’s place: the hummingbird house in Tigard. Susie was asleep in her recliner when I arrived in the shared living room. She had only had breakfast, and I was told she was up all night–Susie again has sleepless nights. I had to wake her; she was delighted to be awoken by me.
We called Leta, her mother, on my iPhone using FaceTime, and they were happy to see each other. Susie would nod off and be distracted, but they still had a friendly chat. I was a bit rushed as I had a list of items to work on when I returned, and soon I left with a kiss, but Susie looked a bit confused (not sure if it was a short visit or she nodded off). Jennifer distracted her with questions about lunch as I left. Susie seemed happy today.
I headed to BJ’s for dinner, and I am finishing this story as I drink my after-dinner coffee.
Thank you for reading!
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