Dear Sweet Girl

Got one ear covered by headphones and one mostly free of impediment while I try to figure out why my neighbor is yelling and what they are saying.

Takes a minute for me to realize they’re yelling Dear Sweet Girl and to figure out it must be their dog they’re speaking with or so I hope.

Truth is they could be talking to their pet bird, cat or maybe a plant, don’t really know what and it doesn’t matter other than her voice cut through the noise cancelling headphones.

Might have to write Bose and complain because I have nothing better to do than yell at them for not making the headphones serve as earplugs for the shrill.

Nor can I blame them for allowing me to pick up my workphone at 10 PM to start answering emails. Correction, I picked it up to move it to somewhere I would I remember so I didn’t go crazy searching for it in the morning.

Sometimes I miss the days where I reported to an office that didn’t have voicemail or computers because when I was out of the office I was truly off of the clock.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

It would be nice to say that responding to emails tonight is an example of working smarter, not harder but I am not certain it really is.

Can’t say it will give me a jump on tomorrow or that people will notice the time and give me kudos for doing so.

Fact is those who got an email tonight are more likely to view it as evidence of poor time management or a sign of scrambling.

Ok, that’s not fact, that is supposition based upon how I respond to some late night emails I receive and I can’t take any of this as gospel.

Hell, I didn’t plan to do anything more tonight. The goal was to enjoy downtime and decompress so that tomorrow I can hit it hard.

I have tried to make it clear to my children that in many ways our effort is what is behind our luck. Be easy to work with and pleasant to be around, work hard, don’t talk about others and show up.

That is what they have heard and I hope what they have seen.

Soon enough they’ll learn there is a certain amount of luck we cannot control and that some people find ways to skate by, get promoted and or receive credit we may not believe they have earned.

It is just how life is and we all experience it.

Not much to be gained by fighting it and you might even lose ground by doing so. You really have to focus on picking and choosing your battles.Crossing The Bridge

Been saying for a while that things are changing and yesterday provided more clarity about how much has happened and how much is yet to come.

A new world is opening up in some ways and it is easy to be nervous and excited about it simultaneously. Got two calls today that helped to illustrate that and it almost made me want to run.

Almost made me want to hide because if I don’t look to see what is behind door number 1 I can stay with what I know but that is unlikely.

I may not like change and I may sometimes fight it, but I almost always walk towards it. Just takes a moment to get moving but once I do it is at a steady and determined pace.

All it takes is one foot in front of the other and then one more followed by one more and then one more…