Football Epilogue

Ugh. It's been way too long since I've done some writing. Ultimately, it would be great to put in a couple thousand words a week. It's the same as exercising/playing an instrument/etc.; the more I do it the better I get and the better I feel. For me, writing has the effect of serializing my thoughts. It gives some manner of order, and priority to all the things buzzing around my metaphorical beehive. This is similar to making a list, but I find putting some prose to the thoughts adds some perspective and even some gratitude. So what's been going on lately? In a word: life. I'm finally starting to settle into the new job. I'm even starting to enjoy it. There's an entirely different set of challenges, however these challenges still rhyme with a lot of what I did at the previous gig. Now that I'm settling in, I'm able to start looking at side projects to augment my experience and pursue some of the academic interests I have. I'm happy that it's ...

I'm over 1/4th done with my time in work limbo and thought it would be a good time to check on and tweak the self-imposed "Honey-do" list from last time. Two days ago was more of an "action day" with plenty of time spent in the yard. Yesterday was more of an "out and about" day with a couple of appointments and a "farewell" happy hour to cap off the evening.  I think the biggest thing so far was getting my garden areas tilled and planted. First was my little flower display at the end of the driveway. Here I put the geraniums from my son's football fundraiser as well as a couple perennials. This year I added some lily to the middle and hope it comes out well and not too crowded. The next was the vegetable space up closer to the house. I planted a mix of seeds, home starts and store bought starts this year. It's definitely not much to look at yet, so I overlaid the planting map; partially for my own reference. I'd like to get more o...

Image by Pexels from Pixabay Friday May 27, 2022. My last day of work for the company I've been with for over 13 years. By most accounts, I should be still heading into the office today. After some toying with the idea of making a job change over much of the pandemic, I had decided to be content. The work was challenging and there were new opportunities to advance the state-of-the-art (in magnetic sensing) for some potentially big customers falling into place. Despite the usual grumbles that come with any workplace, I was happy-ish.  Enter the cliche irony of opportunity presenting itself when not looking. One of my colleagues, and former customers, had moved from his previous company to a much larger entity. As fate would have it, his division was spun off into a private company via a merger. The spin-off was to create investor opportunity for a now hot technology: Quantum computing. The company, Quantinuum, is poised to grow fast and their hardware development side was in need o...

 Over the last year, with the pandemic in full effect, it's been difficult to maintain consistency in both diet and exercise. I do have my little workout space set up in the basement , have my little lake to walk around and have lots of little projects to work on. I also upgraded my work desks, both home and at work, to the sit-stand variety. Also, the first thoughts in my head are on exercising when I say to myself, "I need to get into better shape".  The trouble with those thoughts is they make the eating portion an afterthought. In reality, I'm more than capable of mindlessly grazing in my kitchen at the end of the day. It's a near trancelike state, my brain off while getting my fix on tortilla chips or anything else. I eventually snap out of it, but it is very much like chasing a fix.  It is a weird, although likely not uncommon, calorie laden meditation/ritual. I feel like I'm fine during most of the day. I try to choose healthy at work, especiall...

So this next week is my city's "Curbside Cleanup" for my part of town. This is where we can put large items down by the street and they will be picked up by the city for disposal. Personally, I'm getting rid of an old mattress set and am tearing apart my lower level guest bedroom, so have a bit of old carpet, ceiling tiles, etc. This is also a time when a lot of people think about getting rid of items they don't use. That's how I scored this baby, on the left.  My next door neighbor was getting rid of his in-ground basketball hoop. It was on the curb with a "Free" sign on it. It's a few years old but is in great shape. I had been contemplating a hoop, but they are actually kind of expensive. This system pushes the $1,000 mark. Needless to say I, with the help and moral support of my daughter, dragged this beast from their curb to my house. There's even a scratch in the street and my driveway outlining the journey (don't worry, my st...