Football Epilogue

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...

Image by Jeon Sang-O from Pixabay Spring is officially here! The vernal equinox was this past week and now we have more daylight than night. It is amazing how fast the days have become long, extending natural light well into the evening hours. One of my favorite things about Minnesota are the long summer evenings with light on the horizon until nearly 10 pm Naturally, the season change, here in Minnesota, was greeted with sub-freezing temperatures. It is also quite blustery out with a stiff north wind with what is perhaps winter's last hurrah. However, it is more likely the penultimate or antepenultimate hurrah. Snow in May has happened in recent memory.  With the weather fluctuating between nice and friggin' freezin' we dance between getting outdoors and hunkering down. The earlier week witnessed temperatures in the 60s F. Comfortable enough for a jog around my favorite little lake (sub-20 minutes for two miles!) in shorts and a light jacket. It was a little cooler a coup...

I've been feeling the need to get more cardio. Honestly, part of it has to do with going to Iron Maiden with a friend who "runs 4 to 5 miles every day". So, ok, time for me to saddle up and get moving as I see room for improvement in my workout.  I'm not looking to compete, but instead felt more motivated. Thanks, Old Top! The nice part about living in the land of 10k lakes is that there area a lot of little lakes with paths around them. Thus, for the last couple weeks I've been packing a small bag of workout clothes, changing at the end of the work day and taking a jog around Mt. Normandale Lake pictured above.  I don't typically feel the need to run a marathon so something between 1.5 miles and 4 miles feels perfect. This lake has an excellent path with just enough elevation variation to have to kick into small hill gear and a second lap (which I'm already starting to do) doesn't feel entirely daunting. There are enough shiny happy peopl...