Day 315: Punch Out

Posted on November 11, 2014 by joshdaddy

OK, I just broke one of my soft rules. I was doing work-related email at 11:30 at night.

I am still very much enjoying my new job, and the new challenges it presents. The past couple of weeks have been particularly busy. I’ve been tying up some loose ends today, and this last email was if not the last of those loose ends, then at least the last that really needed to be wrapped up by today.

But enough is enough. Time to punch out for the day.

I am usually pretty good with the work-life balance thing. But there are going to be days when things get out of balance. It’s interesting to note, though, that it’s the work that usually becomes unbalanced and starts eating into life, and not the other way around.

Anyway, enough of work. And enough of writing as well. Time to call it a day.

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Day 314: Suspend

Posted on November 10, 2014 by joshdaddy

It always surprises me how little things can throw me off balance sometimes. Tonight, it was a technology malfunction.

While my television watching has plummeted over the past three months, other family members have been missing their DVR, so we replaced our defunct unit (which broke back in Georgia) this week. I finally picked up the HDMI cable and the CableCard, and set everything up.

And of course, it didn’t work. We couldn’t get the card and the cable paired up.

Rather than simply shrugging off this moment of technical difficulty, which will resolve, no doubt, with tomorrow’s service call, my first instinct is to assume that this problem will never be resolved–that I wasted money, and time, on an overpriced toy that doesn’t even work.

Infantile, I know.

So tonight, I tried to suspend such thoughts. I walked through the troubleshoot call, set up the service call, and that’s that.

It’s doubly ironic, I think, that I would let the failure of this device upset me, given how little I watch TV. But of course it’s not the failure of the device that upsets me. It’s that unsettling reminder that there are many, many things in this world that are beyond my control–and CableCard syncing is indeed one of them.

So it’s off to bed with my book now–a trusty piece of technology indeed!

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Day 313: Peel

Posted on November 9, 2014 by joshdaddy

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a photo to accompany a blog entry. I kind of wish I had remembered to snap a photo tonight, if for no other reason than to have posted perhaps the most humble and banal photo ever to have shown up on a blog:

A sweet potato.

Yup, that was the scene of tonight’s great revelation. There I was, in the kitchen. I had a tray of ribs in the oven. A sac of green beans waiting their turn to be snapped and placed in the steamer. But first–the sweet potatoes needed peeling, so they could set to cook.

As I was in mid-peel, with that firm, orange potato sitting in my palm, I was struck by the simplicity of what I was doing. Here was this tuber, that some time not too long ago had been under the earth. It had been harvested and transported to my local store. Now here it was in my kitchen, shedding its peel and plunging into boiling water.

I’ve written quite a few entries about food, because food for me has always been more than just a physical nourishment. I cook just about every meal, so tonight’s preparation was far from an extraordinary event. I think what struck me tonight was just how close to the earth (quite literally)  this potato had been. Something felt good in preparing a meal so simple. It felt good to feel the solidity of that potato in my hand, and to think about the sun, and soil, and water that had helped bring it into being. And soon it would be on my family’s table as part of our family meal.

And that’s about it for tonight–all the philosophy and reflection that a potato can offer!

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Day 312: Chop

Posted on November 8, 2014 by joshdaddy

No, I didn’t carry water. And actually, it was more like chainsaw instead of chop.

Today, I spent the first part of the day outdoors climbing–sure, the morning started off cold, but with with a bright sun and a south-facing crag, it couldn’t have been a nicer November day.

We had planned a family dinner-and-a-movie outing for this evening, but that left me a few hours to tend to a couple of chores and repairs around the house. And one of those chores involved a power tool.

Our house sits on a couple of wooded acres, and there are a few trees that need to come down. The wind has been helping along the process, that’s for sure. And so has my oldest boy. He found a small white birch a couple of weeks ago that had snapped off about fifteen feet from the ground. I guess he wanted to see what it felt like to fell a tree with an axe, so that’s what he did. The he dragged said tree to the side of the house, where we had stacked our wood last month.

And that felled tree has been sitting there for these past two weeks, waiting to be reduced to firewood.

So today, I thought it was time to clear up the timber and stack the logs.

It didn’t take too long, and as with many of these sorts of chores, it wasn’t really a big deal. But it felt like I was doing the sort of work that humans have been doing for a long, long time (albeit not necessarily with power tools). I wasn’t just tidying up. I was helping prepare for winter.

Some time before the spring thaw, these same logs will be burning in our fireplace. And I will remember that little time it took to help keep our home just a little more cozy and warm.

 

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Day 311: Debunk

Posted on November 7, 2014 by joshdaddy

Sometimes I feel a bit guilty when I am writing these blog posts. When I started out, there was a lot of house cleaning and purging going on. I tried to balance the “inside” and “outside” jobs–focusing as much on the material clutter as I did the emotional and mental.

Lately, though, I haven’t really focused much on the minimizing and reducing. Part of it, I’m sure, is that I really have downsized quite a bit. But part of it is just an evolution in where I’m putting my energies. Neither reason, though, keeps me from feeling like I should be taking care of some “simplifying” task around the house. There’s always the perennial issues–the pantry, for example. Surely I could do something….

So today, I thought I would tackle some little task around the house–something easy, but something that would put me back in the spirit of some of my earlier decluttering projects.

But then I thought about how busy a week I had at work. And somehow gearing up for a chore seemed like the wrong way to spend a Friday night.

Instead, I made these weird but tasty empanada/calzones for the kids. Then I brewed a pot of tea. And now we’re watching a movie.

Sometimes I need to remind myself not to let my own false impressions of what I should be doing keep me from doing what I really should be doing.

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Day 310: Bridge

Posted on November 6, 2014 by joshdaddy

So remember how I was discussing my entanglements in workplace politics just a couple of days ago?

Today, I had more opportunities to work my way through conflicts–and again, many that have a history that predates me by a long way. But rather than feeling overwhelmed by these entanglements, what really caught my attention today was this:

Since I am coming from the outside, with none of that history, I have  an opportunity to build bridges and mend fences more easily than many of my colleagues.

Which is what I started to do today.

I wrote a couple of emails. I had a couple of conversations. I made a few appointments.

Nothing worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize, that’s for sure, but it was a start. And it was a start with noticeable results as well. Those bridges  and fences aren’t finished jobs by any means, but a good start is a good thing.

And I have to say, at the risk of an unnecessary ego boost, it felt good to know that I was doing my part to work beyond old conflicts and open up new ground for collaboration and compromise.

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Day 309: Notice

Posted on November 5, 2014 by joshdaddy

Two points of notice today:

First: There I was–once again walking across campus, totally oblivious to everything around me. Yup, reading email too. But I caught myself, and forced myself to come to a complete standstill. I turned around slowly, 360 degrees. It amazes me how easily I can become blind to my everyday surroundings. And it’s equally amazing how easy it can be to become aware.

Second: I had a chance to hear a great speaker tonight. She told the story of her life, from growing up on a farm and attending a one room school to becoming a university president. Her entire talk was quite inspiring, but one sentence struck me: when someone asked her how she managed her work/life balance, she responded, “Wherever I am, I try to be present. And I had to learn to embrace the fact that sometimes I’m going to fail at that.”

Point well taken!

 

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Day 308: Disengage

Posted on November 4, 2014 by joshdaddy

How appropriate: today is Election Day in the United States, and I have had my share of politics to deal with.

As is always the case, the specifics aren’t as important as the broad strokes. Suffice it to say: I had a hard day at work, much of it the result of having to negotiate through institutional waters rife with conflicts that long precede my arrival.

When I encounter a situation in which I feel I’m being jockeyed against the rails, my first instinct is to bridle and push back. But as is often the case, I often have to question my motives. Why am I fighting back, and to what end? Am I fighting the good fight? Or am I defending some version of my ego?

After all, it was just a little over a month ago that I was writing about the lesson of surrendering.

So I left today’s politicking with a head full of counter-arguments and a rising bile. Not exactly how I want to spend my evening at home with my family.

The politics will return, no doubt. And there will be plenty of opportunities for heated debate. But at the end of the day–literally or figuratively, it’s important for me to remember to disengage.

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Day 307: Adjust

Posted on November 3, 2014 by joshdaddy

OK, so I didn’t stay up late last night, and I actually got to sleep in a little this morning (our kids’ schools had a delayed start to allow the last of the ice on the roads to melt)–but still, I’m feeling pretty worn down today.

I’m guessing it has something to do with being away from work for a few days, and having a stack of catching up to do on my return.

But I’m also thinking that something as simple as a one hour change on the clock has put me a little out of sync.

So I’m trying to adjust. Which really means: ignore the clock, and try to go to bed when my body tells me it’s time to rest.

I’ve had some other adjusting to do as well. I’ve been talking back and forth with our realtor as we are working our way through the post-inspection process. Part of me wants to nit-pick each request for repair. And part of me simply wants to be through with the old house, even if it means having a little less money to spend toward building a new home.

“Should” is a word that can get me into trouble. As in: “I shouldn’t be so tired today.” Or: “I should get no less than $X out of selling this house.” And so on.

So here’s to being a little more supple, and expecting a little less.

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Day 306: Chill

Posted on November 2, 2014 by joshdaddy

We had a lot of sun today, but it was still pretty cold outside following our first snow yesterday. We spent a little time outdoors, but mostly we hunkered down inside. It felt good, though, to have that chill in the air, and to feel our transition from early to late fall.

We had a fire going most of the day. I even took a nap–a rare event indeed.

It was a well-timed lazy day. After several days of traveling, it was pleasant to be at home and relaxed.

And in keeping with the spirit of the day: it’s going to have to be another short entry tonight, I believe.

Good night!

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