Travel For Work

This week I had to take some work related training courses, and those courses were 2.5 hours away by car.  So that meant work travel, a day trip.  I was picked up at my front door at 7:30 AM by a colleague, in a company vehicle no less.  No reason to complain, right?

Well, I'm gonna, for 2 reasons.  The first is because, in my haste to get out the door after receiving the "On my way" text,  I neglected to add sugar to my go-cup of road coffee.  Ugh.  Like drinking a hot puddle.  The second reason is because I hate to work travel.

Now, I am not a fan of the word HATE.  Its an ugly word, with a lot of serious weight behind it, and serious baggage attached to it.  Hate crime, hate mail, hate groups.  Its not a word I like to use about my own feelings- I try not to hate anything.  I certainly don't hate anyone. But I hate to work travel.

I like to travel for recreation.  Visit friends, family, see sights and events.  Good stuff.  I don't like the travel itself per se, but I enjoy arriving at the destinantion.  There is a level of enjoyment to it.  The same cannot be said about work travel, however.  It is tedious, monotonous, and often longer than it needs to be. Fortunately, this was a quick trip of one day, and I was back home by 4 PM.  So it was tolerable.  

My reason for hating work travel is I used to have a road job; a travel job.  It was every day travel. My range ws anywhere from 10 minutes away, to a plane ride away.  I had no home office, no base.  Iwent where I was dipatched to, and it wasn't a guarantee that I would make it home every night.  That meant hotels and motels, restaurants and fast-food, doughnuts and terrible coffee, missing my family and friends, missing out on occassions and get togethers and holidays.  My work when I got there was great and enjoyable; its the same work I still do today.  But the travel to get there was awful.  

It was a good living, but no life.  I recoil in horror and strongly object when road travel is suggested these days.  Thanks but no thanks.  I want to go to my office, pound away for 9 hours or so, then come home to my girls.  That's what I'm trying to build, that's the life I want.  I owe it to myself, but more importantly, I owe it to them.

Allergies

I am fortunate that I am not an allergy sufferer.  I can eat anything I want, wear anything I want, go outside anytime of year.   I don not have to consider possible ingredients, intolerances, or air quality situations in anything I do.  And for that I am grateful.

I used the term sufferer, and I do believe that is an apt description.  The sneezing, itching, watering eyes, and general malaise is bad, and more severe allergies with anaphylactic complications can be life threatening, so in my opinion, that qualifies as suffering. 

I have a friend who has reactions to metal on or near her body for an extended period of time, so she cannot wear bras with underwire.  Another friend's son has a peanut allergy that can be life threatening in minutes if not treated.  These require a level of awareness and vigilance in order to remain healthy.  It requires planning and adaption, and then life goes on.

My wife has food allergies.  They are fairly mild and quite varied.  Strawberry, kiwi, whole corn (but not milled), garlic, cinnamon, and canola oil are the main ones.  She gets itchy, hot, and queasy, but nothing more serious than that.  It affects our meal preparation a bit, but nothing too serious.  So long as she avoids these foods, she feels good.

When she does have these foods, it takes about 45 minutes to an hour before the inevitable " My stummy hurts".  Stummy is a portmanteau of stomach and tummy, said once by mistake, but now is one of our favourite words.  Anyway, this leads to a bit of whimpering, and a trip to the bathroom.  More of an annoyance than anything else.  And it does happen, usually by accident while having restaurant food with unknown ingredients.

Which takes us to supper the other night.  We had lasagna, with garlic pizza bread and salad.  Wife had one small slice of bread, which shouldn't hurt her too much, and the kids and I torn into the rest.  When the meal was over and we were cleaning up, there was two slices left.  When I turned around, there was only one slice left on the platter, and there was Wife, with her mouth jammed full and a shocked/guilty look on her face.  I made sure to scold her pretty good for her self-inflicted friendly fire, and she meekly agreed that was a silly move.  "But it was SO yummy!" she pleaded.

About 45 min later, sitting on the couch: " My stummy hur-  BUT IT'S NOT BECAUSE OF THE GARLIC BREAD!"

Randoms...

It's cold and rainy this week, and that is huge relief across the grain belt.  Farm country was dry, and when I was working the fields last week drilling in fertilizer, the amount of dust that I was kicking up was alarming.  Apparently there is an old saying:  "Sow into the dust, and your bins will bust."  If that's the case, some guys are going to need some more bins.

Watching an old episode of Futurama on Cartoon Network.  Always enjoyed the idea of a booze-drinking, cigar-smoking robot, because, hey why not?

The fire in and around Fort McMurray last week was a terrible situation.  I feel so badly for everyone who lost there homes and possessions; I cannot even imagine.  Hats off to everyone who helped save the city.  I made a donation to the Red Cross relief fund.  Hopefully it helps someone a little bit as they get back onto their feet.

The CFL had its draft on Tuesday.  I enjoy sports and the details that surrounds it as much as the next guy, but I really don't get mock drafts and draft grades.  Predicting an entire round of a draft before draft night? Whats the point? It does not account for draft day trades, and one wrong guess throw the whole thing out the window.  And then grades that come out as soon as the draft ends?  No way to say who "won" a draft.  That cannot be determined for about 5 years, after the pads have met the meat.  I hope my team had a "Grade A" draft though.

I've made the switch to Google Chrome as my internet browser.  So far, two thumbs up.

Supposed to freeze tonight.  Crazy when you consider the beautiful early spring we have had.  But makes sense when you consider how early this beautiful spring has been.  Hope the canola and pulse crops hang in there.

I have to go to bed. G'night,

On the Two Year Anniversary...

Of the last time I posted on this blog.  For 2 reasons- life is busy and I don't really have anything of great value to say.  I believe many bloggers lack anything of great value to say, but that fails to stop them, so, why not me?

No the real reason for my foray back into blogging and practicing my typing is the fact that my long overdue, beloved Toshiba NB 250 Netbook has been returned to me.  I have always loved this little machine for its portability, functionality, and convenience.  I bought it many years ago (we were still living in the old condo!) at a cost of around $200, and it allowed my a way to follow NFL Sunday fantasy football statistics from the living room couch without having to haul my larger, less portable full-sized laptop downstairs.  (weak logic I know, but in the days before we had kids, this was the kind of thing we could spend out disposable income on.  Now disposable income is just a myth...)

So anyway, the netbook came along right in a very narrow window when laptop computing became very compact and very light, but tablets had not yet exploded onto the scene.  I own an iPad now as well, a Christmas gift several years ago, which I get a lot of miles out of, but it never had the same practical computer functionality that this netbook had.  Specifically, the keyboard.

The onscreen keyboard of a tablet has never done it for me other than for composing very brief emails.  And the keyboard attachment that most tablets offer seems ridiculous to me, even though my wife owns one.  Want a small computer with a keyboard?  I already have one- my netbook!

So my netbook hummed along for quite a few years, never carrying a critical computing load like saving pictures or doing budgets (those jobs were saved for the full-sized laptop) but a useful companion nonetheless.  Then one day it crashed.  And it failed spectacularly.  Startup was not even a blip on the radar; the hard drive was baked and there was no salvage.  However, since it was not required piece of equipment I tossed it to the side and forgot about it.

I am close friends with a "computer guy', Iron Mike, so named because he is a honest to goodness IronMan Triathele and has earned that nickname with blood and sweat.  And he offered to take a look at my old netbook and see what the deal was,  Seventy- seven dollars later and the old girls was humming again.  Well, not actually humming, since its a solid-state, but fully functional.

So here I am typing this out.  I missed this little machine.  Thanks, computer guy Iron Mike.

And a shout out to JT, who might be the only human in the universe to read this.  I say human, as perhaps a robot or an ALF might read it.  One can dream...

Sick Days

I am home sick today. A real sick day, totally legit.  Stomach craps, vomiting, the whole deal. Plus a headache from laying in bed too long.  It sucks.

It got me to thinking about sick days. About how many of us use them appropriately to heal up when needed.  But it also made me think about people who abuse them.  Use them like "free days off" to run errands, catch up on sleep, whatever.  And that makes me kind of mad for two reasons.

One is because that cheapens the whole system for when people who are sick really need those days. My wife recently spent 21 days in hospital, and and additional 2 months at home recovering from a life threatening illness.  So how dare people say they need a sick day because they didn't get enough sleep on the weekend? Talk about arrogant. 

Reason Two is because I know right now at my office, 3 of my coworkers are pulling extra duty to cover my desk.  They are each doing 133% of their normal day to help me not be buried when I return, hopefully tomorrow. They are not happy, but they do it, because they know I will do the same for them someday.  But think about how they'd feel if they discovered I was having a "fake" sick day. As would I.  As would you.

Think about it: sick days are one of the most inconsiderate things a worker can do, to coworkers, and to the system as a whole. Make them count for something if you must. 

Waiting

Waiting is hard. Whether it is waiting for something trivial, like in line for coffee, or something major, like waiting for someone at a hospital, I have a difficult time with being out of control of the clock.  I will not claim that I am a go-getter, that I have to be moving, doing.  That's not it.  I can sit around lazy with the best of them. It is control.  I like to be in control.

Now I'm not talking about being the boss, or telling others what to do.  I am perfectly capable of letting others be in charge, as long as there is control- a point, a purpose, and a destination. The key here is control; someone has to be in control.  That the situation is under control and the time on the clock is not ticking away pointlessly. 

Which brings me back to waiting. Waiting on someone else for anything means they in control of my clock- my seconds are ticking and I am not in charge of their expenditure.  I cannot ever have those seconds back and I despise the fact that I lost them to waiting.

I realize and accept that waiting is an inevitable part of life.  But I don't like it, and it's still hard. 

Holiday Traditions

Christmas is almost upon us.  That magical time of year when we spend time with family and friends,  eat too much delicious food, give and receive, watch hockey, celebrate the birth of  Christ, and so on.  Whatever your traditions this time of year, may they bring you joy.

In my family, we have a few of those traditions.  One is opening presents Christmas morning, not Christmas eve.  This just makes sense- Santa does not come after supper on the 24th.  We rise at whatever time is comfortable- with no children to excitedly rise at 5AM, the adults get to set the schedule here. (We do have a 19 month old toddler who may or may not be up at 5AM, but that would be entirely unrelated to presents.)  Our other long standing tradition for Christmas morning is Big Breakfast.

My wife and I are huge fans of Big Breakfast.  We try to do one every weekend, or at least 3 times a month.  The requisite for big breakfast is effort- the food isn't the goal, although it is always delicious.  The point is that it is an endeavour we do as a family. Everyone helps, plays a part, prepares some portion of Big Breakfast, and we create a meal to share and enjoy as a family.  And Christmas is where it all started.

Big Breakfast on Christmas morning pulls out all the stops.  Bacon, eggs, pancakes, hash browns.  Lots of coffee.  Different types of syrups, whipped cream.  Flavoured creamers.  Fresh fruits.  It is a home run of breakfasts and one of my personal highlights of the year.

Everyone is sick this Christmas in my family.  My wife, daughter, mother, and mother-in-law are all suffering through a nasty winter cold/ flu.  We, as a family, have decided to postpone Christmas.  The gift opening, socializing, and the family meal are all on hold.  We will try to get together in a day or two to share some of these traditions, if not all.

But one that we will be doing, and there is absolutely no room for discussion on it, is Big Breakfast.  It has to happen; it means too much to let it slide by.

Peace this season, Merry Christmas to all.