Evie Day 421

Good morning, and a happy Friday to you all. Today is 10 May 2024.

I might get to spend a little quality time with my youngest daughter and my granddaughter later today. There may be ice cream at one of the local parlors involved. That’s always a great way to kick off a weekend, and what a weekend it will be.

I’ve got plenty to do today, and some of my tasks will overflow to tomorrow, I’m sure – the mowing is an absolute. Sunday, however, is all about our youngest child, our son, who graduates with his degree in Mechanical Engineering on Sunday as well. Mothers Day, Graduation Day, that’s enough to keep me family-focused this weekend.

I wrapped up my security class yesterday. I think it went pretty well, but the proof is always going to be in the comments left in the post-class survey. Based on the live feedback I received during the delivery, I feel pretty good about checking out the reviews.

Next week my delivery starts on Tuesday and runs through Friday. We’ll have team meetings on Monday. I’ve got plenty to keep me focused between now and then, with some applied skills training, a run-through on some labs, and some much-needed work on course blueprints.

In the meantime, we still have fresh bagels in the house, and the coffee awaits my attention.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 420

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you all. Today is 9 May 2024.

I hope I got the month right… I did, but I know I have typed “March” when I meant to type “May”, especially in the first part of the month.

Yesterday I talked a bit about my gratitude for my family, and I am truly thankful. I will admit that I am not always as outgoing as I ought to be when it comes to my family spread across the US. When I’ve been in Arizona, I’ve made an effort to see my family there – aunt, uncle, cousins, and their kids. I’ve made sure to reach out to a cousin of mine in Minneapolis-St Paul when I’ve visited my work office up there. I have not had much opportunity to work in Iowa where much of my family lives. I should probably correct that at some point.

I value my friends as well. I had a great time with a group of them last evening, in spite of our distance. We were still able to sit around a virtual tabletop and play for a while, making some imaginary universe safer for humanoid life forms. My bowstring was singing… I think I only missed my target once at the end of the conflict. Some nights, the dice like me.

I’ve got my class in another couple of hours, and I have a prep day tomorrow to get caught up on some reports, applied skills testing, and a couple of meetings. I think my daughter is plotting with my granddaughter to get me out of the house tomorrow afternoon for an ice cream confab. I look forward to that.

In the meantime, y’all take care. Hug a friend, pet your dogs… hug your dogs if they are your friend, too.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 419

Good morning, and a happy Humpday to you all! Today is 8 May 2024.

I have a family. I probably don’t tell them I love them as much as I should, but hopefully, they know, not so much from my words, but from my actions. Two of my kids are on their own, my eldest in Missouri, and my youngest daughter about twenty minutes to the south with my first grandchild. The youngest, my son, graduates this coming weekend from the University of Kansas.

My mom is about two and a half hours away by car. I worry about her. She’s in her early 80s, and her health could be better. My brothers and sister are around as well. On my side of the family, there are two nephews, three nieces, and a grand-nephew as well.

Family matters. I don’t dwell on it much, it just kind of “is”. You can choose your friends, but family is blood. I am thankful for my family and I need to give them more credit for what they have done over the years to support me when I have faced trials.

(Someone is thinking, “What about the dogs?”. Yes, they are family, too, but I’m focused on family that wears shoes at this point).

There is so much stuff going on this week, and it’s a little overwhelming. I’ve got work projects coming due, graduation, Mothers Day… plenty to keep my mind busy.

Odin just crawled onto my lap… yes, he’s family.

I just need a breather…

OK, time for me to get focused on the day ahead. Back in my virtual classroom in a couple of hours, third day of my security course, and maybe a little on-line get-together with friends this evening.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 418

Good morning and a happy Taco Tuesday to you all. It is 7 May 2024.

Plenty of crazy stuff going on in the world. More problems in Israel and Gaza, tornadoes overnight in the Midwest killing folks and destroying property. Sometimes I just want to turn the TV off and shower myself in ignorance just to keep my blood pressure from spiking.

The thunderstorms hit last night, and from the looks of it, we avoided some of the tornadoes that hit other parts of Kansas and other midwestern states. One of the twisters hit a community in Oklahoma, and reporters are on the scene discussing ongoing dangers of things like natural gas leaks. All we had to worry about was furbabies being scared. Odin crawled up right between Lisa and I last night… he definitely does not like thunderstorms.

Day two of my security course today. Good group of learners from across the US and Europe, and at least one attending class on India Standard Time. I’ll focus on lecture to start the day, then give my friends across the Atlantic a choice of working on labs this afternoon or going to bed and working on the labs at a better time.

I’ve got a few other things on my mind, but I’ll wait to discuss them. I have some details to sort out first.

I hope your pets are dry and safe. You, too, but I tend to think about pet distress during storm season.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 417

Good morning, and a happy Monday to you all. Today is 6 May 2024.

I’m home… I returned home early Saturday morning after a flight delay and a connecting flight rescheduled. I was quite thankful to hit my own sheets at about 1:30 in the morning.

This week I’ll be back in my virtual classroom, and I’ll admit, in my first conversation with my wife about this week and next, I got the weeks turned around. I teach the first four days this week and the second week I teach Tuesday through Friday. No need to worry -I double-checked everything Saturday, and I’m good… I’m teaching the same class I taught two weeks ago, so the content is still pretty fresh in my mind.

This is kind of an existing week around here – this weekend is graduation for the University of Kansas, and my son graduates on Mother’s Day. Dane earns his degree in Mechanical Engineering. It wasn’t always easy for him, with the pandemic and other stuff going on, but we’re very proud of him and his accomplishments.

Lisa took the sisters Von Floof to a groomer yesterday. Rosy and Lily have been defloofed. This cut was about as short as I have ever seen them, but it’s May, and this will help them have a more comfortable summer.

I’m still hoping to hear about my mower and my gator this week. I mowed a bit with the tractor yesterday, and put down a little weed and feed to address the dandelion farm issue.

Other than that, not really a whole lot to report.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 413

Good morning, and a very happy Thursday to you all. Today is 2 May 2024.

I am at a meeting with my teammates in Portland, Oregon, and we don’t have any coffee in the room yet. This may have a negative effect on the folks in the room. IT lives on caffeine.

Just kidding, we all know it’s on the way, so we’ll be fine.

Meeting is starting, so I’m just going to say hi and cut away for work.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 412

Good morning, and a happy humpday to you all. Today is Wednesday, 1 May 2024.

A new month. And in a few minutes, my first drive to the airport this year.

I’ve got a team meeting in Portland. I’m looking forward to getting together with my teammates. I’ve got a couple of things I need to prepare yet, but it’s a long flight, and I know I’m probably going to wake up at Central time tomorrow, not Pacific.

There was a time when I was heading to the airport every week it seemed – a couple of different times in my life. When I was a contractor teaching classes for IBM and Compaq/HP, and a few years back when I started my current gig. These days, I work from home, so the only time I leave the house is to get take-out for dinner.

I’m not going to dwell on the travel. I still have a little packing to do, so I’m not going to dwell on anything. I need to finish stuff up, grab my work PC, grab my tablet and my headphones, and get scooting to MCI.

I like destinations… the traveling to get there, not so much. Especially riding in the cattle car (Southwest Airlines).

I’ll do my best to kick out a post tomorrow morning, but for tomorrow and Friday, I can’t make any promises.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 411

Good morning, and a happy Taco Tuesday to you all. Today is April 30, 2024.

I think I’m checked in for my flight tomorrow. I probably ought to double-check that.

I’ve got my second glass of water sitting next to me, and the news is on. I’m not a big fan of the story, as college students (?) have locked themselves up inside a building at Columbia University. Dozens of protestors have been arrested at the University of Texas. Vandalism is on the rise.

I have a feeling this might end up taking a really dark turn. Some college student is going to say or do the wrong thing at the wrong time and get themselves shot.

I had my first one-day learning track yesterday. It went OK, I guess. I am not thrilled with the turnout – the folks in charge are keeping the enrollments low during our ramp-up period. One attendee decided it wasn’t a good day and checked out during the first lab, and another checked out early in the afternoon. We were done with our exercises a little early.

Lisa and Dane are getting their loose ends taken care of. It’s a little bit crazy to think Dane is on the cusp of graduation. He still has some projects to wrap up this week, but if I am not mistaken, he only has one final, and he may have sufficient work in to opt out of that. He’s been through a lot during his time at the university, and I’m proud he gets to graduate in a couple of weeks. Gracie was kind of ripped off, having graduated during the pandemic when graduation was effectively canceled.

It’s about time to get this in the can and get going on my day. Tonight there will be tacos.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 410

Good morning, and a happy first day of the work week for most of you – some folks don’t start on Monday, right? Today is 29 April 2024.

First of all, I want to take a moment to thank you. You are reading my stuff, and other than leaving comments, there isn’t much room for witty repartee. This is effectively a monologue, and folks can read it, folks can turn away, folks can leave a comment… and thankfully, I have a little piece of filtering code that block the comments from the folks trying to reach me about the extended warranty on my vehicle.

I try my best to ignore certain comments – I have to. Being neurodivergent comes with an interesting array of behavioral side effects, one of which is called rejection-sensitive dysphoria. If you go to Bing Copilot and ask for a single sentence to describe it, you’ll get a response like this: “Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria is an intense emotional condition often experienced by neurodivergent individuals, characterized by extreme sensitivity and emotional pain in response to perceived rejection or criticism.”.

Here’s the thing – I wouldn’t ever tell someone with this condition to talk about it with anyone they don’t know or trust. It’s the kind of thing a bully would thrive on – seriously. Folks that have this thing ponder things way to long, wonder what they did to deserve to be treated that way, and wonder what they have to do to make it up people.

The problem is the person with this condition probably did nothing wrong. People do mean things to others out of sport. They like getting a rise out of people. It’s the same sort of bullying today that I and others experienced in middle school when they were the new kid, or a geeky kid, or had an accent, or had some other aspect of their personality that invited harassment.

Bullies think they are cool, but the reality is they are pitiful. If their lives were fulfilling, they wouldn’t need to attack others to build themselves up. Yet, here they are, saying and posting cruel things as a proxy for personal achievement.

I hope I am not one of those bullies, and I know I’m going to get targeted by folks of that ilk over something I believe in, like diversity and inclusion (yes, it has happened).

I hope I am a humble and kind person, and I want to thank the folks that keep me in check. There are times I really want to unload, but after I think about it, I pause. A while back, an old acquaintance posted what was likely the cruelest thing anyone has ever posted about me… he took it down pretty quickly. I thought for a long time about what I would like to say or what I should not say… and I later found out that the guy was going through a divorce and his entire life had become a great big pile of crap. I would guess his skin had become pretty thin at that moment, and there is no need for me to revisit that… that would be me being the bully, and I don’t want to be that guy.

There’s a song I like about remaining humble and kind. I have a sign that reads that right over to the entrance to my workspace.

Thanks for reading my post. Feel free to leave a comment.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 407

Good morning, and a happy Friday to you all. Today is 26 April 2024.

Today is going to be a busy day with reports and reviews. I’ll be jumping into that just as soon I get my post wrapped up, get a little breakfast, and get the trash out to the corner. I started working in my reports last night, but fell asleep in my chair. One of the furballs licked my face to remind me that they get a snack when we go to bed, so they required immediate attention.

Things are busy around here. We’ve got a dinner tonight to honor the graduating seniors in mechanical engineering. These have become the norm for me this time of year, and I’m more than happy to be my spouse’s arm candy. It will be interesting to see the capstone project posters from the soon-to-be graduates. There’s one project I am particularly interested in that might have medical applications.

It’s going to be a rainy, thunderstormy day again today. I expect I will have pooches near me most of the day, with Odin assuming position 1.

Other than that, not much going on. Time to hit the reports, hit the books, and get stuff done.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.