Evie Day 189

Good morning! I wish you all a great day, and I hope the sun shines upon your countenance. It is Thursday, 21 September 2023.

Yesterday was the third day of my admin course delivery. My training partner took the lead, and I focused on answering the questions that popped up in chat. Today we’ll switch that around, and I’ll wrap up on business continuity, disaster recovery, and monitoring. I’ll then take responsibility for closing out class, and then open lab time until we hit five o’clock eastern time.

After our regular session, I wrapped up some in-house security training yesterday and hung out with the guys online for a couple of hours last night. My character got knocked unconscious on the first attack, so I took a backseat for a bit, then finished off a baddie when I regained consciousness. I do enjoy a good game.

I’ve got a couple of other PowerPoint decks to work through tonight, focusing on the flow of the notes. I’ll be shooting a video at the company studio in a couple of weeks, so I want to make sure I’ve got the content completely dialed in.

Time for me to get this in the can and get focused on the day ahead.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve. ‘Peace y’all.

Evie Day 188

Good morning, and happy Wednesday to you all. It is 20 September 2023.

It’s my sister’s birthday.

I should wish her a happy birthday. She’s as solid a human being as has been put on this earth.

Yesterday was my day in the trying seat in my admin class. I tried to do the “friendly banter” thing, and I recalled that one of our learners this week is based in Wales. I mentioned that the only two places I knew about in Wales are Cardiff and Wrexham… the latter due to the “Welcome to Wrexham” series by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who bought the AFC Wrexham football club a couple of years ago. Then I noticed the comment in the chat window, “I’m from Wrexham!”. That was kind of a cool moment.

My delivery went pretty well yesterday, but I need to pay closer attention to the changes in the interface. Every now and then there’s a change to the user interface and I get thrown for a loop. Nothing too much to worry about, but it can lead to a less-than-favorable outcome when you are doing a demo and you haven’t looked at the front end in a couple of weeks. The ever-changing landscape of the cloud.

Although, I think it’s odd to use the words “landscape” and “cloud” in the same sentence.

Other than that, not a whole lot to report today. Life is good, the weather smells like fall, propane tank is full.

And I got to the flan before my son did, so “yay” for me. 😉

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 187

Good morning, and welcome to my favorite day of the week that doesn’t start with an S or an F. It is Tuesday, 19 September 2023.

Had a good first day with my admin course. My training partner took the lead on day one, and I focused on answering questions in chat. Today is “networking day” with three modules on networking, and I get my chance to show what I’ve got. I enjoy the networking side of it.

After class yesterday, I grilled some burgers and prepped some tater tots and some green veggies for dinner. After that, we watched a little football. I paused and remembered what it was like to be a kid in the 70s, and my mom giving me permission to stay up late on a school night to watch Monday Night Football. Thanks, Mom!

I had a good meeting with my manager about goal setting for the coming year. I’m biting off a chunk when it comes to certification exams, but the demand for new classes is on the rise and the need for capable instructors follows that same chart.

I also need to focus on book summaries and related topics on DEI and coaching.

Time for me to get focused on the day ahead.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 186

Good morning, and a happy Monday to you all. Today is 18 September 2023.

I’ll be back in my virtual classroom in about an hour. Delivering an East Coast time zone administration course this week with another trainer, this one from the Tampa/St. Pete area of Florida. We’ve worked together before, and he’s very competent and capable. It will be a good week.

We had a good weekend around here. We celebrated Evelyn’s 6 month/half-birthday on Saturday, with all of the kids here. She wasn’t sold enough to enjoy it, but we had a modified German chocolate cake (named after Sam German, an employee of Baker’s Chocolate… yeah, I love trivia). Later, Lisa and I tried to stay up late to watch the Kansas Jayhawks play on the road at Nevada – 9:30 PM start time, running until 1:00 AM. Kansas won, and I have to admit, one of the things I do not look forward to are these realignment time-zone changes. The Big 12 will end up spanning 3 or 4 time zones, depending on what time of year it is in Arizona. Strange.

Spent some time working on my workspace this weekend. I have quite a bit to do yet. I’ll commit to the change here in a couple weeks, after I’m done with some other responsibilities – two week-long courses and a video shoot.

Fall is starting to happen here… the first day of autumn arrives this next weekend. The temps have started to drop, and the allergens are making themselves known.

TIme to get this in the can and start my day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 183 

Hi folks. Today is 15 September 2023.

Lisa and I took the necessary steps yesterday to get our little Freya out of her pain. I know I’m dwelling on it a bit, and I don’t want to be maudlin or morose about the whole matter. We were blessed to have had that little girl in our lives. She left behind a couple of little girls for us to love. This morning I thought about Freya’s mornings… Lisa would get up, and leave our bedroom with Lucy, Odin, Rosy, and Lily… and Freya would stay behind if I had a chance to sleep in for another fifteen or twenty minutes, then dance for me as I got dressed, rolling over onto her back as if to say, “This tummy ain’t gonna scratch itself”.

“Spin for me, honey”

She would spin when she wanted something, a treat, or a little attention. Three times… and then we’d give her a treat, and she wouldn’t eat it until one of the other dogs, usually Odin, would show an interest in it.

The lyrics for Hall and Oates’ song, “She’s Gone” is running through my head.

In the end, she didn’t have the strength to stand up. She wasn’t there. It was just a shadow of her that was left behind. That infection took her away.

OK… time to move on.

This is my last entry for the week. Tomorrow is the day I dread. Milestone… how many days do I have left?

Some places say the average person lives about 30,000 days, other sites say about 28,500. With my heart issues, the second date is more likely for me… so another 6,600 days or so. About another 18 years. I should live long enough to see my granddaughter graduate high school.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 182

Good morning. Today is Thursday, 14 September 2023.

Another day, another bout of writer’s block.

I was going to start off writing another, “Oh, woe is me, I already miss my dog” post, but I know letting go is the right thing. Today is that day, and we saw it coming for a couple of weeks. The poor little thing effectively had a little bomb go off in her little four-and-a-half-pound body. She has been the best dog. I am thankful we have more than just memories.

I’ve got meetings today, starting in a couple of hours. I’ve got some things to look over beforehand.

I need to spend a little time on my office today as well. I’ve got a plan, I just need to execute it.

I think I’ll whip up a muffin here for breakfast. I picked up a little Canadian bacon yesterday. Whip up an egg and cook it in a ring.

That’s it. I could probably muster a little more content if I wrote later in the day. I’m just marshaling my emotional strength to do the thing that needs to be done this afternoon. It’s the right thing to do.

It doesn’t make it any easier.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 181

Hi folks, today is 13 September 2023.

I had tacos last night for dinner. I know some folks were wondering about that.

Some things I’m not up for talking about today. Sorry.

I’ve got a little work to do this morning, outside of my regular plan for the day. I’ve been asked to review some of the comments from my classes to find interesting bits for a “funniest comment” award. Let me be very clear that I do not believe humor is part of my delivery style.

OK, that might not be 100% accurate.

It might be a blatant lie.

The truth is, I like to have a little fun when I teach. I know that my jokes can be a little dated and corny, but if it helps to make a point on a subject, that’s a good thing.

I have to confess I don’t feel very funny right now. I should watch something funny to snap myself out of this funk.

Another commercial on TV featuring people playing pickleball. That looks like fun, but I can’t move laterally – not with these knees.

My apologies. I’m just not in a great place to write at the moment. I normally get up and crank out a couple hundred words, and call it good. Today I’m not in that spot.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 180

Good morning! It is 12 September 2023. I wish you peace, happiness, and tacos… as they are all kind of the same thing.

A little update on our little Freya. Yesterday she took a turn for the worst, and Lisa and I are going to have to make a decision. We love her dearly, this five-pound little ball of love, but right now she is in pain and we don’t see an end to this. The diagnosis is a uterine infection, and I believe she may have had something rupture related to that issue. We’re going to have to take her in and say our goodbyes. It’s hard. She has been a source of joy in our lives, and the mom to our little floofs, Rosy and Lily.

Shortly after we picked Freya up, my dad had to go into the hospital for surgery in Salina. Freya could fit in a small bag, so we smuggled her into the hospital to see my dad. Nurses and another patient, a dog-lover, came to see this cute dark grey-and-white terrier mix, and she was loved by all. It’s always hard to say goodbye to family, but for me, it’s a little harder as I think about that moment in Salina, and now it’s like saying goodbye to my dad again, four years after his passing.

It’s all for the best. She’s in pain. We have to love her enough to let her go.

Ugh. Tearing up thinking about my dog.

I’ve had many dog friends in my life. That first Irish Setter when I was five or six years old… when she passed, I remember breaking down in tears in my second-hour class in high school. There was our big ol collie, Zack, and there was a basset hound named Sadie. We picked up our little pug, DT, shortly after the passing of Derrick Thomas, and he left us some six years ago or so.

We still have Lucy, our senior dog, a year older than Freya. We have Odin, the goliath Morkie, who was supposed to weigh about seven pounds and ended up weighing 28. We have Freya’s little girls, now two years old.

It’s never easy to say goodbye to family.

Time to get focused on the day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 179

Good morning. Today is Monday, 11 September 2023.

It’s the beginning of a prep week, and I’ve planned it pretty well. I have responsibilities to focus on, with a focus on data governance and labeling with a particular tool we have for managing the data estate in a multi-datacenter environment. There’s other peripheral stuff to focus on as well.

However, The big focus today is remembering those lost 22 years ago. I’ve written about it before, waking up in Anaheim, California at a hotel, in attendance at a Compaq/HP conference. I remember the walk to the convention center with peers as we speculated about what was really going on. I remember the hush in the main hall and the live feed that was provided. Then I remember seeing a Compaq VP in tears at the podium as the situation became clearer, and some of our teammates were on the first flight from Boston to LA that flew into WTC Tower 2. It was a bad week.

A part of me wants to dwell on it, another part of me wants to reflect, and keep moving forward.

This past weekend was a good one, with a nice Saturday afternoon with Gracie and Evie. We went out to the pool for likely the last time together (Lisa would go out until the end of October if she could). It’s starting to get a little too cool for me, so I think I’m done with the pool for the year. It was cute to see that little girl have a little fun in the pool with her swim diaper and little hat.

Yesterday Bonnie and her dog came over for a while, and that was a good visit, too.

I’m just going to sit here and think about things for a few minutes, organize my thoughts, and organize my day in my mind.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 176

Good morning, and a happy Friday to you. Today is 8 September 2023.

Squirrel-brain hit me again last night. I have a bad habit as a sports fan to get a little too wrapped up in my fandom, and last night my Chiefs lost their season opener at home to the Detroit Lions. It triggered something in my skull that just kept me tossing and turning all night, half awake, half asleep. A lunchtime nap will be welcome.

I’m not going to go off on my team, although I could. I need a little time to unpack what I witnessed last night, and even then, I’m not sure it’s worth going into.

I’ll wrap up my class today with a little review, three short modules, and a closing. We should be wrapped up by early afternoon, then we’ll get into labs. Labs have gone well, and our learners have been pretty easy-going during the lab sessions, with no real problems outside of the discovery of a lab that is not working right due to changes in the underlying resources of a container service.

Ugh.

Yeah, today could be a long one after a poor night’s sleep, the second in a row. I might go back into some of the sleep meditation courses I’ve used in the past to try and get my sleep schedule back on track.

I’m going to relax here a bit before I get up and make breakfast.

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

Peace y’all.