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.

Evie Day 175

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you all. It is 7 September 2023.

Every now and then I have a hard time sleeping. It’s like my head has a web browser open with seventeen tabs, I can’t close any of them, and one of them is playing music. (The music was ok… but I will admit that I’m a little tired of Bonnie Raitt singing “Not the Only One” now as that song was on repeat).

I think that experience is one of the reasons I prefer to listen to instrumental music rather than songs with lyrics. Melodies don’t get stuck on repeat in my head like lyrics do.

I’ll be OK. I know I slept at some points, but squirrel-brain (monkey-brain?) is constantly active, constantly grinding away at some thought wedged between two immovable rocks.

It is a good day, though. Tonight I get to watch my favorite professional football team take on the Detroit Lions in the home opener. The Kansas City Chiefs have a few questions that need to be answered, and I don’t think we’ll get too many answers tonight.

I’m halfway through my security class. I have to cover application security and SQL server security later. I’m also going to try and sneak into the Trans-Siberian Orchestra presale at 10:00 this morning as well, see if I can get tickets to the matinee in December for the family.

OK, time to drink a little more water and get focused on the day before me.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 174

Good morning, and a happy hump day to you. It is Wednesday, 6 September 2023.

The first day of class went pretty well yesterday. The first day of that security class is pretty lecture-heavy, with limited opportunities to get labs worked in, but day two generally lightens up a touch, and by the time we hit the last two days of the course, things balance out a little better.

I see the leader of the Proud Boys who helped organize the January 6 2021 insurrection in Washington, DC, was just sentenced to 22 years in prison. I guess he found out.

I’ve got a bit of a headache this morning. I probably slept wrong or sneezed too hard at some point.

Freya had a good evening yesterday. She even got up to greet my wife when she came home from work last night, and she ate pretty well last evening, too. I hope she has a good day today.

Other than that, not too much else to talk about at the moment. Lucy is outside barking at the wind, Rosy is sprawled out over my right leg, watching Lisa eat breakfast. Lily is at Lisa’s feet, as is Odin.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 173

Good morning, and a happy Taco Tuesday to you. It is 5 September 2023.

It’s been a long weekend, and I am firmly in the camp that believes you can’t have too many of those. We went to a Kansas football game Friday night – lots of walking, still recovering from that. We got some work done around here on Saturday, with lots of mowing and yard work, and then had a little downtime to recover on Sunday and Monday.

Freya isn’t feeling better yet. Lisa is going to take her to the vet this morning to see if there is a liquid antibiotic we can give her because she is playing sleight-of-tongue games with the hard little pill we’re trying to get into her. She’s lethargic, not eating or drinking like she should, and we’re afraid we’ll be seeing her cross the rainbow bridge soon. It’s sad, but if she’s in as much pain as she appears to be, letting her go would be a blessing.

I punch the clock in a couple of hours for a security class. It’s a class top-heavy with lecture, and the first two days of class don’t give the learners adequate time to do all of the labs, but by the time we get to the last day, there’s quite a bit more time for folks to work on the labs.

Tacos tonight. Of course.

My thoughts are turning to a video shoot I have coming up. Tonight I’ll spend a little time on the content. I’ll do that every night this week, make a big time commitment next week to dive into the content in earnest, and do my best to learn the ins and outs of the subject matter. I’m OK with the subject now from a fundamentals point of view, but I need to become more of a subject matter expert on the service and dive into the use cases.

That’s enough for now.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 172

Good morning, happy Monday, and for my friends in the United States, Happy Labor Day – enjoy it! For most of us, it’s the last day off until the week of Thanksgiving.

That reminds me… I’ve got five days of vacation yet to get on the books.

We’ve been spending a little time in the pool this last weekend. Bonnie came over yesterday with her dog, and they both availed themselves of the opportunity to get wet. Bon brought a new “dog-proof” ball for the pool – Ruthie (Bonnie’s dog) has an aptitude for puncturing inflated balls, so this mostly foam ball from a popular pet toy manufacturer (Kong) holds some promise. As luck would have it, the first toss went over the fence, and I dare say that thing is still sitting by the fallen globe willow out back.

Today is a day for relaxing, and I’ll spend a portion of the day focused on that. I also have a little work to focus on as well, as my regular Monday-Thursday class schedule is being bumped a day to Tuesday through Friday. It’s nothing overwhelming, just a little outline of my delivery notes for this week’s class, cloud security.

I think Gracie and Evie will be coming over at some point today. Clear skies, and 78 degrees F at 8:23 in the morning. I expect highs in the upper 90s.

Made a couple of decisions over the weekend regarding financial moves. Kids’ student loans are coming due starting October 1, and the girls are aware that payments are due. Lisa and I will do what is necessary to make sure things stay on schedule. I’d hate for the kids to have their credit ratings knocked over missing a student loan payment. When I had mine, it seemed like my loans were sold and resold two or three times before I knew where to send payments. By the time I got it figured out, I had penalties… and when I started paying off my loans, they applied all of my payments to the penalties, then sold my loans again and I had to start over. I don’t want my kids to go through that.

Today is a good day to take a look at a couple of games I picked up. I think there will be an hour of two of “Starfield” integrated into today’s schedule.

Until next time…

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 169

Good morning, and happy Friday to you all. Today is the beginning of a new month, the 1st day of September, 2023.

It’s going to be an interesting month.

I teach a security course next week, and yesterday there was a switch with my training partner, so instead of one guy, it’s another guy that I have worked with before. I’ll reach out to him today to get our timing sorted, making a plan for who is going to cover what. We’ve got an extra day – the Labor Day holiday means that Monday is not the first day of class, rather it will be Tuesday. We’ll get it figured out.

Tonight Lisa and I will head up to Memorial Stadium to watch the season opener, as the University of Kansas hosts Missouri State. Sports and time with my wife… love that! I also recognize that she is going to have some professional responsibilities, as there will be alumni around.

Dane and I are going to make a run to the meat counter today, as we’re going to throw some protein on the smoker Saturday. I’m thinking a pork loin and a brisket, and maybe a rack of ribs or two. I hope I can find some pecan for the smoker. My last effort used apple wood, and I think apple and cherry a great with poultry, but for day to day use, pecan is my favorite, followed by hickory.

Time to get going on the coffee.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 168

Good morning! Today is Thursday, 31 August 2023, the last day of the month, and the vanguard of Labor Day Weekend.

Today is my last day in class for the week, as my training partner and I wrap up our cloud administration course today, and I’ll start to focus on my cloud security course that runs Tuesday through Friday next week.

Looks like my friends in Florida have weathered Hurricane Idalia. The news is on now, and I’m sure there will be billions in damage done to property in the state.

People are expressing concern about Mitch McConnell’s health in light of another cataleptic moment during a reception in Kentucky. It was caught on tape. I’m not a fan of the man, I think he played political Russin roulette with the Supreme Court, delaying when it helped him politically for one reason, then pivoting and going 180 degrees for another SCOTUS appointment after Ruth Bader-Ginsburg passed scant weeks before another federal election.

Lily is over by Lisa, begging for a bite of her breakfast. She has a high-pitched squeaky bark that sounds like an alien sound effect from a science fiction movie. Maybe she is an alien… hmmmm…

No real news in other parts of my life. Had some game time with the guys last evening, but had to call it a night just as things were getting interesting.

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

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 167

Good morning, and a happy hump day to you. Today is 30 August 2023.

Where did the summer go? It seems like another summer is ending, and they seem to pass faster every year. I guess from a mathematical perspective, each passing summer takes up a smaller percentage of my life as I grow older. For my granddaughter, this first summer will last more than half her life, while for me, not quite as significant a proportion as I approach a milestone birthday.

My class is going well this week. I am delivering with a great trainer and enjoy our work together. I had a lighter day yesterday, delivering one of the three modules, and today I get the flip side of that, delivering modules on storage and PaaS solutions.

I’m glad I’m not in Florida today as the hurricane makes landfall and pushes a huge volume of water inland. Hurricane Idalia is going to do billions of dollars of damage.

Lisa scored a minor victory for us. This Friday, Kansas opens a new football season with a night game at Memorial Stadium. We’ll have pretty nice seats to watch the season opener. Kansas could have a wonderful season this year – they have 10 of 11 starters returning on offense, and last years offense was a lot of fun to watch.

Time to wrap this up and get on with my day.

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

Peace y’all.