It is Wednesday morning, 22 February 2023.

I’ve got some stuff on my mind, and dogs on my lap. I’ll be in my virtual classroom in a bit getting ready for my day. Three topics on the docket today, and I’m covering one, my training partner the other two. It is also Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent for the next 40 days. I gave up alcohol for most of January, and I’m of a mind that giving up alcohol for Lent might be a good idea as well.

It’s an interesting time of year. NFL football season is over, and my favorite team is once again the reigning champions. College basketball season is closing in on post-season, and the Jayhawks have only three games remaining on the schedule before the Big 12 Tournament and the NCAA Tournament – March Madness. I’m not a big NBA fan, nor am I a big baseball guy. At this point, I think I’d prefer to watch soccer or golf.

Not much else going on, really. Lisa is having a meeting after work, and Dane is meeting friends to study and dine, as he and some classmates have the same engineering tests Thursday and Friday. I’ll be on my own for dinner, followed by some gaming online with friends.

I’m going to get this in the can and get going on the rest of my day.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning, folks! It is Tuesday morning, 21 February 2023, and all is pretty good in my little corner of the world. I succeeded in passing my certification exam yesterday, Kansas avenged an earlier season loss to TCU, and there is leftover barbecue for lunch.

Not too shabby…

This morning I’ll jump into my virtual classroom for a bit. Yesterday was a holiday, so my four-day class runs Tuesday through Friday this week. I’ll take the lead in the mornings, as my training partner is two hours behind on the west coast.

Had a nice conversation with an old friend last night before the Kansas-TCU game.

There’s stuff going on in the political world this morning, but I’ve been asked to try and avoid politically-related topics in my blog.

Not much else to talk about really.

I’m going to get this in the can. Some days I’m a little more motivated than others. Just kind of hitting a wall this morning. Maybe I should have a chatbot complete my blog this morning.

Some other time, perhaps.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning friends, relatives, and grandchild expected in the next month… crazy that Lisa and I can become grandparents any time. It is 20 February 2023, a federal holiday, Presidents Day.

I won’t be taking the day off… I have a certification exam this afternoon, so I’ll be doing some cramming this morning until the bell tolls at 1:15.

The old anxiety… there was a time that so much of my career and employability depended upon staying ahead of my peers when it came to earning new certifications. I still have a need to stay on top of my certs and renewals, but some of the pressure has subsided… some.

I’ll step back into my virtual classroom tomorrow morning with a four-day central time zone delivery for cloud solutions architecture. My training partner is based out on the west coast, so I’ll try to carry the mornings until she gets a chance to get a cup of coffee or four.

This last weekend was great. Lisa and I went out to dinner Friday night to a better local restaurant. I ordered a 12 oz KC Strip (good, but not as good as the 5 oz filet mignon I had on Valentine’s Day). Lisa had some chicken thing, and ended up taking most of it home, as well as a couple deserts that we’ve been enjoying the last couple of days.

Right now the news is reporting that US President Biden has made a secret, unannounced visit to Ukraine. That’s gonna rub Putin’s rhubarb. I have a feeling there will be plenty of opposition commentary, especially from Putin’s minions in the US Congress that are lobbying for a complete reversal of Ukrainian policy.

6:11 AM and my mind is starting to turn to the task of the day. It’s not the end of the world if I don’t pass… I’ll just take it again later, but it would be nice to get it done. My manager is looking to schedule me to deliver this course in June before the end of the fiscal year. I don’t think that will be a problem.

Time to hit the books.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning! I’m off to a little later start today on this 17th day of February, which is also our wedding anniversary here in rural Douglas County.

I’m thinking about my mom today as well, as today would’ve been her and my dad’s 61st wedding anniversary. Love you, mom! Miss you dad!

I wrapped up my class yesterday afternoon. I had a couple of learners hang around a little later to talk, and those few casual moments helped to reinforce my career choice. A gentleman from New York said some very kind things about my delivery style, and that made me feel good.

Today I have a few meetings, including a 1:1 with my manager. I’ll be spending most of the day focused on a pending certification exam.

Right now, I’m thinking about eggs, Canadian bacon, chopped peppers and some American cheese in a skillet,

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Hey, I’m going to go tend to my ratkillin’.

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

Peace, y’all.

Another day in February, another day to closer to becoming a grandfather. Today is 16 February 2023. Tomorrow, my wife and I will celebrate 27 years together, and my mom and dad would be celebrating 61 years together. I know it’s going to be a tough day for my mom. Dad’s been gone for about 2 and a half years now.

I’m on the final day of my security course. The last day typically has the least lecture and the most labs, and today will be no different. Some talk about monitoring and logging, defensive tools, and supporting hybrid deployments. After that, we’ll have a closing with tips on the certification exam and getting an available discount.

Watching the news, the issues surrounding a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Folks are not happy, and I have a feeling the chemical spill will lead to some very negative outcomes. Now the talk is about air brakes, required updates that were rolled back under a pro-business administration, and pointing fingers.

I’m going to get this in the can and get to work on the necessaries. Lisa is starting the day working from home, as there is a sheet of ice on the roads following a bit of an ice storm, and the university has pushed back the start of the school day.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning, folks! It is the 15th day of February 2023, and I’m just getting started. Today I’m discussing security for containers, storage, apps, and some platform-as-a-service topics.

I’ll take a few minutes to review here after I pound this out. Last night, I tried to stay focused on my wife.

For those of you unfamiliar with western holidays, yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and I had to show that I still had a little game. Lisa and I don’t go all out for the Valentine’s Day holiday, as our wedding anniversary is just three days later. It makes our anniversary a little more fun, as we can pick up stuff on sale for our celebration a few days later.

We had a couple of perfectly seared filets, some small potatoes, and some other veg, as well as a nice Bordeaux to go along with this tiny feast. We also had turtle cheesecake for dessert. Dane was up on campus studying with friends – he has several tests this week – but he came home and thoroughly enjoyed the leftovers from the evening’s meal.

After that, Kansas traveled to Oklahoma State for a men’s basketball game. OSU has often been Bill Self’s kryptonite, but the Jayhawks took a road victory, and now end a two-game road trip to tackle the Baylor Bears on Saturday back at Allen Fieldhouse.

Not much else going on in my corner of the world.

TIme to get focused on the rest of the day.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2023.

I flipped on the news first thing, and the topic of conversation is the GOP candidacy for president, They just did a piece on Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

I tell you what, every time I hear him say “woke agenda”, I know what he really means. He’s not “anti-woke”. That’s code folks – it means, “anti-black” relative to teaching American history. It means, “anti-LGBTQ+” when it comes to marriage equality and gender-affirming care for young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria (my guess is that DeSantis and most right-wing politicians couldn’t define gender dysphoria without insulting most people in a room with an IQ above room temperature).

And he says he doesn’t in the name of freedom.

The freedom he’s talking about is the freedom from discomfort and freedom from the truth. He doesn’t want to face it. He’s like so many other people that talk a good game, but in reality, he has an ideal he wants to pursue, where he gets to pick and choose a version of the truth that most closely aligns with his desired reality.

He reminds me of people in foreign countries that are seriously oppressive of the LGBTQ+ community and say ludicrous things like, “that’s a western thing, we don’t have homosexuality here”.

Nah, bud. You have gay folks in your country just like everybody has them in their country. You just oppress them and force them into silence for fear of their own lives.

Freedom means different things to different people. Freedom doesn’t mean suppressing the truth. Freedom means we take the good with the bad, and we realize some 1950s nuclear family fantasy is never going to happen.

Tonight Kansas travels to Stillwater to play the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Texas lost on the road last night at Texas Tech, so tonight’s game might be even more meaningful.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, 13 February 2023, and I’m in a pretty good state of mind. After falling behind early, the Kansas City Chiefs rallied to take home a 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.

Some folks were pointing to a late play where the Eagles’ defense was called for defensive holding. I get that they’re upset. Nobody likes it when things don’t go their way. I was upset with a couple of plays myself that didn’t go the way I wanted them to go.

It was a good game, and the Chiefs played well, and the offensive line did an outstanding job protecting Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs’ quarterback played a solid game and added Super Bowl MVP to a list of honors he has earned this past season.

I go into my virtual classroom in a bit – my luck I’ll have a bunch of learners from the Philadelphia region in my class this week.

Time to get some coffee going and get my day organized. I was a bit distracted yesterday.

Tonight I’ll have a chance to get the next few days organized a bit more. I’m feeling pretty good about this delivery – it’s a solo delivery, but I just co-delivered the course a couple of weeks ago, so not much need for a refresher.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday morning! Woot! 10 February 2022.

Today is the last Red Friday for sports fans around the greater Kansas City area and for Chiefs fans around the world. Super Bowl Sunday is a mere couple of days away.

We’re going to go with a taco buffet and mango habanero wings for Sunday, and I might even (gasp!) have a beer. I haven’t had a beer in a while, so it will be a welcome one-day limited-time offer.

Today is a day of meetings, some leaning casual, others leaning to more serious topics. I’ll try to keep my comments to a minimum – I have a tendency to be “that guy” in meetings that makes the occasional joke to add a little levity. Most of the time I think my quips are welcome, but at times they haven’t been timely or welcome. As a manager once reminded me, “time & place, Bob”.

I shave my head, as I have shared with folks, and this morning during my rise & shine sequence, I over-shined and shaved a blemish on the top of my head, I looked around for a bandage to cover the new wound. The only bandages in the house were extra-large, so rather than looking like a cut myself shaving, it looks like I had to have some sort of emergency brain surgery.

If I get out of the house this afternoon, I’ll be sure to wear a hat.

I also need to get my notes together for my class next week. First solo shot on a security course.

That’s enough for now.

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

Peace y’all.

Thursday morning, 9 February 2023.

Last night I had a hard time sleeping. It wasn’t so much that something was bothering me – I really don’t have anything creating a bunch of unnecessary tension in my life right now, to be frank – but I just had weird random thoughts running through my head like Olympic sprinters going for the gold. I was hanging out online with friends right up until bedtime, so I didn’t decompress in the evening like I usually do. Hopefully tonight I’ll be better prepared for a good night’s sleep.

Dane and I are going to work on a project this spring, and we’re starting to receive some of the components. A guitar parts manufacturer based in Washington state was having a sale on their unfinished guitar bodies, and I know I have a neck or two out in the barn that has remained unused. The neck and body are covered, and the body is based on the popular Fender Stratocaster shape, so all we really need is a set of tuners, a Wilkinson-style tremolo, and a pre-wired pickguard with decent pickups to complete the axe. It will need some finishing – the body is made out of black limba, with some really nice streaks to it. Sand it down a little more, get the grain filled, and let’s see if it can make some noise.

It started raining a little bit late yesterday afternoon. Looks like the temperature dropped enough that the rain turned to a light dusting of snow. I don’t need to drive, but my wife and son will have to head to campus later today. I hope the roads aren’t a frozen obstacle. I remember when I used to drive into Kansas City after snow and ice storms, and I would casually count the number of cars that had gone into the ditches – a surprising number of 4×4 pickups, Jeeps, and other SUVs. People all too often drive too fast without really knowing the road conditions, and I keep counting, 27, 28, 29…

Time for me to toss back my second glass of water of the morning, and see if I can win an argument with the coffee maker.

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

Peace y’all.