Good morning! It is Tuesday, 4 October 2022. I’m up early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and ready for my first session, which will start in about an hour and 45 minutes from now.

I do love my job.

One of the best parts is the opportunity to work with other instructors that have a different style than I do. This month I’ll have a chance to work with two teammates I have yet to deliver with, and I’ll do what I do, observe and listen, then assess whether there are little delivery differences that I like and want to incorporate into my delivery style. It’s a case of constant critique and improvement. I want to continuously improve – when you have no interest in getting better, it’s time to find something else to do.

My oldest daughter is coming over this evening for dinner. I think tacos will be on the menu.

As I have written before, I follow the University of Kansas, and for the first time in a long time, the KU football team is ranked in the top 25. This is good and bad – the University of Wisconsin fired their head coach over the weekend, and they are looking for a replacement. A major part of the concern is that Kansas’ coach won 6 national championships coaching a smaller program in Wisconsin, and it appears the coach is going to be pursued by Wisconsin. I must confess, if they come at him with the right offer, he’ll likely head north. He likely has a lot of friends and connections to the Wisconsin area.

Yeah, it’s a said reality. A school finally sees the light at the end of the tunnel, not knowing that the light belongs to the school that wants to pilfer your coach.

Dang it.

Time for me to get focused on the task at hand.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, 3 October 2022. Odin is over by the screen door wanting me to let him out, but he can wait a few minutes while I crank this out. The floofs are heading to the sliding glass door, anticipating that I’ll get tired of the whining and scratching in a moment or two and succumb to the will of pooches.

I gave in. Dogs are all outside, and I have to keep an eye on Lily… she keeps finding gaps in the fence. I think I blocked off her last little escape route, but I’ll go check on them here in a moment or two.

I start a new blended learning class tomorrow. I’ve got some “Day 0” posts to make to get learners steered in the right direction.

I’ll have a few meetings today to get things organized, but I think we’ve already got a grasp on who is responsible for what.

Lisa and I are thinking about cutting the satellite TV cord. Our provider had a contract dispute with a few interrelated channels, and although they got their dispute resolved yesterday, the outage caused us to miss a game we really wanted to watch. It’s time to assess the cost of our satellite service compared to offerings from Youtube and Hulu. I need to make sure we pickup our local channels, but other than that, if there is a savings, it might be time to make a change.

Glad I didn’t ever get involved in crypto. Always struck me as fool’s gold. Looks like I may have been pretty accurate with that assessment.

Time to get going on the tasks of the day, and check on the pooches.

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

Peace y’all.

Is it Thursday already? 29 September 2022… and tonight I get to be arm candy.

Lisa has some departmental event this evening, and I get to put the “mental” in departmental. Not a big deal really, just a semi-casual get-together. More of a “khakis, not jeans” thing.

I’ll stay focused on work today. It’s always a good idea to review the class content before day one, so I’ll get back to that later. I need to get a cup of coffee and a little breakfast, then go back to it in earnest.

I’ve been watching some of the coverage of Hurricane Ian, which made landfall yesterday. It has decreased in power, now a tropical storm, but Florida is under a lot of water, and rain is following the hurricane, with an expected 20 additional inches.

Right now, Venezualan refugees might be thankful Governor Desantis moved them from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard rather than Florida with federal funds.

Alright, it might be time for this old man to buckle down and get to work. I don’t have a lot more to add, really. It’s just another day in the life. The trick for me is to find ways to make the mundane just a little more interesting, mixing up my information delivery systems to maximize retention.

And now the dogs are barking at a sheep wearing a giraffe head.

My life is average.

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

Peace y’all.

It is a Wednesday morning, 28 September 2022. The day is starting a little slow, but I am positive that it will pick up speed at some point.

As sure as one of my dogs will be a little gassy when they decide to habitat the space between my legs when I sit in the recliner.

Little beasts can be predictable on that front, can’t they?

Today is a rather open day as far as my schedule goes. No appointments, but plenty to keep me busy. I start another month-long blended learning class on Tuesday that will keep me tied up until Halloween. I’ve had communication with my training partners regarding the schedule, so I think that is under control.

Hurricane Ian has yet to make landfall in Florida, but it sure seems to be parked and grinding right off Tampa/St. Petersberg (Berg? Burg? Not quite sure of the spelling to be honest).

Water is by my side at the moment, but it soon will be time to switch to coffee. Haven’t made breakfast yet, but chili and eggs seem to be the most likely option today. There’s something about fall weather and chili that makes for an irresistible combination. The only thing missing is the cinnamon rolls.

TIme to put together my to-do list. I’m sure it will get filled up quickly.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday morning, 27 September 2022, and my to-do list has grown as much as it has been reduced.

Yeah, it’s kind of like that on a Monday, right?

Coffee is made, and as soon as I am done with this missive, I’m going to whip up a little chili and eggs to get me started on this day. Office chair issue is resolved for the most part – I ended up taking parts from four different chairs to create one working unit, so I have dubbed my new creation “The Frankenchair”. It gets the job done, but I won’t expose it to any fire.

I’ve got three things I have to get done this morning for work. I also have some voice-over work I need to complete for a friend. I hope my voice is at the right timbre for the project.

One swing of the axe at a time, keep chopping wood.

There’s plenty of other stuff going on in the world. Putin is calling up conscripts to serve in his military… and all of the men are heading for the border to get out of the country. Better to live in another country than fight in an unjust war against well-motivated local residents. Ol’ Vlad really didn’t think this through.

Hurricane Ian is hitting the interior coastline of Florida, with sites set on Tampa/St. Petersburg. I’ve got friends in the are, and I hope they are all safe.

Protests by women in Iran are growing worse. A woman was killed while being held in custody by the “morality police” whatever the hell that is. The men in that part of the world are generally weak when it comes to women’s rights, blaming women for men’s inability to control their more primal instincts. In that part of the world, rape isn’t rape unless it was witnessed by other men. A woman’s word isn’t enough. I would guess a western-style rape kit isn’t going to get close at hand following some sort of sexual trauma. Time to get with the times, y’all. Women deserve equality… get used to the idea.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, the beginning of a new work week, 26 September 2022.

I’ve got a to-do list to get going on in a little bit, right after rattling off this little narrative before I begin that part of my day.

The Chiefs did not have their best day yesterday, granting the Indianapolis Colts their first win of the season. There was plenty of blame to go around, between special team snafus, defensive penalties, and a collection of lookout blocks by the offensive line that would make any wannabe offensive lineman cringe in abject horror.

It was pretty bad.

I’ve got a growing to-do list, and the list is growing in my head as I think about it more and more.

I guess that’s to be expected on the first day of the work week… organize my brain, get the task to be done written down, and check ’em off as I go. Drink more water, make smart meal choices, get to writing down the plan, and execute.

Better reach out to the training partners I have over the next couple of weeks, too.

Just thought of something else I need to accomplish.

I better stop thinking or else I’ll never get caught up.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Sunday morning, 24 September 2022.

Today is a good day.

Yesterday there was a gentle ripple in the Force, as it applies to college football here in the states. The University of Kansas defeated Duke in a battle of unbeaten teams, and Kansas moved to 4-0 on the season, the first time the Jayhawks have enjoyed such a record in fifteen years.

So, yeah, we’re having a good time in Lawrence. On the pro side, the Kansas City Chiefs play the Indianapolis Colts in about another hour and fifteen minutes. I’m hoping the Chiefs can get another win as well.

What a day it was.

I watched the game, mowed the lawn, did a little laundry, cleaned up, had dinner, made a cocktail, and watched “Top Gun: Maverick” with Lisa and Dane. After the movie was over, the K-State/Oklahoma game was still in the third quarter, so we stuck around to watch the cross-state rivals beat Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma.

I’ve got family close to Manhattan, Kansas (home of Kansas State University), and a lot of fan support for the Wildcats on that side, so I was happy for them. I have no problem temporarily jumping on a bandwagon when it comes to whoever is playing Oklahoma or Texas. Every game against those two is just a protracted farewell tour until they leave the conference. I grew up with the Big Eight, before Texas and some of the old Southwest Conference teams joined this conference. Texas played bully for years, and both Nebraska and Colorado left the conference in part due to Texas’ growing influence.

Anyway, I ranted. I could’ve just said, “Hey Texas, Hey Oklahoma, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out!”.

Oklahoma regularly won the conference football championship. I doubt they’ll win as regularly moving to the SEC. Might be a decade or more before they win that conference and qualify for the BCS.

Texas… well, bye.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning! It is Friday, 23 September 2022.

I need a new office chair.

Yesterday afternoon I was wrapping up my cloud admin delivery and wishing my learners well in their continued pursuits, all the while with one of the floofs in my hand – and two of the stems of my office chairs snapped off sending me tail over teakettle. Rosy was not hurt, as some sort of instinct kicked in to protect that little furball. My learners were amused, as all of this happened on camera – I think they were mostly concerned about the pooch. I can’t blame them – after all, she wasn’t the one that broke the chair, that was all on my fat ass.

The new chair arrives tomorrow.

I have the old one here yet, as it has a couple of parts I want to try and recover – mainly the slightly longer gas piston that allows the chair to go up and down. I’m about 6’1″ (used to be closer to 6’2″, but who am I kidding, right?) and I like sitting a little higher in the chair.

My wife will be busy today – it’s kind of a “take your niece to work” day, and Lisa will be shadowed by our niece. I’ve reached out to my sister who will be handling to the drop off and pick up to see if she wants to get together for lunch or coffee. I took a look at my schedule and had one meeting that I was supposed to handle, but didn’t have anything new to share, so I took it upon myself to move it back a week.

Today will be a good day to get caught up on some of the peripheral stuff.

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

Peace y’all.

It is 22 September 2022. Looking at the clock, I spy the time to be 6:06 – ok, not quite as satisfying as 8:08 or 11:11, but we’ll get to those after a bit.

I’m having a good week. Working with a training partner, I have one more module to cover first thing this morning, followed by our closing close to lunchtime. Our goal is to get done talking by noon Eastern Time so that our learners have the balance of the afternoon to work on labs.

Tonight Lisa and I get to kick back and enjoy the start of our autumn. Cooler temperatures for the next few days will add that snap to the air letting us know the change of seasons is upon us. Fall isn’t just about shutting down the swimming pool. Leaves will need to be raked, and the lawn will get mowed once or twice more before we shut down the winter.

Class wraps up today, meetings tomorrow, and a non-delivery week, I’ll have a chance to prep for my October solutions architecture delivery (one course spread out over four weeks).

The last quarter of the year is coming up quick, and that means a little less time in the classroom. As I have mentioned before, I front-load my annual schedule so I have time in the fourth quarter to enjoy the holiday season a little more.

It’s about time for me to focus on breakfast… a cheese and sausage omelet.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday morning, 21 September 2022. Woke up with the Goo Goo Dolls’ song “Name” running through my head… and that’s OK. If I’m going to have some sort of earworm digging through my cortex all day, might as well be a good song.

Entering the third day of my cloud administration delivery. It is good to do co-deliveries – it gives me a chance to assume a support role, shoveling URLs into the chat as learners pop questions up from time to time. It’s kind of a tag-team approach, but alternating modules seems to be going OK.

My son was under the weather yesterday, fall allergies really getting him down. It was causing some serious congestion issues for him, and I hope he’s better today.

My mom has been under the weather as well. She is up to date on her shots, but still caught a wild bug that really got to her, and it was bad enough to put her into the hospital for a few days. She’s home now, and I hope she returns to her best self soon.

Summer is over for us here… the pool has been closed on our90 degree day yesterday. Checking the weather, it was the right move, as a cold snap is heading our way.

I need to spend some quality time with a lawn mower this weekend. The yard is getting a bit bushy.

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

Peace y’all.