11PM and just home from an 800 mile loop that included Brooklyn, Armonk, and Cambridge. At one level I really enjoy trips like this. I really love all the quiet uninterrupted personal time while driving. At the same time I miss my family like crazy when I’m away. I’m really going t be ratcheting back on travel when I take this new temporary assignment in November.

 

Today was fun and productive. It started at Ruchir and Rashi’s.. As always, those guys were amazing hosts. By the time I got down for breakfast this morning, Rashi was already cooking breakfast… today it was delicious pancakes made of fermented rice and lentils mixed with onion and peppers. It was so tasty..

After a  quick breakfast, I got on the road for Cambridge. I was on work calls in route all the way. Phone calls make the miles really melt away.  It seemed like the 3 hour drive took about 20 minutes.

 I get these messages every time I drive

I got to Cambridge around noon,  jus tin time to be able to help host one of the lunch tables at the seminar I was speaking at. This is one of my favorite aspects of my job.. the ability to sit down and talk to large groups of new, smart and motivated people all the  time. These folks were  about 150  mid career ‘high potential’ technical employees from our software, services and research organizations. I learned so much by talking to them.

After lunch I had a bunch of day job stuff to do.. Around 2:30 I wondered down to give my talk on technical career development. Like always, I was so nervous before the talk.. I was having trouble getting myself jazzed to give a fun and inspiring talk… ‘fun’ is hard to do on demand.. and given how low I’ve been feeling lately.. I was worried.. Somehow, though.. when they told me to start talking.. I started having fun.. and the talk went pretty well.  One interesting observation from this group is that most of them have change jobs several times even though they’ve only been around for 10 years or so. I told them that I was a poor role model for them because I’m basically in the same job  I was hired into in 1981.   Maybe that why  taking this  new rotational assignment feels like such a big deal to me.,

 

After my talk I moderated a career panel which had  4 senior technical folks from different  organizations.

It was great getting these folks perspective on career dos and don’ts. I got much out of listening to them..   One of the questions we got as a panel was about work-life balance.. The women asked if we had made many life compromises to advance in the company.. The panel had some great comments on that… Then I added my story about Sam’s passing. I told them that I had done a bunch of questioning  over the last 10 months about work-life issues. Had I worked to hard ? too much ? to intensely.. I admitted that even though I’ve still had lots of fun, I think I’ve worried too much about work stuff over the past  26 year.  I also know that Sam’s passing has really fundamentally changed the way I view my priorities. Talking about it got me pretty choked up.. but I got my thoughts out.  I knew I had to talk about Sam in that forum.. yet I was also worried  about the  effect that story might have on the crowd. The response was actually wonderful. I had some many folks come up and talk to me about Sam after the talk. It made me happy that I’d responded to the panel question from my heart. 

 

The panel was over a bit after 4… It was 4:30 by the time I got out of there. I had a 5-6 meeting I had to pre for .. so I fund a spare office and got to work… After my meeting I grabbed a quick byte in the  Cambridge Mall food court. This was the same place that Sam and I had eaten when we were down here 4 years ago on a field trip..  

I then found my car and started heading north. There was a beautiful moon rising and the traffic was light.

It was a great evening for driving.    My one disappointment was that I was too late to catch  Hooksett Fireworks.. (though I had a nice phone call with the great lady that owns the place)..

 

Now that I’m home I’m really, really tired.. Time for bed..   I walked upstaris and found that soemone  had booby trapped the stairs with a taling skeleton.. (Gabe ?!?)

Talk to you all tomorrow

 

-‘Nite all.. ‘Nite Sam.

 

-me