Monthly Archives: January 2011

Monday night – More space

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My theme for the next couple of weeks is ‘space’ I gotta find some peace and clarity to think about my work in a new way. I have a project I really believe in ..   and I really want to make it work.To do that, I need to really  think differently. I think I work best  when someone else points me at a problem they don’t know how to solve. ..What’s a challenge for me is when someone asks me what problem  we should solve. That’s what I’m looking at now..   I called my dad for advice.. he was very helpful.. we had a good long talk..the gist of which was basically ‘stop whining and kick butt’..    . I think that’s exactly what I need to do.   I hope I can give my kids that kind of useful advice when they’re in their 50’s.

I one reassuring sign today as I walked to my car..   I found this pile of mud in the ice in the parking lot. (I swear this is an actual picture) .. Fate seems to be trying to smile on me.. or maybe it’s telling me not to wind up with mud on my face.. we’ll see.

nite folks.. hope you have found your space, nite sam

-me

Sunday night – winter ball

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We’re now in the center of winter.. it’s one of my favorite times of the year.. cold and unpredictable..   Folks get more resourceful about finding things to do during this part of the year in order to protect their sanity.   I think that’s why MMU and several other high schools held their winter balls last night. Gabe went with Kristin and a bunch of other friends..  They all dressed their best.. the theme was ‘candyland’ (don’t you wish all days had themes ?).. Gabe decided to go in white tux with red accents.. and he made it look good


He even worked out some ‘underglow’ with a red LED and a magnet..  nice accent . 

the kids all looked great.. here are Kristin and Gabe, Katy and Marcello and Madison and Logan


Kristin looked great !

It sounded like they all  had a great time last night.. ,, a night which ended up with about 2 hours of sleep.. Gabe was pretty groggy when we woke him up, strapped on his board and pushed hi down the mountain for the USASA slope style competition at Bolton.. It was a lonnnnng day.. about 90 folks competing.. 9 in gabe’s age range..

Hannah and Dave came up to the montain to let Adah practice on her skis.. Diane and I watche Senyah  while they rode.. SOmehow I managed to compeltely miss getting a picture of Dave or Senyah.. but here are Hannah and Adah.. both looking cute !

Gabe had a very good first run .. good enough to get him 2nd place in the competition.   He was so beat by the end of the day.. we were all glad to get home..

OK.. I have a really busy week coming up.. I better get soem sleep.. happy mid winter to you all..

Nite everybody, nite sam

-me

Saturday night – making space

Glorious day.. did very little.. just wrote some code to make a movie of about 3000 pictures of folks at work..    Mid day, Diane and I got out with the dogs for a snowshoe with the dogs. We climbed up a ridge in Honey Hollow… it was beautiful.. about 3 feet of snow everywhere… weather in the mid 20’s.. it doesn’t get better than that..

While we were walking I was telling Diane about the meeting I attended yesterday in NY.. I was really taken by one of the things our senior leaders said in his talk.. he talked about ‘making space’ to think. I took his point to be that sometimes we get overly focused on fighting the wrong battle .. in doing that we can sometimes spend all of our time knocking our heads against a wall and  exhausting  ourselves   as we continue to try and do the thing we’ve always done. He said that sometimes we need  to ‘make some space’   to step back away from the struggle  we’ve been locked in, reduce the clutter in what we’re doing, think clearly then act with a more clear and longer term intent..    He was talking about a specific set of challenges at work.. .. but I am taking it as a more general suggestion… I like it.. and I’m going to try approaching the next few weeks like that. I’ll let you know how it goes !.

night all.. nite sam

-me

Friday night – there and back

Ahh.. it’s not quite midnight and I’m back home after a quick day and a half trip down to armonk. It was my areas quarterly leadership mtg.. and once again I enjoyed it immensely. I’m still feeling very much like ‘the new guy’ in my new-ish job..  still trying to figure out the orgs, who’s who, who does what.. I do like them all very much.. and I’m really impressed with how much they know.. and how much they care about their jobs.  It’s also very good for my brain having to find my place in a new group after being so long in my previous gig. .  I do miss my old org too..

We all stayed at the ibm learning center again.. long time readers will recognize that the ILC is my favorite hotel on the planet. It was covered by a thick blanket of new snow. On my run this morning, I startled this small deer. He dove off the road into the deep snow and got sort of stuck. I stopped and explained to him that I meant him no harm and kept running.. I hope he dug his way back to the road after I passed.

It was a long and very interesting day at the meeting.. can’t go into it here. I was glad I attended… I also was sad to have missed another meeting back in Burlington..  I wanted to be both places.

The high point of the trip was driving down and back with three freinds, Jim , Dale and Dave.. Jim drove the entrire way in both directions which I greatly appreciate..

On the way home we stopped for a few min to look at the time cycle.. It’s there in the background though you cant see it in this picture..

OK.. I cant keep my eyes open any more.. gotta sleep. More tomorrow

nite all, nite sam

-ne