A Welcomed Weekend

While we have a busy schedule this weekend we still have an opportunity to catch up on a few things. When we originally moved into our house we were able to get a pretty good handle on a few things but there have been a few places around our house that have been in need of our attention. The largest and most time consuming of which has been the organization and reorganization of our offices… they always seem to be the first things that are pushed down the list when something comes up.

Things have been so busy this summer that there hasn’t been much time on the weekends to spend as a family let alone get the things we want to get done around the house. While we don’t have the large blocks of time, I can see a few opportunities to tackle some of the disorganization that can be found around us. Now that things have been moved out of my wife’s office from the chaos of renovations last month and there is an extra bookcase in my office, there is an outside chance that we will be able to make some progress.

But even if that time evaporates and we find ourselves in the same situation come Monday morning, I am okay with that so long as we are able to spend the little free time that we have with our son. It is a new give and take that we continue to embrace, and sometimes fight, every weekend. There are moments when we wish we could have some space, have a break, just a little time to ourselves but there are also the moments when we could spend all day just watching our son in amazement occasionally looking at one another in disbelief that he is our little boy.

Just that simple fact makes me forget about all the things that need to be done. But we still need to make the time to take care of the house because when we aren’t overcome by the adorableness, we keep thinking about that list that does seem to want to go away. This weekend we hope to make those down moments a little easier and our list a little shorter. After all, like many things you just can’t put them off forever. Eventually that list needs to be taken care of so when we do have those moments to ourselves, we can enjoy the quiet and relaxation that those moments provide.

Mortgage Monday: Timing

It seems like a constant dilemma that we are facing week after week, project after project. The simple, yet complicated, question that continues to arise is whether we push some of the renovations back into the spring or just get them done now? As I have disclosed previously, it is a really long list of things that we are planning on having done at the house and the constant routine that we find ourselves in is less than ideal. I guess a better question is how much more of this can we handle?

While a postponement would bring us some quiet time heading into the fall and some greater flexibility in our schedule, it would also leave us with a few things that while not essential, are either an eye sore or simply aren’t conducive to us fully enjoying our home. It would also leave a few things ‘half done’ at this point which is less than an ideal situation we would find ourselves living in. But it would be quiet and that is something that can’t easily be overlooked.

However, there are a few larger projects that simply make sense to get done now. We already started the transformation so why would we stop in the middle right now and keep us from seeing our plans for our home from coming to fruition. Yes, it will be noisy, inconvenient (most likely less so than the first round), and put a decent dent in our bank account but we would have nearly everything done. And with these things off the list we wouldn’t spend the cold months cooped up in the house staring at the things that we wish we had changed.

It is a matter of deciding whether we want to relax a little now or relax and breathe easier later? Do we want the inconvenience now or later? And, most importantly, how soon do we want to complete the transformation from our house to our home? This doesn’t mean that we have to check everything off of our list but knocking out a good portion of it would go a long way and allow us to push back a few of the other, “less important”, projects.

Either way, it is safe to say that we are all looking forward to the day when we can consider everything done. And while I can’t wait for that time to come, I am also a realist and know that there will probably be an entirely new list that has been drafted in the interim and I am not completely sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing at this point. What I am enjoying is the fact that no matter when we do all of these things, we will be improving our home and we will be able to enjoy them for many years. So, here is to the future!

Firearms Friday: More Space

A similarly blank canvas...

When my wife and I first saw what would become our home, we pretty much knew what we were going to do with each of the spaces and rooms. Actually, we found a house with enough room that we had to put some effort into figuring out what each of the rooms would be after we filled the spaces that we knew we needed (this is how our son ended up with two playrooms). Two of the spaces that we were able to immediately figure out were my office (the former formal living room) and my work bench and safe space (the dry and clean unfinished basement).

Let’s just say that I have a very understanding wife. In our former rental I had taken over the basement with a combination office and work area. Now I have more room than I really know what to do with as the basement covers the entire footprint of the house with nothing else down there except the basic equipment (i.e. boiler, well filters, electrical panel, etc). There was already a small work bench tucked in the corner and now that small section is significantly expanded. I might be taking up an eighth of the space and that is pretty spread out.

For the first time I am going to be able to keep the vices, cleaning kits, and tools out and organized. This is a bit of an odd situation for me as I have always needed to put things away at the end of the day with the previous work spaces that I have had. In addition to being more convenient and feeling like it is a more permanent space, it is also much more efficient. With all those items already out and ready to be used, I am able to immediately start working on a project seconds after I open the safe.

Being able to separate my office from my work space is something that I have been looking forward to for some time now. Work is work. It is a completely different atmosphere and mentality. Relaxing at the bench is just that… it is a means to forget things for a little bit and focus on the small projects and working with my hands. Now that we have the space, and the fact that I have an understanding wife, I am able to have those two areas to myself. Hopefully this means that you will be reading about some long overdue updates to a variety of projects that I have mentioned before… at least after I get everything organized.

Firearms Friday: Backyard Family Fun!

 

These days I rarely have time to head out to the range and practice. This is not something I like to admit but it is simply the fact of the matter. However, there have been a few rare occasions when I have found myself looking down the sights at a small target. One of these instances, at the very beginning of last month, kind of surprised me. Not at first… it was a rather ugly beginning… but I was content with the results at the end of the day.

While my wife and I were visiting my sister’s family (only about 90 minutes away from us) my brother-in-law, who enjoys the same relaxing hobby, invited me to take an older single shot rifle in the back yard for some plinking. I was completely unfamiliar with this 22 rifle (it fires 22LR, 22 Long, and 22 Short) and so the initial results were less than pleasing. After about 20-30 rounds, I had walked in the shots and was fairly satisfied with the results. 22 short at 25 yard off hand hitting a quarter size target… not a bad way to spend part of the afternoon.

It really came down to a remembering the fundamentals. The sights were poor on this particular rifle with little adjustment possible. After all, it wasn’t my rifle and we were trading shots every ten rounds (between a right and left handed shooter). Also, I don’t shoot a lot of 22 short. All of these are minor things if you just step back and keep the basics in mind.

The first ten shots were really just fun rounds and the results (or lack thereof) showed that fact quite clearly. After that I went through my range routine a little more deliberately than usual. Getting a solid, locked, and quiet stance, lining up and stabilizing the sights, controlling my breathing, and slowly pulling the trigger straight back. After that, with little ability to actually zero the rifle, it was a matter of tracking the shot, watching for the impact, and adjusting the hold accordingly on the follow up.

It is with this extra focus and routine that I was back to relaxing at the makeshift firing line. After all, most of the time it really isn’t about what you are shooting but on the shooting itself. When you focus on that the results will follow. After all, that is what many of us look for when we seek relaxation at the range.

Changes, Space, And A New Routine

One of the worst things about moving, besides the actual labor involved in cleaning, moving, and reorganizing all of our stuff, is making sure that every person, place, organization, association, company, magazine, retailer, credit card company, etc. has our new address. Today I finally changed the last item that I could think of by logging on to the DMV website and making the update. I also managed to adjust my signature on my private email account which I seldom use for outgoing correspondences. With that being said, the marathon of phone calls, logins, and returned letters is probably not over as I am certain that there is at least one or two or more things that have slipped my mind.

Now that we have been in the new place for a little while we are also starting to get our routine down especially in the morning. To say that things are easier than they were at the apartment would be an understatement. While we are still trying to get ready at the same time, there is a lot more space so that we can both get ready rather than taking turns and making one another late every morning. The evening is also more relaxing as I can walk in the door and have the space to put everything down without having to maneuver around my wife as I shuffle through a galley kitchen.

Even the commute, which has proven to be shorter and much more reliable even with the ice, snow, and cold lately, is becoming more routine as my muscle memory is not trying to take me onto a highway that would point me in the wrong direction. It has been more relaxing as well with the steady flow of traffic and minimal merging necessary to get to and from the office. Even the drive from the lodge hasn’t been much longer as there are few traffic signals that I need to traverse during this new routine drive.

After all of the change and chaos that has and continues to dominate our lives, it is nice to have things settle down a little bit and give us some regularity to our days. This is what we have been needing for some time and the space (both inside our home and in the general area) has kept at least some of the stress at bay. Hopefully this continues and will continue to keep us level as the due date approaches. I’m just glad that this is the place that he will first call home rather than the cramp confines of our previous dwelling. Until then I am going to continue enjoying the new routine.

Extensive Meetings, Marathon Calls, And Early Mornings

It may be a bit crude but it fits and its funny.

In hind sight, the past few weeks have been a bit of a blur merging together into one continuous memory of a meeting. In addition to the usual daily duties and account work, a few of us would lock ourselves in the conference room and hash out, sometimes vigorously, a public relations plan for a new prospect. This was all stemming from my business day trip back in May.

For hours we would go back and forth starting with the high level view and basic outline. We would take a couple of days off to research and make our own suggestions (margin time as I like to call it) and finally we would come together for the detailed dive into what needs to be said, what needs to be reworded, and pull together what strategies would work best to achieve what the prospect thinks they want and what we know they should want. Fortunately, in this instance, there was a synchronicity to these objectives.

All told, we each spend approximately fifty hours in meeting over the past couple of months pulling all of these things together. This culminated in a conference call yesterday when we were finally able to present the results of our hard work. This is always a time of uncertainty but we present the plan with confidence and emphasize the process and experience that has brought us to our conclusions. However, you have to keep in mind, while this was a time consuming step it was only the first of many (second if you count the initial input).

While the prospect agreed with what we had presented, there were still a number of things discussed that we will have to incorporate and a few things that we will have to change. And, of course, every presentation has a speed bump here or there and this one certainly had a big one as the recent investors in the company have just now informed us of an open competition and that many other proposals have been received. With the only honest and realistic plan on the table I am confident in our future with this company but it still means that there is even more work that we are going to have to complete and more meetings that will keep us in the conference room for the next couple of weeks.

It looks like a few more long days at the office presenting me from arriving home before the summer dusk and probably at least one or two early morning conference calls like the one that was scheduled this morning for 7am. While I am undoubtedly biased, I know that we are the best firm for the business and I know that the long discussions and even longer hours will pay off in the end. But, for now, it is time to relax when I can, work when I am able, and sleep during those rare instances when the luxury of time is in my favor.

Avoiding Work, Relaxing, And A Summer Storm

Soaked streets, a down tree, and a light that is actually still working.

Well, this is the final short week of a month long string and, as is common place when I don’t have a specific event to attend or place to go, I had no idea what to do with myself. I got out of bed only slightly later than I normally would on a Thursday morning and while the weather started off sunny and humid the forecast showed some troublesome signs in the afternoon. If I stayed in the apartment I would do nothing but work and knowing that the day was going to be cut a little short with the weather moving up the coast, I had no other choice than to get in the car and drive.

Even with all the travel that I have already done this year, it is a different experience being behind the wheel without having to be somewhere at a specific time or having an event or place that you have to go. It is the ever-present cliché of the freedom of the road that allows me to relax, get lost, explore, and maybe find a few places that I have never been, see a few things that I had never seen, and discover some new destinations for a future weekend trip. And throughout the wandering and weaving between towns and the coasting down the highway, I didn’t check my mail at all… exactly the way I wanted to spend the morning.

By the time I stopped the car to get out and stretch much of the morning had already passed and lunch time was knocking at my empty stomach. With the stiffness having evaporated from my joints, it was time to head back and figure out where I was going to meet my wife for a mid-day meal. We finally settled on meeting in King of Prussia with a couple of hours afterward to spend together before we, once again, went our separate ways… my wife had to get to her grad class and I had to continue my attempt to relaxing during this rare day off.

By this time I had glanced at my work email but, with only a few minor things to address, it was not a hindrance to my time away from the office. While the limited time at the range could have gone better (I need more consistent practice), it was nice to just stand around and chat about anything and everything that didn’t involve work. With night riding across the sky on the back of dark clouds, I pointed the car toward home, drove through the squalls of a sudden summer storm, and picked up dinner for my wife and me to enjoy together after a full day and probably one of my more successful non-working days.

Attempting To Find Space…

Not much space left.

Usually as some point during any given day there is a time when I just need a little space. Not just physical space but separation from the noises of the world. Definitely something harder to do than to simple ponder about. Sometimes I can even go all day and have to setting for those meager moments of slumber to escape the world and get some alone time. When I say this, many people see this as a bad thing, like I am trying to get away from people or some people get offended like I am trying to get away from them. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Everything requires some space in one form or another. When there is no space things can tend to run together and just seem to blur into a solid brick, much like this post. Sometimesthesimplespacebetweenwordscanmakeallthediffernceintheworldwhentryingtocomprehendwhatisrightinfrontofyou. Even the commute back and forth to work is filled with a lack of space from the cars on the road crowding the lanes to the constant connection maintained with my cell phone. Space is more than just a physical proximity. Space is that single moment of nothing that we all need in our day. That moment when everything around us stops, the phone is silent, and the computer hibernates. It is those times when you step out of the office for a minute, forgetting your cell phone, and feeling glad that you don’t have it flipped out in your palm as you scan the screen or pick up a call. Space, in many respects, is the most precious and healthiest part of the day when you are as even keeled as you can possibly be. But, with work, home, lodge, and all the other activities that fill my calendar, the necessity of space has quickly become a luxury. I guess it is just harder for some of us than others especially those of us that have a mind that doesn’t seem to want to stop. The damn thing just keeps on working jumping from one thought to another without taking that moment to enjoy the microscopic space between the neurons. Sometimes the best time in my day is when I am trying to think of something, finally recall the information, and stop caring about it as soon as the information is retrieved. It is a split second of mental silence after that moment of forgetfulness that can be the most peaceful time in the day. It is a moment of relief that is rarely experienced and one that I can’t seem to find often enough. It is this time of completely blocking out the rest of the world when the mind and body simultaneously relax. It is for this same reason that many of us enjoy one sport or another in our free time. It is the repetition and focus needed that blocks out the rest of the world. You are in your own space focused on the singular experience. That is the time when we have all the space we need. I need to find more moments like that during my everyday life when I can enjoy life. I just have to find the space.

The Downfall Of The Long Weekend

For the first time in a while I was able to take a long weekend and not think about work too much. There really isn’t any way for me to get away from things so having a respite for a little while was a nice change of pace. Of course, being in the car for nearly fifteen hours over a two day span didn’t hurt my ability to turn things off for a while but it didn’t completely cripple my ability to get a few other things done. I guess I have to always be working on something.

Come Monday afternoon the tide began to shift and the undertow of emails was trying to pull me back out into the sea of work that awaited me today. Having taken Friday and Monday off to both head up to Erie and recover afterward, the mountain of projects, papers, and emails had grown at a rate that any weed would have been happy to achieve. Back in the office this morning, it was time to put my head down and dig as fast as I could before more tasks began filling my inbox.

Can’t say that I was completely successful but there has been progress made. What is really a bit annoying is the fact that I had finally gotten up to speed not long ago. This is a cycle that I hope doesn’t continue but I am not holding out for that luxury. For now, it is a matter of slowly plodding through the paper, scanning websites, and rapidly responding to and completing the projects that have been put on hold for just a small window of time. Some may see this as only a couple of days but that is a lot of time in my line of work.

With next week also being a short week, the new goal is to, hopefully, get everything cleared off by Friday but I am really expecting it to carry over into the weekend. Not the first time and certainly not the last. Somewhere, somehow I will also look for those small air pockets so that I might take a breath, take care of some personal and lodge items, before diving back down to the bottom of the pile. In the end, things could be worse. After all, this is the slow time of year. I don’t even want to think about what my days would look like if I had taken a long weekend in the fall or winter.

Smells Like Spring!

The weather has been getting much warmer lately and it is only a matter of time before we begin seeing the green leaves peek out from the stark brown branches. Even the grass seems to be returning to life as the sun slowly warms the soil. It is a comfortable time of year when the windows begin opening and the breeze whips through the windows of cars.

It is also the time of year when the seasonal smells begin filling your nostrils. Not the floral and earthy aromas of midseason but the transitional wafts that make you question the seasonal change. They make you long for the scentless season that has just come to a bitter end and make you eager to move things along to the hot and sweaty sweltering summers.

I began my commute home with the windows down, the heat off, and the radio just loud enough to hear above the din of the wind. The pace of the drive was like any other day with the occasional slowing down and speeding up (because no one understands the concept of constant speed) and weaving in and out of traffic (including right in front of me) of the mindless drivers in a hurry to advance three car lengths before their exit. With the aroma of spring asphalt flowing freely I noticed the sharp olfactory notes of cars that have experienced a particularly rough winter.

As I arrived home this evening I was confronted by one of those smells that is stuck in the middle of the change. While the flower beds looked very clean and aesthetically pleasing, the full bodied and bold fog of feces seemed to wrap around my head, permeate my clothes, and leave my nose clogged with the perfume of poo. Nothing like spending your evening in a sealed off apartment (we are on the first floor with the pile of poo chips just on the other side of our wall) smelling like a cow fart trying to get work done at your computer.

However, the welcoming scents and sounds will soon fill the air as grass is cut, trees are trimmed and chipped, and the rain steams on the pavement. These are the smells that I am looking forward to and what I wait for every year. Fill the air with thunder and the clouds with lightening following a day when the grass has been cut and I could just sit back, relax, and enjoy the sensory experience of the season. But, until that time, I am stuck here sniffing turds.

Waking Up To Brisket

I woke up this morning still not feeling well but I couldn’t keep myself in bed past 9:30 as I was already beginning to feel a little achy and my nose was not being receptive to oxygen. Once I was able to get on my feet, stumble to the bathroom, and clear my head I caught the slightest whiff of brisket in the air. As it turns out, my wife was having, as she puts it, a domestic day. Brisket was only the beginning of the cooking for the day as a duo of soups were also on the menu.

I don’t understand why my wife gets in these moods but I find it best to stay out of her way and just enjoy the outcome. It was nice to not have to make lunch and dinner on the weekend especially when there is still a hint of plague on my breath. However, while I was only asked a couple of times for small things, I did offer to assist her in the kitchen and even provided some time saving appliances long forgotten in the closet. Plus I didn’t have to worry about my wife losing a finger by finding a few easier and safer cutting options.

With a full dose of cold medicine in my system, I did make the decision to venture outside a few times. Not surprisingly, it was snowing again. Actually, the weather was a bit bipolar today as the snow started and stopped on several occasions throughout the late morning and early afternoon. By the time dusk came around the cars and streets were covered with an additional two inches of fine white dust. Just enough to cover your shoes and spin the tires.

With the arrival of early evening, dinner was ready to go and my wife’s sporadic study sprints had come to an end. As we sat down to eat some split pea soup (my mom’s recipe) and brisket (two separate courses not one strange concoction), I noticed the reversal of roles that my wife and I had throughout much of the day.

 

Much of my time is spent working, cooking, and generally trying to get something done either at work, at home, or somewhere else (usually lodge). Today, my wife was the one shuttling between the kitchen and the office as she made enough food for at least half the week and studied for her grad class. While I got a couple of minor things done here and there, the majority of my day was centered on recovery. It’s nice to change things up every once in a while.

Working On My Schedule… Again!

Weekends are usually the time when I catch up on sleep. As you have probably seen with the majority of my posts, I am up late writing and posting. It is an odd schedule but one that allows me to accomplish everything I want to do during the day. However, the work week is a little tenuous at times with regard to the limited sleep that I am able to get.

While this has not been too much of an issue, there are some weeks when the morning sneaks up on me and my eyes refuse to acknowledge the reality of morning. I have never been a morning person but my motivation to take advantage of as much of the day continues to drive me to keep long hours and push the limits of my body to achieve as much as I can with the time I have during the conscious hours. But, as has been proven in recent weeks, motivation sometimes gives way to the need for rest. I don’t like it but that is what happens.

The first few weeks of this year have also brought about the need to schedule the first half of the year. I have received many invitations and been informed of numerous events that should be interesting to both experience as well as share with you afterward. As it stands now, those events will begin this week and, as long as I have the time, I will be experience as many of these moments as I can. While they won’t take me very far from home, they are certainly an eclectic mix of activities.

Additionally, there are a few applications and schedules that still have to be implemented into my calendar. I’m sure my wife is thrilled to be reading this even though I do my best to keep her up to date with my seemingly crazy plans. For those of you that are married, I’m sure you are quite familiar with this kind of conversation. For those of you not in a relationship, start learning about how to balance your schedule now. With that said, I am doing everything I can to maintain balance and allow myself to not only rest but, more importantly, spend time with my wife.

Balance is my goal but now, with all the schedules and invitations pouring in, the hard work begins. I try to embrace every opportunity that comes my way but I know that I can’t just keep going full speed every day. Sometimes you need to step back not just to rest but appreciate all that you have experienced. While that is part of the reason for keeping this blog, there also needs to be time when I can just reflect without sitting in front of the computer or hovering over a blank page. Those are the times, away from the calendar chaos, when I can better appreciate everything in my life and enjoy some quiet time at home.

One Of Those Days

It was a rough Monday. The dragging that I pushed through last week seems to have intensified over the weekend making for a difficult day at the office. I would have called out sick by now but there are simply too many things that need to get done tomorrow. Just because you’re sick or you take the day off doesn’t mean that work stops or deadlines get pushed back. This is an expectation that I have seen too many people have of their jobs, especially the younger/new people starting off. While not the case in every situation, it is slowly becoming more prevalent in the work place.

To be honest, I touched on this in my early years. While there were many days that, in hind sight, I could have pushed through there were also times when even now I might not be able to function properly to do my job. On the other side of the equation, I have seen people and you could say that I am guilty of this now, when people should have taken time off but refused to do so. Sometimes things work out but other times I have seen the detrimental effects that this mentality can cause. While I am not at that point, it is pretty close, and I will have to be careful and toe the line making sure that at the first sight of going over I take the time off and recuperate.

The really interesting thing for me though is when things are going really well, everything else seems to disappear. Pain, problems, illness, and other distractions just fade into the background and all I am focusing on is keeping the good day going. Even during the longest days there seem to be moments when this fluidity is present. However, the most accurate determining factor that I am not doing well, that something may be getting the best of me, is when the flow seems more like molasses than water.

Maybe it is time to slow down, even just for a night or, at most, a day just to catch my breath a little bit. Maybe it is time to do something besides work and make an attempt to relax. Well, who am I kidding, maybe it is time to get some other work done other than the ones that usually fill the daytime hours and occupy my evening thoughts. Sometimes the best means of relaxation is completing a project that has been populating your to do list for months (for some people it can even extend to years). Of course, if that is the case you will be reading about it here. And if I finally have to give in an rest for a day, you will also be reading about that too… or at least the random thoughts that occur when I spend a day off with nothing to do.

Party Time!

Thursday was the first holiday party with my new company and I was late to the office gathering. Fortunately, I had a darn good reason for my tardiness as I was staffing an interview which led me to arrive about 45 minutes after everyone had gotten to the bowling alley. That’s right, we had a bowling party. With the exception of walking around and exploring the old two lanes in the basement of my lodge a few months ago, this was the first time that I had set foot in a bowling alley in about ten years (maybe longer).

It was an interesting experience walking in the doors as the memories of grade school birthday parties flooded my mind as the familiar scent wafted across my nose. This is one of those places that while the technology and the décor may change over time, the atmosphere remains the same. Those pleasant reminiscences only added to the festive night and the great time that we all had, awkward techniques and all.  

However, when you get a group of coworkers together with any type of game or sport as the activity and there is inevitably going to be come competition. While I thought that my competitive nature had long since faded into the past, that night it had a bit of a resurgence as we split into teams of two and started watching the scores add up. What started as simply a fun time for me quickly transitioned to not wanting to finish last and then to wanting to win.

As the night progressed the fire built up as I was not hitting my spots and doing as well as I wanted to. The frustration was a little intense as most of the time I knew whether or not I made the shot as soon as the ball was about five feet down the lane. While it was by no means a great score I still managed to break a hundred in both games and ended the night of rolling having finished second overall. More importantly, my team won by 50 pins.

After a couple of games with dinner interspersed between turns and frames we all headed over to the pool tables where I played a couple of poor games. Still finished 1-1 on the night but completely unacceptable knowing how I used to run the table in a game of nine ball. However, billiards was secondary as we all continued to relax and began exchanging holiday gifts. “Secret Santa” is something that I can’t remember the last time I had the opportunity to participate and even though many of us are still getting to know one another around the office everyone gave considerable thought to the gifts they gave and appreciated the gifts they received.

I gave a gift that I took the time to think about and make sure that it would be enjoyed. Actually, because I am a firm proponent of coupons, I gave a whole bag of gifts while remaining within the predetermined $25 budget. On the flip side of things, I was given a gift that fit me perfectly and something that I have already put to good use (you’ve got to love it when someone gets you the right gift card).

At that point, the conversations continued and we all enjoyed the company of friends, not just coworkers. With hugs and holiday wishes shared by all, we set out on the road knowing that we would see one another early the next morning. Our office is a family, one where we hold one another accountable and make sure we working to our potential (clichéd but true), and that is a rare privilege that I will continue to appreciate each and every day I walk through the door. It’s amazing how a great job can make the holiday season so much better.

Working Toward Relaxation

Today was one of those days. The kind of day that no matter how much you get done and how much progress you feel you are making it never seems to feel like enough to get ahead. Not the first time I have experienced this and certainly not the last but it is frustrating regardless of when it happens especially when you know that the days that are going to follow will, more than likely, hold the same fate.

Making things worse is the weather both in regard to temperature and just feeling under the weather lately. For me, it just makes me push harder to get more done and keep working no matter how I am feeling. Sometimes you just have to grind it out… there is no room for the luxury of a day off no matter how horrible you feel or how piercing the headache.

Honestly, I wouldn’t know what to do if I were to take the day off. So far the one half day that I have taken off and the one day that I have requested are because of events that I want to attend. Even when taking a day off I seem to be busy. Being busy may be taxing at times and some people may think I am a little nuts (I won’t argue with them on that point) but it keeps me moving forward and looking forward to new experiences and opportunities in life. This is how I am able and why I chose to work 200+ hours a month and keep a full schedule of activities going outside of the office.

It just goes to show that you don’t have to have good hand eye coordination to be able to juggle. Sometimes the actions of keeping things going, keeping everything up in the air, is what ensures that we keep putting one foot in front of the other no matter how tired we get or run down we may feel. This is also why this blog just keeps going (sometimes, I’m sure, it even seems never ending), this is another task which I can focus my mind on and use the opportunity to fill in the gaps of my day.

This is one aspect of my means of relaxation. I work on this blog to recover from work. I utilize this space to just let myself think sometimes about one specific subject while other times I let myself jump around a bit. While I am sure it is getting a bit repetitive at this point it is still a fulfilling way for me to relax and write about what I want to discuss rather than about a topic that is dictated to me from someone else. I know that if I do nothing I begin feeling stressed and begin wearing down quickly which is why I have to keep myself going. These post along with everything else I do and every place I go outside of the office is how I relax.

Turning Off The World And Relaxing

Lately my wife and I have been struggling with turning our minds off and allowing ourselves to relax. It’s an interesting juxtaposition in that as soon as we started slowing down on the weekends and spending more time at home “relaxing” we started having issues taking it easy. And it hasn’t been for a lack of trying but sometimes what worked in the past doesn’t necessarily work now.

My issue has always been that I need to have something to keep my mind busy in order for my mind to relax. At the same time, I need to take some time off during the weekend from the daily tasks of the week so my mind is left to fend for itself. Of course, posting on this blog and the Phillies blog keep me busy every day but that still leaves a large chunk of time unaccounted for.

Occasionally, television is a good refuge but it is becoming increasingly difficult with the poo that is smeared across the dial. Some days it seems like every channel has some form of Honey Boo Boo or Obama Boo Boo on it and I have no other choice than to turn the darn thing off. Even the History channel, normally a reliable fallback, seems to have more and more content focused on ghosts and aliens.

Books provide a pleasant respite from the noise of the world but even that has become a difficult endeavor as either it is too quite which allows my mind to enter into the fray or my eyes are too heavy to focus which is usually the situation during the week. I have only been able to escape into the pages of historical volumes for fleeting moments when the larger task at hand is centered on coloring in the leaves of the family tree. Those are the brief and intense moments that are both tiring and refreshing as everything else around me disappears. It’s like taking a nap in the middle of the day… it will get you through the next couple of hours but it can’t replace a good night’s sleep.

To, hopefully, address this issue there are a few things that I will be reintroducing in the next week or so which hopefully will satiate my need to relax and recharge all of which revolve around one simple task… getting the frick out of the apartment. Traveling and returning to the synagogue for regular weekly services is what we both need to do to keep us going, keep us relaxed, and keep us grounded. We can do these things together and enjoy the common experiences. However, there is one thing that I need to do by myself (because I can’t convince my wife to go)… I need to get to the range.

Just the thought of that makes me feel better. Some people look forward to the relaxation of playing a round of golf or competing with their friends on the basketball court but that is not for me. I enjoy competing with myself, and frequently with those around me, by seeing who is the best at putting holes in paper. For many of you this may seem like a crazy concept but this is honestly one of the most effective ways for me to relax.

If you take your time, respect the firearm, and focus acutely on hitting the bulls eye the world around you disappears and all your attention is on the task at hand. Regardless of skill or ability, I have seen everyone reach that state of complete focus. This is the only sport where I have felt a complete sense of peace and calm. This is my respite in the midst of a chaotic week.

So, that is how I relax. What works for you?