Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Daily Coping 10 Jan 2022

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

    Today’s tip is to pick three things you are looking forward to this year.

    Well, the end of the year was great, personally, but I have no idea what to think about the future as the world still remains gripped by a pandemic. I do have a few things scheduled, and there are some things I am looking forward to.

    SQL Bits – I haven’t been in a few years, apart from the pandemic. I have often had scheduling conflicts, but this year, I’m making it work. Looking forward to a trip to the UK in March.

    Reno – We have a volleyball tournament scheduled in late April for Reno, a place I’ve never been. I know it’s not a hot place to go, but I’m looking forward to going and taking a day at Lake Tahoe.

    Bryce Canyon National Park – This one has been on my wife’s bucket list to ride with her horse, and with 2 kids wanting to ride with her, this is the big family trip planned for the summer. After seeing the Red Rocks around Las Vegas, looking forward to checking them out in Utah.

  • Driving the Tesla in a Little Snow

    This is part of a series that covers my experience with a Tesla Model Y.

    I saw a couple videos of the Model Y in the snow (one with stock tires, one with all season Tesla tires) last year, but I hadn’t had the chance to experience it in Colorado yet.

    That is until earlier this week. We returned home from Las Vegas to freezing temperatures. The BMW showed –5 on the drive home from the airport. I was glad we hadn’t left the Tesla there. I don’t know what the drain would be, but I wasn’t interested in coming home to a low battery after a week.

    I got snow tires a couple weeks ago and wrote about the experience. When we had a light snow, really a half inch of sleet, the car slipped a few times taking turns in the neighborhood on pavement. It had me a bit worried as I’ve been in snow with summer tires and things don’t go well.

    In this case, we got about 2-3 inches of snow and I needed to run to town. It wasn’t a great test, as lots of the pavement was clear, but the driveway wasn’t. Ruts from a few trucks and the X5, but still snow. The kind of snow that the Prius could have navigated, but it would be slightly tricky and slip.

    Actually, there’s a chance the Prius would get stuck, but not a big chance.

    In any case, the new snow tires (Michelin X-Ice Snow) worked great. I felt confident and no slippage.

    We’ll see how it goes when we get real snow or drive to the mountains.

    Update Jan 6, 2022: We got about 2-3″ of snow late yesterday. We left the house around 6:15 for volleyball practice and there was very little snow. However, but the time I got to the gym, the roads were covered with a light 1/2″ or so. The tires seems to grip well and handle light acceleration and braking, which is how I’d drive other cars in the snow.

    When I came of practice, there was a good 2″ of snow on roads (and the car). We actually stopped by a store for a few things, and I grabbed a new long handled scraper/brush, as the Model Y seems to accumulate snow on the rear window (no wiper) and across the front.

    Driving went well. A little slippage when accelerating into turns, but about what I’d get from other cars. I felt safe, and I’m ready to take this to the mountains, but I was aware of the weight of the car. A few times turning while slowing and going down a hill, I could see it slipping. Definitely need to be careful coming down hills and braking, leaving more room and slowing earlier.

    A video of this post is available.

  • What Were Your 2021 Wins

    LinkedIn sent me a prompt just before Christmas that asked me to write a post on my 2021 wins, using the #2021wins hashtag. I thought it was a neat idea, and I blogged on this topic before I left for my final vacation. I primarily had work items in there, though a couple of work-related things. To me, while 2021 was disappointing in some ways, it was still a great year for me in many ways, and I’ve tried to keep that in mind. Not focus on things that didn’t go well but those that did.

    It’s the first week of the new year, and many of you are likely starting to look forward at work and in your career. You might have made resolutions, or maybe you are just re-focusing after the holidays. Either way, on this Friday I’d like you to think back to last year, focusing on how your career might have changed throughout the second year of the COVID pandemic.

    What was a career win for you in 2021?

    That’s the question. It could be a change that you made, a skill you learned, a project you completed, maybe an award. Perhaps it was something that happened and you just experienced. Maybe an event or talk that inspired you or changed the outlook on something.

    I’d like to think that all of you had at least one good thing happen in your career last year. Take a minute and share in your win and congratulate others for theirs.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Daily Coping 7 Jan 2022

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

    Today’s tip is to get outside and pick up litter or do something kind for the planet.

    I do try to pay attention when I’m walking around, and I pick up litter I see. It’s a bit of a habit when I’m in a volleyball gym as well. I do make sure my kids clean up, but others kids and parents aren’t always paying attention, so I usually end up grabbing a few things from chairs and floors.

    I haven’t done this much on my property, so I took a walk around the perimeter recently, looking for trash that had blown away or torn up by dogs. I took a plastic bag with me and picked up some trash.