Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • Daily Coping 22 Mar 2021

    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 pause to just watch the sky or clouds for a few minutes today.

    I’m lucky in that we often have clear days in Colorado. It’s one of the reasons we moved here, because of the weather.  Most of the places above us are either very hot or humid.

    However, when I saw this tip, it was cloudy. In fact, it was in between our storms last week. I went outside, snow covering everything, temps about 30F (around 0, –1C), and clouds everywhere. It was a blanketly cold day.

    I had to go out and manually disconnect the arms from the gate to try and get it closed. There was too much snow for them to work, and I needed the gate closed so baby Phoebe could enjoy a day out.

    I drove up, ski pants and gloves, and slowly dug out the gates with hands and feet. I’d forgotten a shovel, but I managed to get to the connection pins and release the gates. I then cleared snow to move them closed and tie them shut.

    I took a few breaks, stopping to stare back at the house, looking out in the distance, enjoying the crisp air, watching the clouds in the big sky.

    A good break from work, and an enjoyable chore.

  • Enjoying Sunshine

    My coping tip a couple days ago was to enjoy your weather. In it, I was dealing with clouds and what most people see as bad weather.

    Today is better, a break between snow storms this month. I had the sunroof open, enjoying a 43F/6C  sunny day.

    20210319_105833

    I stood outside for a minute with the dogs when I got home this morning from the gym:

    20210319_110020

    Got to take time to enjoy little things, especially these days.

  • It’s Been a Year

    I’ll turn this into an editorial, but it’s been a year since my area shut down and life changed. I would never have guessed things would last this long, but at the same time, I’ve become a bit numb and worn out. I know we have at least six more months of this, something I started saying in July and have continued saying every month since.

    That being said, I’m hopeful with vaccinations proceeded well in the UK and US that things might change sometime this year. Colorado allows 50 and older to start getting appointments today, and I’m going to try to get scheduled when I can. First, I need to get my second shingles vaccine and get through that.

    It’s been over a year since I got on an airplane (last Feb 3, 2020 was my final flight), but I have one scheduled for April 1, not a joke from me, and hopefully not a joke on me.

    Things have been rather bland and limited for me the last few months. With all kids leaving the house in the last year, it’s strange. My wife and I are coping, but we miss some of the energy and excitement of having others around, especially as don’t see a lot of other adults in a social setting.

    It also seems that work is bland. I haven’t done a lot of virtual events, though I do hope to see more SQL Saturdays this year as I get the brand rebooted. Mostly, I’m tired of video meetings, tired of these four walls, and tired of the sameness.

    It’s definitely a first world, privileged problem, but it is still my problem to deal with.

  • Daily Coping 19 Mar 2021

    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 listen deeply to someone and really hear what they are saying.

    I find many people like to talk and really just give me a chance to speak in between the things they want to say. I also find that lots of people that appear to be listening are in their own happy place.

    I also find I’m not always much different. Sometimes I find myself already starting to respond in my head to what someone has said, and I’m not listening.

    However, as I get older, I am trying to do better. I recently had the chance to go out to dinner with some friends, and I made it a point to really listen to them, and hear what they were telling me about their life and kids. Rather than thinking what I might say, I focused on them. I am really making an effort to focus, and if I think of something to say, I try to ignore it and put it out of my mind.

    That means I sometimes end up pausing slightly before I say anything, but I think that’s good.

    I’m also doing this with my wife. Put down my phone, turn away from the computer, focus on her when she takes a moment to talk to me.