Voice of the DBA

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 mentally scan your body and notice what it is feeling.

I’m writing this just under a week in advance, but this is good one for me today.

We had a hydrant fail in a field. It really just rusted out, but this is a metal tube with a valve at the top of bottom, which self-drains to prevent freezing issues. Here’s an example of what I have.

What that image doesn’t show is that the frost line for me is about 48”, and in my case, we needed to dig a hole down to about 5 feet (60”) to find the pipe. Actually the plumber offered to dig for US$80/hour and expected this would be about a $1000 hole for him to dig.

My two sons and I went out and did most of the work. Not enough, as the plumber had 3-4 hours of digging to do still, but we saved likely $700-800 in doing some of the work. Here’s us about halfway into our work. We were deep, but had to widen it quite a bit.

The worse part, for me, was the day after the hydrant was replaced. The hole was unfilled and rain was forecast. I got out there early one morning, listening to a couple MVP Summit sessions on headphones as I tried to fill in the hole before the light rain turned heavy.

It’s the day after. How do I feel?

Not too bad. My core and lower back are sore and ache-y, but not too painful. My forearms are definitely tired and sore, and typing is a little difficult. My legs are doing pretty well.

Overall, I feel like I worked hard, but didn’t overdo it. I’m paying for my mostly desk job life turned dirt worker, but I kept within my abilities and am using a little ibuprofen to get through the day.

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 cultivate a feeling of loving and kindness towards others today.

Cultivating is to help something grow. It’s been a couple of rough weeks for me, in dealing with some difficult subjects and experiences with others. In that time, I try to experience emotions (anger, sadness, disappointment, concern), and at the same time show loving and kindness.

Show compassion, show kindness, help support someone through tough times. Help support myself as well.

We are human, which means we are frail and make mistakes. We get emotional, we get upset, we make bad decisions. We also do many good things, and I think, we are inherently good, albeit somewhat selfish in ways. That means we want to hold others accountable, but not unreasonably so.

For me, this means seeing the world not in black and white, but lots of gray.

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 focus your attention on the good things you take for granted.

My life is amazing, and I’ve said it before, I appreciate it more and more. I have nothing really to complain about. My body hurts at times. Things don’t always go my way, but in the grand scheme of life, my issues are tiny.

There are things I sometimes take for granted, so I’m listing a few today.

My hands – this was a tip recently, but an injury to my wrist reminded me of how much I use them and appreciate them. I am being a bit more careful lately in protecting them.

My body – I’ve gotten used to going to yoga multiple times a week and weight lifting, among other things. In the last year, I’ve had a few instances where I struggled to do those things. I realize that I sometimes take my health and body for granted, and I should be grateful for what I can do.

My job – I’ve seen more than a few people struggle with bad jobs, bad bosses, and financial insecurity because of their employment. I have an amazing company, boss, and I try to remember that.

My wife – I appreciate her, I love her, and I value her company and counsel. At the same time, I can take our relationship for granted and not think about how lucky I am and how well our marriage has been for over 20 years. I am trying to stop and remind myself often that I am lucky. I know many people that don’t have that or haven’t found it yet.

There’s more, but that’s a good list for today.