Daily Coping 22 Mar 2021

Posted on March 22, 2021 by way0utwest

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.

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Enjoying Sunshine

Posted on March 19, 2021 by way0utwest

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.

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

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

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It’s Been a Year

Posted on March 19, 2021 by way0utwest

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.

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Tool Limits

Posted on March 19, 2021 by way0utwest

In many jobs, there are a variety of tools that people use on a regular basis. Chefs buy knives, mechanics buy tools, doctors buy stethoscopes, etc. While many of us in technology don’t always have to buy tools, some of us certainly do. When there is value and it makes sense, many of us have purchased IDEs or add-ins or a utility that makes our work easier.

Our tools are different than physical ones. We need a place to install them, but we often have employer-owned workstations, which complicates matters with licensing and rights to install. Bringing tools with you, or taking them with you, is often a strange situation, especially as our tools often need “privileges” to connect to other systems, which may be a problem for many employers.

Many organizations do provide some tools, and we can certainly build others. We know how to write scripts, utilities, code generators, and more. We may get an IDE or some other commercial tool, which often ensures that all team members work in the same manner, though we may find a need to extend or configure how it works. My employer, Redgate Software, builds tools like this for database developers, and we strive to ensure that our tools make your job easier, and we try to ensure you can extend or integrate our tools into your work.

Forgetting the hassles of purchase and installs, today I’m wondering what you think about the tool you do use. What tools do you use, and what are the limitations or hassles you find? Are there issues with your tools that inhibit productivity? These might be ones someone in your organization has written, or those they’ve purchased. Or maybe you’ve extended some tools to work in a different way and you’re proud of your work. Let us know about how tools might dramatically help or inhibit your efficiency.

Steve Jones

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

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