Tag: coping

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 to a piece of music without doing anything else.

I saw a list of acoustic guitar songs recently and on it was Babe I’m Gonna Leave You by Led Zeppelin. I listened to a lot of their music as a youth, and I’d forgotten about this song. So, I pulled it up on Spotify, closed my eyes, and just listened.

Like many of their songs, there is some beautiful, peaceful guitar part that moves into a rock opera. An interesting lick that quickly gets buried inside of a heavy bass and drum part. At times, the loud singing is at odds with the guitar.

An interesting piece.

Another one, which I actually heard while swimming recently, was Starship by Kanye West. I was moving along and found myself distracted by this tune, actually hearing the words. I know I’d heard the song before, but I don’t know I had listened to the words, but enjoyed that one, completely distracted from the effort of the monotonous laps.

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 on what makes you and others happy today.

It’s Friday, and a relatively quiet day for the family. One of the things that we enjoy is dinner and a game. Usually a card game, so I’m focusing on making a tasty dinner. It’s fajita day for me, but just chicken. I’ll add in some steak and more veggie variety for others and make some guacamole.

For the same, usually Catan or Spades are our choices. Fun games that make us laugh and compete.

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:  If you find yourself rushing, make an effort to slow down.

I’m often rushing. My life gets chaotic, usually because of my own choices, and I find myself trying to cram lots of things into a day. Work, exercise, coaching, fixing something at the ranch, guitar, some Duolingo lessons, and more. During the pandemic I liked the slower pace and stopping to cook most nights, though I ended up gaining a COVID-20+ pounds. Or a COVID-10 kg.

I still do some cooking, but with less alcohol and less snacking.

I was rushing around last week on Wednesday, as that’s a day I work, try to get some exercise, and also have to coach at night. This week I decided to try and slow down. Since I cook, I decided to do some prep and multi-task with some Redgate videos I needed to catch up with while I got dinner ready.

I relaxed after practice with a guitar, but no goals, just some light strumming and unwinding from the day. It helped to relax me after a busy, but not too rushed a 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 look around and spot three things you find unusual or pleasant.

I was lucky enough to travel recently a few times. One trip was to upstate New York to see my daughter, and I made it a point to look for a few different things. Here are a few things I noticed:

Cheese Curds

I don’t see these around Colorado (or many places I travel), but looking for a late night dinner on a drive between cities at 10pm I found multiple bags of these at a small rural gas station. At a few other convenience stores, I saw quite a variety.

Interesting, and quite tasty.

Cash Only

We drove a few towns over to bowl one day. We walked in, got our shoes and a sheet, and proceeded to bowl. The person at the desk said we would settle up later.

While we were there, my wife went to get a drink and was told that it was cash only. I had some in the car, and again, they said to settle up later.

It was interesting. They used old fashioned, mechanical cash registers to total our bill and then gave us change for the cash. They trusted us to pay, and I was reminded of times when I was a kid when that was how many businesses ran: cash, trust, and things totaled without electronics.

I miss those days sometimes.

Weather

The weather was rainy, chilly, and damp. The old house we were in was designed early in the 20th century, with older architectural elements, big floor heating ducts from an oil furnace, and a bit of a draft.

We looked over the weather, on average, for the area. It’s often cloudy, which made us miss Colorado but reminded us to be thankful for all the sun we get. I missed the sun last weekend and am glad to be home.