Tag: life

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 be kind to the planet. Use less energy today.

This isn’t always easy to do, but I am trying to be a little better about this. As my kids leave the house, with the last one going in a couple weeks, I know that there should be less energy usage around here. I’ve made it a point to shut down my computer more often, and also kill more electronics that don’t need to be plugged in and running. There are some we rarely use, so flipping a power switch on a strip is the best way to reduce some usage.

I’m also trying to make less trips to the gym and store, combining things when I can. Small changes, but lots of small changes add up.

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 call a relative who is far away to say hello and have a chat.

This is an easy one this time of year. If you didn’t make time during the holidays, do so now. For me, I try to call my Mom every week or two and chat a bit. We also email and text, but it’s good to keep in touch.

My brother is busy, with three kids in high school now, and we don’t talk enough, but I reached out a few times across the last few weeks to chat and say hi. We even had a family video chat on Christmas day.

I also joined my wife in reaching out to her sisters, who we haven’t seen in a long time because of the pandemic.

I’m not a big talk-on-the-phone person, but it was good to reach out and touch a few others.

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. Pick up litter or do something kind for nature.

There isn’t a lot of litter in my life, as I live in the country. Most people are good about not throwing things out in the neighborhood, though certainly I might find some when hiking a trail.

However, we are trying to to better by nature. My wife and I watched Kiss the Ground a few weeks ago. It was fascinating to me, and it got us interested in trying to compost and do better with the world. We already have piled up and composted horse manure, which some friends have come to get, but we decided to try and do one better.

We got a kitchen bin for gathering food scraps, and then bought a basic composter for the yard. We’re starting to use it and capture the waste, trying to reuse it. I don’t know if we’ll get to gardening, but we certainly can use it to spread around and help build better soil.

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 choose to give or receive the gift of kindness.

I’m giving this week. It’s in my nature, and I still struggle to receive.

My wife has been boarding horses for a friend that sold her house at the beginning of the pandemic and has struggled to find a new place. She finally did, but they had to rebuild some of the infrastructure from scratch.

As a part of this, she wanted some slow feeders for the horses. To reduce hay waste (a little) and ensure constant availability for horses (a lot), I build a number of feeders for my wife years ago.

These are wood, nothing fancy, but they work well and we fill them each day with day that lasts 24+ hours (depending on # of feeders, weather,  and # of horses). This friend of my wife wanted two for her house. You can buy some commercial ones, but they tend not to work as well. My wife turned to me, asking if I would mind.

It’s work, and I have no shortage of things to fix, but I said yes, as a gift. I got wood before Christmas, and then spent a couple half days assembling these and getting them ready. Sometime in the next week, I’ll drive them up to the new barn.