Tag: sabbatical

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

Today was my first time volunteering on a Critical House Repair for Habitat. I thought I might be taking Tia and Kendall to the airport, and was thinking I’d need to leave early. However Kyle said he’d drive them and I left at 8, which turned out to be a touch late.

Lots of traffic and I stressed a bit driving. There was construction out in the country, and a 8 minute delay for me there, which had my arrival time at 9:03. Then construction on I-70 as well, but I managed to pull up at 9:02. Fortunately they hadn’t done the safety briefing.

I got the standard spiel I’ve heard a few times, with a foreman and 3 Americorps volunteers there. They said mostly painting and caulking, which I don’t enjoy. However the foreman said one person could help cut wood for the railings and ramp in front and I volunteered. I think I was lucky that everyone else was from one company and they stuck together.

This house needed help, and the program with Habitat upgrades problem areas at cost. In this case, the man was starting to have walking issues and we were putting a wheelchair ramp on front of the porch. We also had to put new railings up, as there was a new roof over the porch. Previously the house had gotten a new roof, new windows and doors, and was almost done.

As I watched others caulk and paint the upper eaves and upper half of the house, I helped frame out the upper platform off the porch, then moved off to put new railings with pickets in front and on one side. I cut lots of wood to size, and held lots of pieces that people screwed in.

Near the end of the day we were decking the top with TREX and I helped screw pieces in. We managed to get the upper and lower platforms framed and mostly decked. The lower ramp needs to wait for some other work, so we were almost done with the project at the end of the day. I’d like to go back and help, but other volunteer tasks this week.

It’s neat to help improve things. Unlike some of the other builds where it barely feels like I did anything, it felt like I helped today as I was working with 3 of the regulars and we moved quickly.

However I’m beat. Ready for bed.

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

I was hoping to get more done today, but it was a touch of a bust. A late start, lazy in the morning catching up on some blogging and laying around with my wife, who had a late start.

Then it was off to the store. The flagpole was stalled until I had more 2x4s for the other side. As I drove, I think I figured out the problem. I jointed too much off the 2×4, which was somewhat bowed, and then when I tapered it, there wasn’t enough scrap to cut the other side.

I picked up 2 2x4s, fairly straight from what I could see. I brought them home, stopping for a couple errands, but when I got home, it was windy and rain was threatening again. Grrr. Too much of a pain to get the jointer and planer out.

I decided to then get some things done at home. With PT in the afternoon, I cut some grass, got kids to cut grass, and got a kid to load up the truck with giveaway clothes. Then it was PT, cook dinner, and off to Scouts, where I’d committed to review an Eagle project plan.

The one good thing was that a friend of mine was there who’’ does a lot of welding. He’s looking for work, with lots of free time and I had the chance to ask him about the base support. He said it would be easy to weld and to come see him sometime. I think next week might be the time to do that.

That’s about it for the day. Tomorrow volunteering.

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

Today I had a new volunteer task. The local high school my son attends lost their principal last year and they are searching for a new one. They asked for parents to volunteer to interview candidates and I sent a note in. Today I got called to help out.

Up early, arriving at the school board building at 7:30 and then spending 5 hours interviewing and then discussing candidates for the position. It was a long morning as we had to whittle things down to two candidates, which we did. Now I get to go back Thursday for more interviews.

Flagpole

The second part of my day was flagpole work. I first had to watch my video again, or part of it, and then measure to move the cleats on the flagpole. This is to cut down the thin sides. I did that, and you can see below that I moved the first section over.

Once that was done, I knew I had to hurry a but. The wind was picking up and dark clouds coming in, so I quickly cut the boards once they were secure and got two pieces.

I was supposed to flip over the scrap to cut it again, but I had an issue.

As you can see above, the middle part, isn’t quite wide enough. I’m not sure if that’s a measurement error (it looks OK), or a warped board (more likely). That’s an issue. I can’t use this as this piece will be thinner than the other. I need to buy another.

However that’s another day. The wind rolled in and I had to cover things quickly, tying down the tarp. No more for today, but I’ll need to go pick out more boards and then cut them again. I’m going to try to do that tomorrow.

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

Today is another early day, but no sabbatical work (other than this post).

Tomorrow is SQL Saturday #286 in Louisville, KY. I’d committed to this before I had scheduled the sabbatical and since I’ve submitted, been accepted, and cancelled twice for Louisville, I’m finally going.

Up early, packing, which was simple given that my travel bag is pretty much packed all the time. Add some socks, contacts, shirts, and zip it up and I’m good. I grabbed my laptop bag, spent 15 minutes scurrying around looking for my cord bag before giving up. I was hurried the last trip in Orlando and I wonder if I left that bag in the hotel.

Annoying, but not a huge big deal. This was a kid’s zippered pencil bad that held a few charging cords, wall and car USB adapters, and my presenter remote. Maybe $50 worth of stuff, though the presenter remote is the one big thing I miss. I’ll try to replace them in Louisville.

I’m writing on an airplane, knocking out yesterday’s and today’s entries. I cleared out some email in the airport, mostly just deleting notifications of spam and other events from the box, skipping by emails I might care about later. I did go over the talks the other night, but I’m also double checking the demos and making sure things work today so I have smooth deliveries tomorrow.

I have two talks, The Encryption Primer and Branding Yourself for a Dream Job. The latter is also scheduled for SQL Bits in July, so I’m glad I get the chance to go over that now. The other talk for Bits is a related, but different encryption talk and I need to practice that today as well. As sabbatical ends, I’m flying to the UK, and I won’t have much of a chance to prep, so this sabbatical break is a good time to do so.

A strange day in the sabbatical. Most days have me moving, not sitting, and today is mostly a sitting day. Still, as much as I have been enjoying the time off, I also love my job and the chance to go see, meet, teach, and chat with people is something I’m looking forward to doing.