Tag: sabbatical

This is the last post of my second sabbatical, covering the last few day so of week 6. I got sporadic near the end, for a few reasons, but this looks back at days 29, 30, 31, and 32.

Day 29 was a bust. After finishing up at the Oracle conference on Day 28, I felt sick. I woke up worn out, with a running nose. I ended up staying in bed all day, playing a little guitar, but mostly just sleeping and trying to get better. It helped, as I felt OK for Day 30.

Day 30 came with a lot of snow. It covered the property, and while no cars were stuck, it was a mess. Friday’s are my wife’s day to feed, and I agreed to help and try to dig things out. I ended up going through and trying to plow out some of the property. I got a bit done, but some was too covered. As a result, we ended up putting out large bales. That means I start here:

and end up here:

Then I drive this out to somewhere and leave it for horses to eat from. I joked with a few friends on Facebook that not only is this a skill I never expected to learn, it’s one I never knew existed.

I ended up spending about 3 1/2 hours on the tractor trying to get things cleaned up and organized, including moving snow on the driveway to ensure my wife could get out Saturday morning with a trailer.

From there, a little yoga, coaching, and then finally an evening out with my wife watching George Lopez.

The weekend and Days 31/32 were spent in the mountains. My son and I got up early Saturday and drove up to snowboard. We had a great time on a rather warm day, going up and down at Keystone.

We then retired to a house that my sister in law had rented for a week. She’s on vacation, and we went to spend time there. It was a beautiful place, and we enjoyed it.

Everyone arrived Saturday night or Sunday night and we ended up with about 7 of us spending time there. Monday and Tuesday were very cold (around 0F) and windy, so we didn’t ski. Instead, it was good to catch up with family and friends. Rather than working at all, I enjoyed the last two days of my sabbatical with a relaxing morning each day. I cooked breakfast for everyone, which is relaxing and enjoyable for me. I also did one dinner.

The days were spent talking, laughing, playing games, and wandering around Breckenridge doing a little shopping and eating. A bit too much indulgence, but I’ll get back to the routine now and improve the diet and exercise time.

I wished I had brought a guitar, but it was a good time, and very relaxing.

Day 1 back at work was getting up early and driving home.

That’s it for my time away, and I’ll summarize a few things in another post. A few thoughts in today’s editorial, but now I’m looking forward to the next sabbatical in about 4 years.

Two days of work in the middle here, which is a nice break from my break. If that makes sense. I left early yesterday to drive up to Westminster for the Rocky Mountain Oracle User Group Training Days. I spoke here a few years ago, bringing some SQL Server knowledge to the event. This time I’m representing Oracle as Redgate expands into that area. I’ve been excited by the work that our Oracle group did in 2019, and I submitted last year to this event, in anticipation of them releasing something.

They did, and here I am. Yesterday was plowing through a few emails and then practicing the Oracle demo for today. Today was an early talk. I gave a DevOps for Oracle talk, which went well. Other than SQL Developer being much worse in high DPI situations than SSMS, things worked well. I had a few good questions, though overall, it seems that Oracle people (devs + DBAs) are behind the SQL Server world in terms of trying to adopt better practices.

I also watched the keynote, which was on data analysis in the cloud. It was from someone working at Snowflake and was a good, pragmatic look at the cloud. Again, Oracle people want to stick with Oracle, and there were some questions asking if the Oracle cloud and sticking with Oracle products works well compared to AWS/Azure/GCP. It seems there is this preference to stick with the Big O, but the presenter did a nice job of trying to get them to think about getting things done, and using other tools where appropriate. This has been the message from MS for a few years. Use what works, even if it’s not an MS solution.

Overall, this made me realize a few things. One is I miss working for Redgate. I really enjoy talking with customers and clients and helping them work through issues to build better software. I’ve been out of that world for a couple months, and I’m ready to go back.

Two is that I enjoy the technology. Listening to people talk about this stuff is fun and exciting. I see downsides, challenges, security issues, privacy problems, overblown and hyped marketing, but I’m genuinely excited by the possibilities for the future.

I only spent a half day here before heading to the gym and then coming home. I’m still under the weather, with a dripping nose, so I bailed. Still, a nice break from the sabbatical.

Now it’s back to volleyball tonight, a little guitar practice, then more cleaning tomorrow.

Down to the last week. Actually, I have one complete week left. I’ll go back to work next Wednesday, Feb 26. That’s because I’m working today (Tues) and tomorrow, speaking at an Oracle event in the North Denver area. I submitted early last fall and heard I’d been accepted after planning the sabbatical. Rather than cancel, I decided to attend the event and take a couple extra days. So, an interruption, but that’s fine.

Catching Up

The last week has been slow on things related to the sabbatical, but still very busy. The last three days have been at a volleyball tournament in Greeley, CO. Three nights in hotels, coaching all day with lots of emotions, excitement, and struggles. While I think the team slightly underperformed, I was pleased that they managed to take a 15th place tie with a few teams and finish in the silver bracket. That’s the first time in 4 years of coaching that I’ve had a team finish in the top half of a three day tournament. Not sure I had much to do with it, but I’m glad they did well.

A quick turnaround at home, as I’m in Westminster today, in another hotel tonight. It feels like the last few weeks have had a lot of nights away from home, with time in Pueblo, Vegas, Keystone, Greeley, and now Westminster. On one hand, a very busy time, on another, still relaxing and a glimpse of retirement.

I didn’t take a guitar up Friday, but I did get some time in Friday morning and yesterday, working through some old skills, and adding some rather difficult sections to “Landslide”, which I’ve been wanting to actually learn. I think I know what to play, but not quite sure I’m playing it well. Still, something to work on. One nice thing was getting home yesterday afternoon, laying in bed and playing a bit and my wife falling asleep listening. She likes to hear me working through things, and it’s relaxing for me.

The last week has also been a glimpse of retirement for me. I have things to do, but I’m not pushing or rushing through them. I’m slowly working on various projects that I or my wife need done. I’m also getting to the gym a bit, though the weather last week and some ill health slowed that down.

I hope to get back to the gym on a regular schedule, as well as try to finish up a couple things. I need to do more repairs on the hose caddy and donate a few more things, as well as throw out a few more things. The basement is more organized, which is a partial goal. I’ll have Thur and Fri to work on that, and then I’m done. Sat-Tue is skiing with family, and that will be it for the sabbatical. Work starts Wednesday, and it’s a busy day. I’ll get a couple more updates, and then a retrospective next week on the entire time away.

As much as I have enjoyed this time, I agree with Brian. I’m ready to go back to work. I have a great job and I’ve missed it, especially the people.