🏳️ A little white space in our life
Ep. 24: Calling an audible based on a forecast, humanity in the workplace, and some high-flying steaks
If you have school-age kids or work in primary education, you might be on break this week. I hope it’s relaxing and rejuvenating for you!
A Tip for the Modern Worker
Bring humanity into the workplace. Don't you love to learn more about who your coworkers are when they're not actively working? So much of in-office interaction is around our passions, our hobbies, and our families. When you're distributed, it should be no different. Show off your family, talk about your weekend plans, and share pictures and anecdotes. And what if someone else in your household makes an unplanned appearance on your video call? Don't stress about it. That's humanity, and that's definitely in bounds.
This tip is one of 365 in my Handbook for the Modern Worker. How many remote meetings are you in every day? In each one, I bet there are at least 60 seconds of non-meeting time as you’re waiting for others to join. If it’s appropriate, take a few of those seconds and let your humanity shine through. Connect. It’s worth it.
#365DayDraw
I drew this and wrote the accompanying annotation as part of my #365DayDraw project 7 years ago today.
During this heated political season, may I just say the steaks could not be higher? #Election2016
Ha, wordplay! I never do that, right? Well, almost never. 🤨 If I were to revise this I’d have two steaks sitting on a park bench, sharing some edibles, and having a raucously good time. Anyway, we all remember the election of 2016, and yep, those steaks were pretty darn high.
Commentary
Well, I spoke too soon. Last week, when I wrote about our trip to Mont-Tremblant, I didn’t yet have access to the 10-day forecast. Our lift tickets and hotel reservation had us there Wednesday into Friday, with ski days on Thursday and Friday. We usually hit first tracks and take a break around 11 when lift lines become untenable, and resume skiing after a nice lunch if conditions are still good. Based on the forecast, that was going to be pure misery.
With first tracks windchills of -19°F and -17° for our two ski days, Amy and I decided to pull the plug and make alternate plans. And, skiing in active snow is fun for a few runs, but I love a nice untracked groomer early in the morning. A few things made this an easy call: it’d just be the two of us, we were not spectating or helping at our kids’ ski race (we spent a decade doing that, in sometimes really sub-zero temperatures), and everything was fully refundable. Still, we felt a bit of loss since it would have been a really good time if the weather had been more temperate. Honestly, is 28° and sunny too much to ask for during February break?
We’ve made some alternate plans that’ll be just fine. An overnight in New York City. An evening showing of Bad Cinderella. A delicious pre-show dinner. And hanging out in our hometown while taking advantage of some of the perks Ithaca Loves Teachers offers. A little white space in our life before resuming our normally scheduled programming.
In the meantime, I’ll share a picture from 2018 at Mont-Tremblant. These younger colorfully-clad Dawsons enjoying a bluebird day. And, check out that beard.
Miscellanea
Amy’s bakery has an online order form that submits to a Google Sheet. From there, I needed a way to get the orders into her Google Calendar without manual intervention. Check out my step-by-step guide: automatically create Google Calendar events from data in a Google Sheet.
Did you watch Saturday Night Live's Lisa from Temecula sketch? I love it when trained actors absolutely lose it during a comedic sketch. Ego Nwodim has a stellar performance, but even she breaks character for a brief moment. Pure hilarity and worth every second.