My favorite cup of coffee is the fresh cup I have about 3:30pm on Fridays, I make a pot enjoy the smell, pour a cup, take a sip and relax. This ritual clears my mind, as I jot down a few important tasks for the coming week. Plan, prepare, and put the past behind, every Friday at 4pm. Rebooting.
It has been a dull two weeks and yet a busy hard two weeks, my goal of posting a weekly learning experience faced a challenge during this period. I could tell you of remodel work that continues but at a much slower pace or a daughter’s distressed, teary call after a minor car accident 9 hours away from home, her first involving another vehicle.
There were countless meetings held at work and church, some for which I was better prepared and one that I personally scheduled only to forget. Had it not been for someone confirming the time I would have missed that meeting altogether. I struggled with multiple workouts, either not motivated, sore from the previous day, or just too distracted unable to mentally finish the long mile days. There was the 4 am weather alarm waking me from the one peaceful night’s sleep telling me of a predicted late afternoon blizzard that missed our dry parched area of the country altogether. The teacher at my house was left with a frown when the anticipated Monday snow day failed to materialize. That incorrect forecast caused some anxious rescheduling of some other important tasks, causing more tension in this two week period. Two weeks of second guessing every grain sale I made or didn’t make as the market behaved unpredictably. And there was the half day I spent coordinating with family members this year’s registration to the Chicago Marathon, on an over capacity, locked downed, unprepared web site.
Yesterday there was a board meeting that had its challenges. Then last night I stopped my expected 10 mile run at 2.74 miles a distance I take for granted anymore. A run that should be easy, knees hurt, breathing not steady, mind wasn’t clear, I was done. A short jog finished me. Like the Chicago Marathon web site I crashed. For my computer you just flip the switch and reboot, clear the memory, reenergize the circuits and start over. On a bad day that process takes just a few minutes, but never longer than it takes for me to fix a pot of coffee, pour that first cup, and take a sip.
Two weeks of no big issues, two weeks of buffeting, two weeks of being tired, two weeks very similar to my 5 day a week treadmill habit, running fast yet going nowhere. No disasters, a few sore muscles, nobody really hurt, a few bruises emotionally and mentally but none physically. A hard two weeks but not as hard as some people had. It is Friday afternoon time to reboot.
So what great proverbs do I have for my two weeks of absence?
1. Some minor accidents are, some important meetings are not, serious workouts should never be, and acting on an errant forecast will be.
2. There is information we don’t need, particularly at 4 am.
3. Don’t let the weatherman decide for you between preparing lesson plans or not.
4. Tasks dependent on the unprepared will be difficult to accomplish
5. “have you tried rebooting?” those IT guys do know something.
David
