No Context For You – January 31st

Has this felt like the longest freakin’ month, following the longest freakin’ year, in anyone’s recent memory? Like, I’m sure for those living in Europe or Asia or even here in the US during 1939 through 1945 had their own fair amount of stress, and I’m not sure we can really claim to top that. Then there was that Civil War in the 1860’s, the Black Death in the 1300’s, and so on and so on.

It’s not a competition.

But in our lifetimes, and I’m getting close to being officially “old” by government standards, this is pretty unprecedented.

On the other hand…

A lot of my personal issues revolve around my workload. Between my job (year-end, budget, annual Board Meeting – and mind you, this is the best job and the best work crew that I’ve ever been with) and the hangar (again, year end, audit coming up, some “issues” that had to be dealt with on a tight schedule) and personal life (holiday, Christmas lights, plus all of the “normal” stuff that needs to fit into the schedule, plus the aches and pains of getting older and this shoulder that’s acting up) I’m trying to stuff ten pounds of pickles into a five-pound pickle bag. Remember those guys who used to spin plates on top of tall bamboo sticks on The Ed Sullivan Show? Yeah, I feel like them with about a dozen plates going and trying for just one more…

The good news is that I’m winning some of the battles, particularly this week. The annual budget, a HUGE project, has been approved and most everyone’s happy. Other big “drop everything” projects that popped up in the middle of the budget process have paid off. There’s progress and I can see the end of the tunnel on preparations for the hangar audit. And so on.

So the accomplishments feel great – let’s not forget that there are hundreds of hours of follow up and implementation and then all those things that got shoved off onto the back burners to get the high priority items done, and…

The accomplishments feel great. Oh, and someone’s favorite football team is going to be in the Super Bowl for the second straight year this Sunday, so that might be spectacular as well. And things in Washington are…better? That helps.

As for the photo, I suspect it’s the equivalent of a “butt dialed” phone call, somehow accidentally triggering the camera while I was carrying the phone. Maybe Siri thought that I wanted her to take the picture. She’s a eager little minx, always willing to please, but sometimes a little bit too eager.