Head Down & Closer to Home

I'm going to put the various hobby horses aside for the moment. Enough is enough, don't you agree?

On the home / work / immediately-before-me front, we've had a couple of days of glorious rain. The creeks are filling up, the air is cool and soft, the perennially blue sky of Northern California is covered in clouds. It makes a nice change from normal.

Two days ago Porter Creek was, to all appearances from the road, dry. None of the runnels and waterfalls I pass on my way to work were runneling or falling. This morning, Porter Creek is living up to its name. It's got a good head of water flowing through it. Not full, not the bottom being covered, but respectable. The runnels are charging down the hills and the waterfalls are filling up.

The fluff of sycamore leaves that I scuffed through last week have "melted". They're limp and lying flat on the pavement. No satisfying rustle as I walk through them anymore. Just "squish squish squish" but there's next year.

The rain and the damp make a wonderful change. I'm even getting accustomed to walking around in it - something I used to dislike. But it feels so good!

As I always do whenever possible, I left my window open last night. I went to sleep listening to the rain and woke up to the same. I love it and hope we get enough more that the drought will be alleviated (solved is too much to hope for in one winter) without landslides and flooding and the rest of it.

At work I feel like a one-armed paper hanger working on three rooms simultaneously. People coming into town for an extended period need rooms at a local hotel. I want to see if I can get a deeper discount than the corporate discount we already have for this junket so I need to speak to The Person In Charge at the local hotel.  But the person with whom I normally speak at this particular hotel is on vacation until next week, so I need to speak to the owner. The owner wasn't available yesterday afternoon. I don't have absolute confirmation this is happening, so I'm stuck and...

Next week I have our monthly management meeting that requires catering. We've been doing a lot of Italian in the past few months. Last time I did Mexican (simple stuff - burritos, rice, beans, chips and salsa) but it didn't seem to go down all that well. The first time I served that, I got rave reviews. Last time, not so much so I need to find another option.

The local Chinese restaurant has mixed reviews and I'm leaning in that direction but am not sure because not everyone likes Chinese. I have to make a decision today or tomorrow at the latest so I can place the order in time for them to order in what they need. No, it's not rocket science, but it is to serve the CEO and senior staff, so I want it to be "right".

We're working on carpeting a part of our office and want to get that done by the end of the year. That's going to be "interesting" since I only got approval to do it late in the afternoon on Tuesday of this week. I need to get a purchase order cut and all the rest of it. Time consuming but, again, not rocket science. I'm just waiting on a couple of last details from the vendor. Unfortunately, I can't finish the purchase order without the information and we can't place the order without the purchase order and...

On top of that the major project for which I was originally hired two years ago is going to pick up steam after the first of the year and I need to get that information gathered together and on track again, schedule regular team meetings, etc. Just time consuming and fiddly - nothing too difficult except the balance between what one senior staff member asked me to add to our schedule and the direction given to me by the person in charge of the project. On that I know who "wins" - I just have to implement it.

Also, after working with our Project schedule for two years, I'm seeing places where we can rearrange and streamline. I need to get that done before tomorrow so I can distribute the information. Then I need to schedule meetings with groups prior to our team meetings and refine what I come up with.

Just another day in Paradise, right? :)

But it is fun and as the dominoes fall I'll get that rush of satisfaction, so it's all good. Another case of life continuing while other things take place.

It does feel good to be paying attention to the home front instead of the world front today. I've had enough of the world front so I'll let other people worry about it for a time. Until something nasty enough to grab my attention and ire pops up again. Probably next week, knowing me.

There are other things perking in the background, as usual. Big things and little things - so it's all feeling a bit much right now. Time will pass, things will go by and the pressure will ease, but right now, confronted by it, it all seems to be too much. All I have to do though is remember to breathe, to take that next step and keep moving forward since standing still is not an option.

In a month, maybe two, the answers will be clearer and things will be calmer (I hope!). I just have to get from here to there, and I will.

In the meantime, I'll look at the clouds and listen to the rain and look up instead of down. I hope you do the same because the view ahead is so much better than the view at our feet.

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories