A Whirlwind In My Brain

It's a bit like having an E4 twister in my head. Since waking up this morning, I have had a parade of thoughts of things all over the landscape. No one thing has stood tall, front and center. Just random things like the weather, the cat, work, home, future, general stuff, The Stack, The Project, the weather, food (recipes, what I'm going to make for next week's lunches), etc.

Thinking about the home front and the work front and the carpet and all sorts of other things are keeping me busy. That's a good thing, except that the thoughts keep bumping hips, falling over and crumbling to dust when they hit the bottom of the brain pan. Then they coalesce, rebuild into something new and take another turn.

I had to stop and fill the tank this morning and, baby, it was cold outside. I had been listening to the news while I got dressed, for the traffic and weather more than anything else. At 0-dark-thirty it was 32d in the surrounding area. Getting gas was made semi-demi comfortable because I bundled up and wore gloves.

Coming over the hill a little later, it was misting and cold enough that I thought I might get to see some snow. I didn't and was/am a little disappointed.  Just a little snow would have been nice, like a dusting of powdered sugar over the top of a cookie or cake. But it just misted through the cold.

Normally the phrase "what are you wearing" is laden with all sorts of meaning. Most often that question touches on the suggestive. This morning I might as well have said "I'm wearing a wool union suit".

What I was / am wearing are: My heavy pair of jeans, a polyester short-sleeved tee under a synthetic blend sweater under a silk scarf under a plush-lined jacket under a synthetic fleece vest, under a synthetic knit scarf. Upon arrival I did take off the synthetic knit scarf and gloves before trying to type. And, despite the polar bear look of the fleece / jacket / scarf / sweater I was still chilled. Not cold, per se, but decidedly chilled with vaguely tingling fingers. It took a fair amount of hand rubbing to get the blood to flow and warm up the digits, but they're working now, so it's good.

The one thing that really made my morning was, believe it or not, a hot flash. Don't let anyone kid you. Menopause during the winter isn't all bad because there are times when the timing is perfect. Like this morning or, my favorite, when it's two o'clock in the morning, the house is freezing, and you wake up because you have to use the bathroom and... hot flash! Your very own portable heater that makes the freezing room comfy while you take care of what needs taking care of. By the time you get back to bed the worst of it has passed and you're ready to settle in and go back to sleep. Those are the good times for a private power surge.

Of course there are the other times, the summer times when it's 100d outside and you're spiking into the internal ionosphere. That's no fun. Then it's all you can do not to strip off completely, no matter whether you're on the sidewalk, in a restaurant or meeting, or someplace private. And in the someplace private I will confess to having done that until the requirement passes. Cool cloths only do so much, after all.

Front and center, on the work side of things, The Project I worked on came back to me again, for the third time. I hate when that happens. I feel as if I've failed when, more than anything, it's probably just a miss-in-communication. My understanding of what's needed isn't as clear as it should be, and I don't know enough about what I'm doing to ask cogent questions. That's one of the problems with stepping into another person's responsibilities with someone you haven't worked with before and are expected to hit the ground running while wearing a blindfold. Zero training. Zero real explanation. Just here's this and this and this and... it's all yours.

I've been around the block enough that this isn't unusual. It's still difficult and uncomfortable, but not unusual so I've done what I thought needed to be done. Nope. Came back and I took another swat. Then, with clearer understanding, I asked a couple of questions, parroted back what I thought I'd heard and got the green light.

So, now that it's clear and I do understand that further analysis is required, I'll get started. I even have a plan (yay, me!). First, I'm going to analyze the hell out of it. How many which ways to Sunday? That's step one. Step two is doing it, checking it, and then I'll toss this fish back across the fence. Once that's done, I'll dust my hands and head to the sink to wash the scales away.

After that there are other things. Like The Stack which, because it reached the point of ANNOYING, I spent an hour working on this morning. Things are better. ==> That side of my desk is clear, except for the coffee cup rings I didn't know were there are now showing. Obligatory wash down and at least the plastic surface will be both clear and clean. <== That side of my desk is piled a touch higher, but it's all good because it's now all in one place.

There are other little things swirling, but the big ones have stopped popping for the moment. So now I'll head off to do my analysis of The Project and then I'm going to get started on The Stack. Maybe I'll even dig down to China (or Japan or Korea or whatever characters those things on those documents are).

Have a lovely day!

Best~
Philippa

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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

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Ephiphany & The Swords of Damocles

It’s four-thirty in the morning and I can’t sleep because it’s still hot, even with the fan in the window and the overhead running. I haven’t got a clue what I’m going to write this morning, and I’ve got two big projects waiting for me at work when I get there. Just like swords dangling, preventing the peasant (me) from resting easy.

Do you know the story of the Sword of Damocles? You’ve probably heard of it, it’s a great little story. In fact, I’ll tell you what I remember of it (it’s been a while so give me a break if you remember different).

There’s this king, see, and he’s got all the kingly problems every king has. Then there’s Damocles, a peasant. He’s outside the castle bitching and moaning and going on and on about what a jerk the king is, how he has it so easy. The king gets tired of hearing all of this stuff, so he has his guards bring the peasant into the castle.

“You think I’ve got it easy, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Well, I don’t. If you’ll join me for dinner tomorrow evening, I’ll explain.”

“Sure, it’s a date.”

Damocles shows up for dinner the next day and there’s a fabulous feast spread out on the table. His mouth is watering. He’s never seen such a spread. But, there’s a bit of a problem. There’s only one chair at the table. Hanging over that chair by a single horsehair is a sword, point down.

“See, Damocles,” says the king, “that sword is like my problems. One little shift, one wrong move and boom it’s all she wrote. Those guys out there, that army on the other side of the border? They’re a problem. I’ve got to feed and clothe my army to defend against them. My soldiers need weapons and…” The king tells Damocles all the headaches he has and Damocles gets it. It isn’t easy being king.

Now, if anyone ever talks to you about the sword of Damocles, you’ll know what it’s about (and you can Google it, if you want – but that’s the gist).

Anyway, back to me and my world. So I’ve got these swords of Damocles and…

Both of these projects “have” to be done by tomorrow, and both are HUGE given the time constraints – each probably at least six or eight hours apiece.

On one I did hedge and told the director requesting it, ‘I’ll do my best’. That’s all anyone can do, so I got started yesterday, got sidetracked by an emergency from another director, but have clear direction. Now, if MS Project will just cooperate, I’ll be fine. It might not be 100%, but I can probably get it to 75% or so, without too much sweat.

See the deal there is that MS Project is being difficult. It keeps crashing. Of course, the fact that I have a file that’s about 100MB doesn’t help. But it crashes and I lose what people have told me about – their task updates – and we all get frustrated. I don’t like being frustrated. I don’t like other people being frustrated. Something has got to change. So I talked to our IT guys and we came up with an idea that might solve the problem.

We’ll take this monster project and break it into three pieces but, of course, it’s not that simple.

Knowing this thing was going to be massive and a problem from the start, I began by creating one file into which I linked each department’s tasks from separate, department specific files. For the past eighteen months or so, it worked well. The data was added to the master file and filtered through to the linked child table. Then it got too big and here we are.

So somehow I’ve got to collect all of the data from all of the tables into one new table from which I will create three separate tables that include elements from each, but it’s not that easy.

I can’t do a save as because there’s no single table to save – there are nine tables, all separate and discrete except for their linkage through the master table. That means I have to copy and paste all of the records from all of the tables into a new table, and make sure they’re in the same order so no one gets confused.

Then I have to verify the data, line by line, to make sure that nothing got lost in the translation, and then I have to make sure that the people and departments responsible still have the responsibility assigned to them in the new table. Meaning I have to recreate the two custom fields I created in the master table, and replicate that data, too.

It’s not rocket science. It’s just challenging and time consuming. Then, once I get that done, I need to do a save as to create one table for the immediate need, another save as for the longer-term goals and a third for the completed tasks. We want to see those completed tasks, to be able to look in the rear-view and see where we’ve been, but they don’t need to be shown in either the current project or long-term goal tables.

I’ve been asked to have that done by tomorrow. Hmm. Dunno if it’s possible but since I hedged, and since I have a clear idea of how to get from here to there, I’ll back-burner it. Set it aside and work on the other, more pressing project.

This is that training I’ve been working on. You know, the PowerPoint with the voice over with which I’ve been struggling.

I never did get the voice over done, which is just as well. I discovered on Tuesday that I have to take what I’ve created, stand it on its head and make it waltz in a different direction because Perception and Reality have not been aligning.

Months ago, our company auditors came in, poked around, saw we had some things but not others and said, ‘you have to get this under control!’

That’s where I come in. I have been tasked with Document Control – which is cool. I like stuff like this. The idea of me doing this surfaced a few months ago after the audit and the discussion of bringing someone in from outside was tossed about and discarded. My participation was kicked around, firmed up, sent through the mill and came out the other side with a stamp of approval. Now I need to introduce it to everyone, but not everyone is thrilled.

The lack of thrill isn’t in the concept, really. I discovered the other day that it’s in the way the concept was introduced. There’s a misconception that requires clarity.

One of the company directors, not the one driving this train, another one, doesn’t see the need. They’ve been clear that they’re less than thrilled and have been, quite honestly, dragging their heels. That was until the other day, when we both had an epiphany.

We were sitting across the table from one another in a meeting with their team when the subject came up again. They said, ‘they’re taking over the world!’ and I said, ‘no we’re not. We’re just here to make sure the world fits the standard.’

See – that’s all it was – a perceptual difference of opinion.

They had not clearly stated their concerns or cause for reluctance, and I had not clearly stated what it really is all about. We both thought we were clear, but the prism between us was refracting The Light of Comprehension in different directions.

So, I explained. ‘No, it is not about me taking over and doing this. It is about me looking at what you create and making sure it fits the standard that’s being set. I can help you, but it’s still your job.’

Epiphany!

But, because of the perceptual difference there, in someone integral to the original discussions, I realized that I have got to make the prism shift crystalline so everyone sees the light. That leaves me with the immediate pressing task of turning this puppy on its head, and making it waltz in that different direction.

I got started yesterday – changing the title slide and starting to re-work the script. But I have got to have it done by tomorrow when I have been asked to do a walk-through for the director charged with getting this going. But that’s okay, too. It will give me a chance to walk through it, to think about what I’m saying, how it’s being said, and seeing how (if) it flows. It will give me greater comfort if I know it’s ready.

Game plan for this: print out what I have in the PowerPoint and the script. Identify the broad strokes that will clarify the goal and then focus down through layers. In the end, everyone has to understand why we’re doing this, how we’re doing this, and what our final goal is so that the process is easy to follow.

Once I get that done, I’ll put both the slide show and the script back together and get it ready for tomorrow by running through it by myself a few times, to make sure it flows, is smooth and conveys what I need it to convey. From there, I’ll have to find a quiet place – not the conference room – where I can do the voice over so we’ll have a training deck ready to go. Maybe back to Plan B - my bedroom over the weekend. Whatever, that can come later, in the final bars of the puppy's waltz.

This should be a fun day – I’m looking forward to it! Hope yours is half as exciting!

Best~

Philippa

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