The Willow Tree Fell / A Modest Thanksgiving / Christmas is Coming / Brighter Work Days Ahead?
During the evening just before Halloween, the old willow tree in our backyard fell entirely on its own. We've been having a lot of rain lately and although I knew half the tree was dead, I figured it was a solid tree and would hold up for a few more years so I could one day slowly cut it down piece by piece. Although it was a sad dying tree, the thing was providing some privacy and the birds/squirrels loved it. Thankfully, my family was inside watching TV at the moment it came down and it fell in such a way that it miraculously didn't take out the fence. The wood is worthless. The tree was completely hollow and the trunk is so waterlogged that I could tear it to shreds with my bare hands. The cleanup took only a few hours but now I have a mountain of garbage wood to slowly dispose of years ahead of schedule. Ohh well. The yard looks funny now; even Scarlett has noticed that something is wrong with the appearance of things. She'll point at the stump and make a questioning sound. So yea, it was just such a surprise and it reminds me that this property is a living, breathing thing that needs attention and support. Ahhhhhhhh home ownership....
Fast forward to Thanksgiving, which was just a couple days ago. I've had the entire week off from work (mandated shutdown) and it's been so nice to be around full-time. Earlier this week, Nicole, Scarlett, and I were able to have a meal out with my sister, Val, and her husband Chris and that was essentially our Thanksgiving. We've been eating out a lot lately and Thanksgiving day itself was kind of more of the same. We didn't cook anything; ate everything out of a jar, bottle, box, or plastic container from the supermarket. With Scarlett being more and more demanding as she grows, we needed a simple, fast, and quiet meal this year. It was nice, actually! And now with only a day left until I need to go back to work for the first three weeks of December (another two week mandated shutdown at the end of the year, baby!) we're trying to wrap things up and enjoy what time is left.
We got our Christmas decorations up but since Scarlett is a grabby-rabbit, we can't have a tree or any decorations at all, really. All we can get away with are some string lights up high on a couple windows and a decorated mantle above the fireplace with a simple tiny fake tree and some twinkly lights. That's it. Anything closer to the ground and Scarlett would be all over it. But I'm not knocking what we did; it is nice to have something festive no matter how small the display. And we have holiday music filling the house plus unexpected gifts already arriving for Scarlett so it'll be a good Christmas. We're planning on driving down to spend Christmas with Nicole's parents in California but it'll be a much calmer trip than the epic family reunion we had only a couple months ago.
I've been talking about it all year and I'm here to talk about it once more: My work situation. For fifteen (15) months now, I've been in a new role that was never well defined and I was never really trained for it. But I stuck it out and found a place for myself and for most of this year, it's been tolerable. There've been some bumps here and there and there are certain people I don't work well with which has made the whole thing toxic to a degree but I always felt that better things would come if I just held out. And I think that might finally be happening. In January, my boss has notified me that while I'll still be doing that crummy role, it'll be knocked down to only ten percent of my time per week. The other ninety percent will be going back to software development for one of the projects I've been shadowing for months. I'm not completely sure that this'll be the best place for me but it'll be a step forward and a step away from the role I've had for the last year that, admittedly, I'm simply not suited for. Finally, my management is recognizing that and maybe I can get my career back on track. A big part of me is extremely relieved and I'm actually looking forward to December and January.
Fast forward to Thanksgiving, which was just a couple days ago. I've had the entire week off from work (mandated shutdown) and it's been so nice to be around full-time. Earlier this week, Nicole, Scarlett, and I were able to have a meal out with my sister, Val, and her husband Chris and that was essentially our Thanksgiving. We've been eating out a lot lately and Thanksgiving day itself was kind of more of the same. We didn't cook anything; ate everything out of a jar, bottle, box, or plastic container from the supermarket. With Scarlett being more and more demanding as she grows, we needed a simple, fast, and quiet meal this year. It was nice, actually! And now with only a day left until I need to go back to work for the first three weeks of December (another two week mandated shutdown at the end of the year, baby!) we're trying to wrap things up and enjoy what time is left.
We got our Christmas decorations up but since Scarlett is a grabby-rabbit, we can't have a tree or any decorations at all, really. All we can get away with are some string lights up high on a couple windows and a decorated mantle above the fireplace with a simple tiny fake tree and some twinkly lights. That's it. Anything closer to the ground and Scarlett would be all over it. But I'm not knocking what we did; it is nice to have something festive no matter how small the display. And we have holiday music filling the house plus unexpected gifts already arriving for Scarlett so it'll be a good Christmas. We're planning on driving down to spend Christmas with Nicole's parents in California but it'll be a much calmer trip than the epic family reunion we had only a couple months ago.
I've been talking about it all year and I'm here to talk about it once more: My work situation. For fifteen (15) months now, I've been in a new role that was never well defined and I was never really trained for it. But I stuck it out and found a place for myself and for most of this year, it's been tolerable. There've been some bumps here and there and there are certain people I don't work well with which has made the whole thing toxic to a degree but I always felt that better things would come if I just held out. And I think that might finally be happening. In January, my boss has notified me that while I'll still be doing that crummy role, it'll be knocked down to only ten percent of my time per week. The other ninety percent will be going back to software development for one of the projects I've been shadowing for months. I'm not completely sure that this'll be the best place for me but it'll be a step forward and a step away from the role I've had for the last year that, admittedly, I'm simply not suited for. Finally, my management is recognizing that and maybe I can get my career back on track. A big part of me is extremely relieved and I'm actually looking forward to December and January.