Last week I saw The Avett Brothers 3 nights in a row at the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado. Seeing a concert at that venue has been on my bucket list. While we were as far away from the stage as one can be, it was still a magical experience.
Today, this morning, in a few minutes, I will prepare myself to adult. My day is filling with meetings as I ease back into work projects.
That is all. I don’t have time to write anything more insightful.
Oh, and it’s my birthday today. I’m 45.
Not having anything pressing after work is nice. Allows me to stay later without feeling rushed. I could for example continue a conversation with a coworker who’s been an immense help on an important project.
Most had left for the day. I was on my way out, stood up in my cube, and took this picture.
While I like a quiet office, I also like people being around, talking, laughing, solving problems with positive spirits. It’s great to be part of that kind of team.
The sun is shining bright into my small basement window. It’s nice.
I don’t have a lot of meetings this morning so can focus on exercising a process I’ve helped design that will be used for migrating data between solutions.
Making the press of a button control the flow of data between storage locations is like using a magic spell.
During a trip to the mall this past weekend I did what I usually do while my wife is trying on clothes somewhere; I bought a coffee from Starbucks then found a place to chill and people watch.
Malls are so full of activity, so many things going on. Every cluster of people a rich history of memories, culture, behaviors. There was this old guy sitting just to the right in this picture. He had on large sunglasses. To his side stood a stable looking four footed cane.
A couple times I felt him studying me. I studied him out of the corner of my eye. I wondered if his eyes were bad or if he had recent surgery.
His sunglasses were giant and covered the sides of his head. I wondered what sort of career he’d had. I wondered if it would be weird if I just started chatting with him.
But I didn’t. I sipped my coffee. Watched people come and go.
Eventually the old guy stood up and shuffled away to meet up with a woman I’m guessing was his wife.
I eventually did the same.
I’m trying something new, writing a post directly from my iPad. It’s kind of weird, but turning it allows for easier typing.
Today was so nice. Naps. Cool weather.
After a 10 mile mountain bike ride this morning, my afternoon consisted of napping in a hammock, reading, and some website work. During all this, there were multiple cat snuggles, some wanted, some not. The one with stripes sleeps peacefully on the back of a chaise, purring when you pet him. The fluffy fat one follows me around wanting food but not attention. He gets lots of attention instead.
The wife is out shopping with a friend and was looking to get me some new jeans. I know you’re going to be disappointed, but it didn’t work out. The store did not have the style of the brand of jean she was considering. From old (not wearable) to those in current rotation, I have 6 pair of Classic Straight and 1 pair of Vintage Straight. She was looking at Original Straight. She backed the hell off and said I’d have to be there to try them on. Smart woman.
I haven’t blogged for a years now. Not since the 4 years of weekly posts I managed during graduate school from 2006-2010 called “The Moonlighting Student.” I put a lot of information about myself, my life, and my personal dilemmas out onto the internet. As the years went on, I felt less comfortable with it all out there so retired it. It was good to focus on writing down my thoughts into words.
This site is now being hosted on Dreamhost. It’s new ground for me and I’m really liking it.
It’s the first time I’ve used them to host any sites or content. So far it has been a good experience. I can SFTP using Transmit, I can SSH via terminal to restore *.sql exports. It’s all good.
And the best part? Someone else is responsible for the server and keeping it running and updated and all that goodness.
I’m used to installing WordPress myself, or using tools like Plesk on a cloud server.
After having had a number of WordPress sites hacked via PHP Backdoor exploits, I’ve been learning a lot about new offerings in the cloud and service area for quick to stand up open source applications like WordPress, Wikipedia, dotProject (I had to install and play with this one).
Made good progress on side-job and personal web things today. I’m off to ride the DTE, also new ground (mountain bike single track), maybe with my friend and coworker who we’ll call “Bradley”.