Wednesday doesn’t get a lot of love. Wednesday’s child is full of woe, you know (I was born on a Wednesday). And it’s hump day. Supposedly that’s because it’s halfway through the work week, but for me today, it was more like today was a giant hump I had to pull myself over.
Trees are turning green, though!
I’m tired now, but I feel accomplished. I started my new job role and I think I know what I’m supposed to do, kind of. After that, it was meeting after meeting, which made it hard to get writing done. But much learning and teaching was done as I slogged up that giant hump.
Sliding down the Wednesday hump was more fun than expected. I had fun with the horses and even got Fiona sort of clean. It was obvious that we had a few rain sprinkles, because both Apache and Mabel had droplet marks on their coats. I wish I had a picture!
Nope, the only picture you get is an owl pellet or something. No, my consultants say it’s a mummified rat. Fun things found in the garage.
Lee had to go to Austin today and stopped by a nursery and got me some plants! That’s when I was certain I was over the Wednesday hump. Our porch and patio will look great with the new greenery.
The white petunias even smell good!
I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I get a cake! And lasagna! Simple things make me happy.
Here’s February in the temperature blanket for 2026. Got through the month with no orange! (Today was orange—over 85°)
PS: I awoke this morning to good election news. That hadn’t happened in a long time! Good primary here.
It was a different kind of day, all around. I’m at a campground and I didn’t even go for a walk. Too busy working and thinking. I did go out to dinner at the scenic Bush’s Fried Chicken in Brenham, Texas. When we celebrate, we go all out.
That is supposed to be 8 fried chicken livers but I think it was more. So good with okra. My gall bladder would not approve, if I still had one.
I did something I never thought I’d do today. I turned down a job offer that would pay more than I’ve ever made and last more than a few months. I finally made it to the point where I chose my mental health over my fear of poverty.
I’ve been heavily recruited for a job at a very large corporation doing pretty much what I do now, but with a staff. I wanted to know more about it, especially when they kept raising my potential income. I did let them know I was happy where I am, especially with the new opportunity that came up.
I agreed to interview, and that happened yesterday. The funny thing about it was that three of the four of us in the meeting had similar Teams backgrounds and were wearing nice quality zipped hoodies. It’s like we had a uniform. The other woman had a pink top, giant trendy glasses, enhanced pink lips, and very yellow hair. Her fancy lighting system kept showing up in her background. Her name was Barbi. I kept my sexist prejudices to myself.
Just thought I’d slip in a picture of my bedroom window with a crow curtain I made.
They all asked good questions and didn’t make me repeat my résumé. I gave good answers, because in my advanced years I no longer get nervous. I figure I’m interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing me. And I have so many stories of success and failure implementing this software. A good time was had by all. Much nodding and laughter occurred. That’s good. I hate a dour interview panel.
The job offer came a couple of hours later, which surprised me. I was flattered to think I did so well. I’ve certainly flopped enough times to feel like I deserve to feel proud.
So Lee and I talked about it. There was much of interest at the big corporation, but I got hints of a lot of bureaucracy. And I vowed never to be anyone’s boss again after my time at Planview. Plus, I really don’t want to still be sitting at a desk when I’m 70.
So yeah, I said no. The reasonable corporate culture where I am now, combined with the great group of smart and collaborative people I work with means more to me than money. I can see a good path towards winding down my career where I am. So I’m staying. That’s worth celebrating.
I had the television as one of my screens so could write and see my source material at the same time.
I did have a lot to do today, so I still feel needed and valued.
Tomorrow I shall be out in nature! I couldn’t leave without at least a few photos from the day.
Green anoleStork’s billBuckeyeDwarf dandelion Playful cardinal.
After my deep funk last night, I wasn’t all that well prepared for today, but by the time you get to be a senior citizen, you know that “fake it ‘til you make it” is a real life hack. So I hacked my way through the day and have emerged unscathed. The day was fine, successful even!
I got through my long webinar like a seasoned veteran (oh wait, I AM a seasoned veteran). My colleagues helped out with questions and I think everyone was happy enough. And I spent the rest of the day cheerfully doing my things.
In cheerful work mode
And I finally heard that my contract was being extended until June, which pleases me very much. I’d been recruited by another company to do a similar job, but I was more interested in staying where I am, because it’s such a collaborative environment. So, good news there. We will see how I feel this summer about taking a break or what.
Lee and the dogs vote for taking a break.
The other factor that’s encouraged me today was that I realized I’m not waking up every day to worse and worse news in the US. It’s now like 50/50 ratio of disgusting to encouraging! I just hope we can someday go back to not being “led” by lying pedophiles and their amoral puppeteers. Feel free to disagree on your own blog!
Humor break. I set my phone down on the bed with the camera on. I noticed a camera icon on my watch and used it to take a picture from the bathroom! Nice ceiling, huh?
The weather is warming up, too. Birds are singing love songs and Apache may well be starting to shed. Between him and Alfred, the birds have lots of nesting material!
I worked long hours today and had a great time talking to the people I was helping one on one. It feels so good to be useful and make things easier on folks learning complex software solutions.
I think skippers are cute.
Now my introvert self has kicked in and I’m worn out. Gotta rest up to do it again tomorrow.
Besides, I spent most of my blogging time chatting with a friend. Personal conversations are healthy!
Dainty Sulphur. You know it’s small—these are tiny asters
Also uplifting: there were 58 bird species here today! That’s a tie for the record at Hermits’ Rest. It helped that I was listening so early that I caught the owls hooting.
Good night/morning.
Bonus photo of New Mexico, where Lee went for a visit this week.
I’ve been in the Portland, Oregon area since yesterday morning, here for work meetings at my fine new job. I’ve had a great time so far, and feel like I’ve contributed to some good work with this company.
Fiddlehead in front of a work building.
I’ve had no issues getting my exercise in, because I’ve walked back and forth between buildings many times. Each meeting seems to be in a different building. It would be fun, except it’s as hot as Texas! It will cool off, maybe.
The rose city is Portland. I’m in Tualatin.
It’s pretty here but I don’t see myself having much time to see any nature. I’ll keep trying! The work setting is great, too. I’ve learned a lot about the amazing machines this company produces for the semiconductor industry, and I enjoyed seeing the research areas very much.
No interior photos due to secrets and stuff.
Mostly I’m really enjoying meeting my coworkers and the people we are helping. I’ve had a lot of fun chatting and laughing as well as getting lots done. Any hiccups have been worth it. Maybe I’ll get to come back someday.
View from hotel room
I hope to be less tired and more coherent tomorrow! Maybe I’ll be able to describe my days better.
The tarot card of the day was the Child of Water (Page of Cups).
Aww
She reminds me of myself as a child, who ran along the beach in Sarasota, Florida. I found out a coworker now lives there today, so the card evokes my memories. The card just reminds me of myself, the little dreamer. Currently the very tired little dreamer in the Pacific Northwest.
How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?
I don’t think I’ve ever been great at unplugging, but I’ve muddled through by being very consistent with my meditation practice. That way I get at least 20 minutes of turning my racing thoughts off nearly every day. I’m glad I’m one of the people who can use meditation. I know some folks can’t.
Just relax and go to your happy place, in this case the bird sanctuary I help with.
But I’ve always been “too sensitive” and always felt a lot of empathy for people who are struggling. Combined with a drive to always occupy myself with work, volunteering, and knitting/crochet left me with little downtime and no time to unplug. Heck, I always worked on camping and condo trips. At least I worked with good scenery.
Good scenery is everywhere if you just look. Still I’m glad I live out in the middle of rural Texas.
I didn’t know how to listen to my mind and body and give them a rest when needed. I just made sure I had good anti-anxiety meds and took the right vitamins/supplements to support that busy brain and body. Not altogether healthy, huh?
My mind and body fighting each other, as depicted by Carlton and Penney.
My last trip to Hilton Head in April was the first time I ever really unplugged. I didn’t watch or read the news, I took lots of long walks, and I quit constantly writing in my head (I do that, like I’m my own narrator, which is truly annoying when I realize I’m doing it).
“I’m walking down the road heading to our house, thinking about how thick that giant cane has grown,” says Narrator Suna.
I found out I don’t keel over and the world doesn’t stop if I take a break from making contributions. I don’t always need to be mothering or mentoring. It’s all right just to BE sometimes.
Unplugging gives me time to slow down and notice like a shed grasshopper exoskeleton.
The past few months of not working for pay have helped me relax and taken a lot of pressure to succeed off me. I must confess I had a job interview Thursday and it went very well. I’m a sucker for helping an organization maximize their use of that darned software I’ve supported for so long. But I’ve learned to set firm limits, and even if I do one more consulting thing, its length will be limited.
Oh look, another exoskeleton. (cicada)
I’m sure I’ll need to remember how to unplug when that’s over, if I do okay on the second interview. Hmm, didn’t I ask you readers to talk me out of going back to work recently?
I’ll delay my book report another day, since I happen to have been thinking about my work history a lot today. I was trying to figure out whether I had a career arc or just a series of random ways to make money to live on. Hmm
Rain lilies with insects.
I started out planning to work in academia, but realized early on that I liked the teaching part way more than writing academic papers. After a couple of years working with the infant internet I suddenly was a web designer (back when it was EASY—I always like to mention that my first few sites didn’t have color, because everyone still had monochrome monitors. There’s more in my Prairienet post.
Once I got my first job at a software company, I knew what I liked to do, which was teach others about software. I loved writing software manuals and editing the work of others. I figured it out before I was 30, which is pretty good for figuring out what you want to be when you grow up.
Ruellia
The arrival of two children sent me on a detour, but not too far. I kept making websites for people, nonprofits and such, while teaching a different kind of adult as a breastfeeding support volunteer. I met so many lovely people and was able to be at home with my children! That was truly the best part of my work history.
Mud dauber on glass
I ended up getting a real job with the nonprofit and led their online efforts for a while. I got valuable experience working remotely and creating online communities. While that job had a pretty horrible ending as the organization went through one of its periodic implosions, I got to keep my knowledge and friends. After a good deal of therapy, I recovered (plus my spouse left, I did dumb stuff, and blah blah…).
I kept teaching no matter what. There are many people who knit or crochet thanks to me.
It’s fun.
It’s okay, because desperation to support my kids led me to a job writing software training that led me to meet my fine spouse, Lee. The years when we were first together led to a series of software training jobs where I learned to make videos and teach so many people so many things in so many industries from manufacturing to weird mainframe accounting software to telecommunications. It was really fun and challenging.
Portulaca
I got to concentrate on just one thing, project management software, for the past 15 years or so. I even had a “real” non-contract job, where I used every single skill I’d been developing. What a privilege! I loved making training videos, writing help content, designing user communities, and collaborating with smart people!
Now I’m some kind of expert in training this software, and people come looking for me. That feels good, even if I do like this retirement gig. I do enjoy helping organizations do productive work, so I may help out again, just not for four years like I did at my last contract job! That’s because horses and nature are also fun.
I’m worth not working.
So, yeah, my career had an arc. Teaching adults to use software. I’m still doing it for Master Naturalists, after all!
This morning, I did my chores and realized it was a bad day for birding—too windy. So I came inside to work on Master Naturalist projects.
Windblown Engelmann Daisy.
At 12:50 I realized I’d worked as much as I would have for paid employment. That’s always been the way I am. I make up a job if I don’t have one. In college I was always typing something for someone. In grad school I knitted. When I was supposed to be a mother at home I created a web design empire and nonprofit online community for other mothers (with a team).
I needed to chill out and look at birds more, even back then. Red-tailed Hawk.
Now I’m retired, so I either write all day or do social media for my current nonprofit. I fixed up the Wild Wings Bird Sanctuary site for those four hours this morning. Time flies when you’re typing, as I discovered in my teens.
Time also flies when you’re identifying native plants. Texas verbena.
I guess I now see how all those older Master Naturalist folks get thousands of volunteer hours: they have time. It keeps me out of trouble and out of the horses’ faces for at least part of the day, too.
They watched me take this photo of the “best” wildflowers this spring. It’s been a bad year.
Probably that’s for the best, since I keep getting stepped on (Mabel in a tizzy over distractions) or walked into fences (Apache learning to move his butt). Tomorrow I have to corral them all again for their annual shots. We will see who steps on whom.
Everything’s going okay on the career wind-down front as well as here at the Hermits’ Rest. However, I experienced something curious today in my final meeting with my coworkers. They expressed surprise that I’d finished a project I’d been working on, and that I was interested in fixing the SharePoint site up and tying up loose ends. I said, “There’s no harm in finishing things up with some professionalism, is there?”
No bull, I meant it. (That IS a bull on the right)
The project lead said she wished she saw more of that in the people that aren’t leaving, and we all laughed. Honestly, it isn’t their fault the expense cuts had to be made, and I know they are not going to have fun integrating what I was doing with the huge project they are trying to work on. Why not be helpful and help them until I can’t help anymore?
Sometimes I do wish I had the option to just fly away. (The feather was replaced where I found it; I know the rules about messing around with migratory bird feathers.)
Later I was thinking back on a couple of other jobs that ended before I was ready for them to end. I especially remember my time at the nonprofit organization, when I was trying to hold my team together while a huge rift was occurring among members. Then, in April, I was informed that my job was being eliminated as of June 1. Two months was a long time to be a lame duck employee, but we were doing a lot of online activities to support mothers and babies, and we needed to keep it coordinated. I could have just stopped, walked away, and told the organization to go screw themselves.
I’m too sweet for that.
But, nope, I organized volunteers, worked on a transition, and tried to keep people’s spirits up. It was all for naught, but I felt a responsibility to try. And I got life-long friends out of the deal!
Teamwork mattered to me.
The job I had before this one was similar. I could see that things were changing and that I’d take the brunt of it, so I focused my last six months on getting my team supported and not having to do work they weren’t suited for. Once that was done, I was more than happy to go. I guess I just want to finish things up and support team members, even when there’s no one to support me in my work. What does that say about me? I’m a sap? I care about my coworkers? I’m professional?
I also care about animals. I was happy to see this skinny cow had a healthy calf and is gaining weight.
I don’t know. I think what it really means is that I value people over large corporations and bickering nonprofits. That may be a positive or negative; it just is, I guess!
(PS: someday I’ll tell you about the time I DID just walk out on a job.)
In other news, I’ve been enjoying the new weather station Lee got me for my birthday. It’s much nicer than the previous one and can store data. I’ll still need to get my official rain amounts from the CoCoRaHS gauge, though. That’s the only one that counts in weather official-dom.
It is solar powered
Lee also bought a steel raised bed that he wants to grow “things” in. It’s not going to exactly feed us for the next year, but it will give me a project to watch over during my non-working time…as if I need more projects around here.
Raised bed.
Onward and upward until there’s a need to be professional again.
I’m a technical writer/trainer/instructional designer as my paying job. I also do a lot of editing. This kind of profession has probably been around since there were jobs. Someone has to teach others skills needed in various professions, and someone has to record information accurately.
Someone had to pass along fence building skills on ranches, so birds could poop out seeds and create rows of trees on fence lines. These are Eve’s necklacepods (Styphnolobium affine)
I’m pretty sure there are technical manuals in hieroglyphics. No doubt scribes hand-wrote instructions for doing things correctly. Certainly people have shown others how to perform tasks (weaving, sewing, carpentry, brewing, and such) without need for writing. Maybe they drew pictures. Teachers have always had to be there to pass down necessary skills, whether formally or informally.
No one teaches flowers how to bloom.
So, while I don’t work in the world’s oldest profession, skills like mine have always been needed to pass on traditional skills. Teaching may be the second oldest profession.
Technology has affected what I do like it has any form of teaching. It’s provided new tools to create material and given us options like videos, which any of us can now use (to either teach or confuse, judging from the videos on knitting I’ve seen).
I need a genetics teacher to explain how the white versions of flowers come up.
Of course, what I teach about is software, which wouldn’t be a subject if we didn’t have computers at our fingertips. Sometimes I wish I could teach something more tangible or timeless. Software comes and goes in a flash. No one needs my WordPerfect teaching skills today!
I figure no matter what new technology comes up, I’ll be using it to share knowledge with others. That’s my passion.
Conversely, I’ll also keep wanting to learn. It’s why I enjoy my journey with trying to ride my horses skillfully and care for them appropriately. No matter how old I get, I want to keep moving and learning. Just look at my posture! I hardly recognize myself.
Apache also looks better.
I’m glad to have a job that’s always relevant, no matter how times and technology change. I’m just as glad to have hobbies that have been around a long time but remain relevant, like equestrian skills and crafts!
Temperature blanket through March 24
End of ramble. Here’s another picture of me and Apache, this time looking medieval.
The Hermits' Rest 