What to do now; Plan, Prepare, Participate

What to do now; We’re caught trying to maintain balance in the crashing waves of pandemic, supply chain disruption, new isolation rules, attempts to restart schools, less than carefully considered imperatives to ‘get back to work’ and natural disasters.  What’s a person to do?  What to do now!? Most of us are straddling two different worlds right now.  There’s our personal life and  stuff, and then there’s the business world which we haven’t completely abandoned or been separated from.  Just because we’re at home, playing at being retired or furloughed doesn’t absolve us from responsibilities to provide advice to our … Continue reading What to do now; Plan, Prepare, Participate

The Bubble Bursts!

The bubble bursts! Are you prepared for your Covid-19 bubble to burst?  I know you’re ready! We’re all ready for a significant change in the way we’re responding to the pandemic, but are you actually prepared? September has always been a threshold for seasonal change in my part of the world. We’re hovering on the edge of harvest, the end of family vacation time arrives, the kids go back to school and the urbanized adults find themselves back at work with new imperatives for business success. This year September’s transformative role is being presented as far more than the normal … Continue reading The Bubble Bursts!

What have you done during Lock-Down?

What have you done during Lock-Down? A colleague positioning himself to re-enter the job force navigated the ATS gating to the point of first interview where he was asked; What have you done during lock-down? Surprised by the question he gave a playful answer. Sadly, the tone and brevity didn’t carry him through to a second interview. What would your answer be? What should it be? Total disclosure: I have done the following; · Taught courses on-line for a contract training firm Began re-writing curriculum, and looked at developing new stuff that I could present to serve my own self … Continue reading What have you done during Lock-Down?

Waiting for the Silver Bullet–dreaming about the future

Waiting for the Silver Bullet–dreaming about the future This situation isn’t going to last forever.  Some bright spark is going to sort through all the data we humans and our new AI servants are collecting to find the silver bullet that will bring this virus to its knees. The challenge is that whatever the silver bullet is it won’t be the magic bullet we need to push the reset button on the economy and society in general. Take a deep breath. This is going to take a while. Waiting for the silver bullet The concept of social and physical distancing … Continue reading Waiting for the Silver Bullet–dreaming about the future

The Adventure continues, and we really start to get some traction

We had a fitful sleep going into the Wednesday of our journey, the day we moved out of London and headed north to the Lake District.  Our host’s live-in girlfriend had worked late the night before, arriving back at the mews at 1 AM, and the two of them churned for a time trying to debrief on the day, organize for the next day, quietly padding around the flat like two dogs circling and circling before settling in for the night. We had spent a lovely day the previous day doing our own bit of a churn, setting off mid-morning … Continue reading The Adventure continues, and we really start to get some traction

Day One departures

Leaving home can be a stressful affair, fraught with the oh-mi-gawds, and did-I-remembers.  This leaving was no different, especially the part where I stressed out over the weight of our suitcases, thinking forward to the number of times we’d be hauling them through strange airports.  But as a ‘day one‘ goes our journey and adventure was somewhat uneventful and quite comfortable. When we got off the tiny commuter plane from Edmonton to Calgary, we were quite relieved.  Things were going well, just a bit cramped. I, in my usual way, was worried that our big bags wouldn’t make it onto … Continue reading Day One departures

Just a speed-bump, not a full stop

I took a break from my ‘day’ job, and the re-deployment effort for this blog for a while there.  Why?  Because for a while there, it wasn’t coming as easily and the white noise was overwhelming. What wasn’t coming easily? ; My ability to get things done from a cognitive point of view.  Huh?  What does that mean? Here’s a somewhat snooty answer to the question “What wasn’t coming easily?”: Responding to complicated instructions with a sense of comfort, and in a demonstrably confident, repeatable, concise, clean manner was becoming clumsy; Holding up my end of a detailed conversation, assimilating … Continue reading Just a speed-bump, not a full stop

Finding om's Fridge

finding a new “mom’s fridge”

I have observed that hiding our non-work related talents, accomplishments and interests “under a bushel” as we get older seems to be a ‘thing’ with some people ‘of a certain age’ here in North America.  Once we get past the ‘mom-will-stick-it-on-the-fridge’ stage of celebrating talent and accomplishment, some of us become very bad at tooting our own horns for anything we do outside of the jobs that dominate a third of our lives. So much of what we share about ourselves outside of the realm of family and friends is parenthetically qualified by how it relates to the job, to … Continue reading finding a new “mom’s fridge”

Continue reading finding a new “mom’s fridge”

Outside looking in…

I have these moments when I feel like I’m on the outside of my life, looking in… a peeping-tom trying to catch glimpses of the real me, and the real parts of my life. I sometimes imagine that I am walking along a darkened street, glancing in the windows of the houses I pass, the windows framing the activities of life and living.  I wait for the bits where its me doing the living, but it feels like they are few and far between.  I generally feel disconnected from forward momentum of my life. I’m not sure when this started … Continue reading Outside looking in…