Coronavirus-covid 19

So many things have changed. Not just masks and staying home. The biggest thing is work, it's changed so much. The job that I have d to used to have daily travel. Travel to hotels, mostly nearby. Over time the job morphed and I had hotels in 7 states, which meant that I needed to fly occasionally. Planning a month out, then Monday morning was a drive or a trip to the airport. Now my daily trip is to my office, to sit behind a desk and look at numbers and set appointments for a webex. This means that i can meet more often, so much so that it gets VERY old. Its been like this for nearly a year now. my last trip was in March 2020 to SLC. It's not the travel that I miss, it's the phone calls that I hate, it feel so ineffective. So, much like I am losing something each day. Losing that relationship with people that I work with. So many people reach out by phone, that they are tired too. here is my day, everyday... I wake up around 4am.. not sure why, but that's what it is.. somedays like today, I wake up even earlier. I check my emails, early in the morning, respond to some, and check my schedule for the day. watch my youTubers and am happy when one of the walking youTubers is on live so I can sort of communicate with people that I don't really know. I don't really move muuch until about 7am then I make french press coffee for me and my wife (it's a little noise with the grinder so I dont' do it earlier) Then I switch to local news if I have worn out the YouTuber shows. I change, sometimes take a shower and get to work. Reviewing numbers, prepping for calls and try to come up with something, anything new to help move 2 numbers... RGI and Heartbeat scores.. if those numbers are down, I feel like I lost. If up, I don't feel much better, just.. well mmmph.. another day. I may have a call or two in the morning, following up on items.. keeping in touch. Then at lunch, I work out.. I hop on a rowing machine that I bought a few weeks ago.. i have been very good at doing this Mon=thurs. then sit in the sauna, and make some calls from there. Off to the afternoon.. more calls, more prep, follow up. maybe a team meeting and call friends in the company and done. dinner time, tv, maybe take the dog to the dog park.. day over.. next day... repeat until Friday. I have been volunteering at a food bank.. helping to deliver the food to families that drive up and we put the stuff in the car. it's a nice break, makes me feel useful. then at 11am, back home.. back at work.. again follow up.. make calls etc. no rowing on Fridays, so maybe a walk with the dog. week after week after week after week, the same thing...... the same thing.... I see flaws and I bring them up too often.. so much so that my boss is frustrated with me.. I know it.. I know and yet, can't stop bringing them up. I won't get into them.. let's just say that they bug me that nobody else sees them, fatal flaws in my opinion that only make it harder to do the job. i need to let them go.. let it all go, but that just means that I care less.. and makes the job even less meaningful and even more.... the same.

Travel

 I love travel, we have had so many amazing trips, but the only traveling that we have done this year is a trip to the other side of the house.  It has been interesting because I have always wanted to be more organized, to have more of a schedule.  My job takes me everywhere, and then on vacation, we like to go somewhere else as well.   This year the plan was to go to Italy, but alas.. that did not happen.  At the time, Italy was hitting it's Covid peak and now US citizens can't travel at all.   I do love our trip to Japan so much and still watch videos daily about life in Japan.  Paris or Tokyo.. great places to go.  At one time I wanted to go to many places.. now it seems that I want to go back to places that we have already been and just chill, take it easy.  I don't regret having a schedule each day, as a matter of fact that would be hard to give up as I don't like to waste the time away.. I don't want to spend too much time in a hotel.  i want to be out. but I also would like a day of just walking around.  One of the most memoreable days on a trip was in London.. We were on the Hop on Hop off

bus.  Taking in some sights, but the traffic made it just feel like we could walk much faster, so we Hopped off and didn't get back on..

we walked across this bridge and over to the London Eye.. an unplanned little walk and I loved it.  Myra Loved it and Sam had a chance to play on a playground.. now he is too old for that and maybe that was the last playground he played at.  So, it's good to plan, but it is also good to just go and explore without an itinerary.

 Here I am, just turned 59!  I guess I am feeling a bit sentimental today.  All this time spent at home, working from my desk.  there are times when you just get overwhelmed with well.. everything.  Today was one of those days.. I RARELY" get depressed, but maybe this is what it feels like.  since a little over a month ago, I have been waking up at or around 4 am everyday.  I do wish that I could sleep in, I just don't.  Which means that at about 3pm I feel like I can doze off, but I don't I push it until 10pm when I crash.  

I have a new bike!  yay.. I love it.. and I realize that I never ever even blogged about my bike obsession.. Back in Tulsa, I bought an Electra Townie and rode the crap out of it.  and then a hybrid mountain bike and then a carbon fiber specialized roubaix, which I put thousands of miles on and recently sold it.  I also have a Surly Long Haul Trucker and a Tern Node folding bike and a Raleigh racing bike from 1958... and now.. an electric assist commuter.  I love it.  I love getting on the bike and flying down the road.  it is awesome.

Anyway ( I seem to type or say that a lot) I think that I will share my Instagram account, since I do love taking photos

https://www.instagram.com/chrisb8s/

Maybe I will write more here, not sure just yet

One big thing I noticed about Hawaii... I actually noticed when I came back home.  They have this thing called Aloha Spirit.  It seems like everyone has gone to an incredible training class on friendly... but it is simply a part of the culture and you start to adopt it the more you see it.  Here is what it is.

A “Akahai” meaning kindness, to be expressed with tenderness

L “Lokahi” meaning unity, to be expressed with harmony

O “Oluolu” meaning agreeable, to be expressed with pleasantness

H “Haahaa” meaning humility, to be expressed with modesty

A “Ahonui” meaning patience, to be expressed with perseverance

Yup, that sums it up... I am going to post some of my better photos of Hawaii when I get some time.  I just thought I would document for myself this Aloha and how I believe that if we all try a little harder, it may start to happen over here... well, not with everyone.. not with that guy at the gas station yesterday that was so angry I thought he would run me over... 

I also noticed, that their political ads only mention what they are going to do.. no discouraging comments about their opponent.. not one negative ad on tv.  Not one!.

I am back

It's July 31st and it's been years since I've posted to this blog. I guess Facebook and other venues afforded me an opportunity to be social.. I guess... not that I am a very social person. The truth is, I need very few people in my life and they are already there, some I would like to see more and I don't look to meet new people or spend time with anyone else. So... why after all this time am I writing again. Well, the day after my birthday (I am now entering my 52nd year, crazy) I just feel very introspective. After so many trips, to so many places, one place made me feel different, and that was the trip to Hawaii with Myra and Sam. Today as I take a break from work on a lunch hour, having some coffee I can't help writing down how I feel, how I feel that I have changed a bit. I guess I may be afraid to go back and look at the posts from several years ago, to see how I was and how I am. So... what's changed? It wasn't Hawaii, or Maui, or the people or the beach, it was the time I spent with Myra and Sam and the flood of memories of times that I spent with Alex and Andy when they were younger, and maybe even a few memories of when I was younger. It's about how at the end of the year, if we take stock into those moments that Mattered... the time that we will remember, the time that we wish we had more of.. well it has nothing to do with work. I feel that my work is unimportant, a means to an end.. a way to make money so that I can live.. not meaningful, but I try, and will try harder to help others in achieving their personal goals,and maybe their professional goals too. Two things happened on my birthday, I got an email from a sales person that was elated that I helped her to find a better place to work, somewhere where she will be happy... and I spent time with my boss reviewing some of the work that I need to do to report on the state of my area... top priorities, strategies...etc. etc. .. I wish that helping others was measurable in some way.. that I could put it on my KPO's.. (key performance objectives). So, as I feel a little closer to understanding the meaning of life.. I realize that there are many times that i am very far from it... floating in my ford taurus, pushing buttons on the radio trying to find something to pass the time... when time is so special. That is what I realized and it made me a little scared... time passes too quickly. Alex my oldest son called me on my birthday.. a first.. the first time he called me on my birthday.. Andy said he loved me on Facebook and wished me a happy birthday. Sammy made me a card and gave me a big kiss as I plugged away on my computer trying to work... trying to pay attention to my boss explain how I need to set my goals...and strategies for work. I know that planning is important... sure... so I am starting to plan a way.. to spend more time on things that I love and less on those things that are meaningless to me. I think I know what I would like to do... now I just have to sit back and wait. Maybe by the end of this year.. there will be a change. Ok... off to a rambling start :) back to blogging

Anybody still here?

friend me on Facebook... Chris Bates

Thoughts as time has passed.... Alex and Andy have grown older, but not grown up.. they are still kids in my mind, even though they are both teenagers and getting even a word out of them now has been impossible.

I hold on to moments this summer when we spent a short 3 weeks together,memories that while together, it was if we were never apart. We enjoyed being together and talking about the future and hopes.

I don't know how they will remember me in the next few years, hopefully they will remember that I have tried for years now to even get them to pick up the phone when I call, and now to just simply answer an email or to leave a message... nothing comes back now. I don't deserve this type of treatment.

For so long i excused the boys out of their fear of their mother and maybe they still have some of that, but they could take a chance on talking to their father, or then again maybe their mother is truly psychotic at this point.

I will eventually be moving back to arizona and we will be closer in proximity, but hopefully we will see each other more also. I am planning on it. planning on the hope that they will allow me to help them, to simply be a part of their life, but it really will be their choice.

I know that I have given what I can, with no.. absolutely no discussion from their mother for 10 years other than with regards to money.

it's been awhile since I have posted, but here I am...

47

wow, that sounds old

so far i have been underwhelmed by my coworkers. I got a few happy birthday notices, but not from my boss, or from people that work with him, I expect more from them, but that's ok, I know where I stand.

it's funny to get happy birthday notices from around the world from people that I have never met. thanks,

I dont' know why, but birthdays tend to make me melancholy, maybe I am not alone in this, but this anniversary of my birth reminds me of some things, and of course I am very thankful for others.

Thanks to those that remembered, of course my family.

and... I do hope that Alex and Andy call me today, they said that they would.

but we'll see.

take care all.. maybe I will only post once a year :)

sammy having some lunch