Plugged back in

Monday, bright and blue-skied. First Monday back in the office in several weeks, and it doesn't feel different at all. Has it really been four weeks or so since I've been here? No, not quite. There were a few days of work, during those first two+ weeks out, when I was either in the office or at a work-related retreat.

I had the last two weeks of July scheduled for some time off and timed to coincide with mom moving to a new apartment, then mom went and had a heart attack at the end of June. That pretty well put paid to July. Douglas Adams wrote that in no known language has ever been coined the phrase, "As lovely as an airport." Hospital can be swapped with airport and that quote stands just as well.

The really good news is that mom came through and is doing very well. Operating pretty much under her own steam again, getting out, meeting her new neighbors, etc.

Since I wasn't planning to get away this vacation, I committed to unplugging. I de-activated access to my work email/calendar on all of my portable devices and willfully didn't check. This morning I will do a quick scan for messages that rate a The-Sun-May-Not-Rise-Tomorrow-If-You-Don't-Read-And-Respond-To-This-Message. Those which do, I will deal with. Everything else: select-all-archive.

Was this as good as a real get-away vacation? No. Did unplugging make a difference? Yes. I highly recommend it, in fact.

While I was gone my little blog here turned one full year. Sorry I missed it. I intend to keep going, for whatever it is worth. Not sure if I will stick as rigidly to the rules I set out (in my own mind) for this diary of shuffled commute music and musing, though.

This morning, in fact, wasn't a shuffled playlist at all. I listened to Joshua James' album Build Me This. Color me slow on the uptake, but until this morning I hadn't been able to put my finger on who James reminded me of. This morning it dawned on me: Rocco de Luca. Not to suggest that either artist is in any way derivative, only that their styles remind me of each other.

So... is it good to be back at work? In all honesty, I'm on the fence. I still need a good get away vacation someplace in the near future, and don't really feel that I've had that restful break we seek in time off. However, coming back to campus is not painful. I do like this place.

- Posted via Hermes.