I’m a little behind posting and have been piecing this post together several times this month because I just get really busy. But man oh man how time flies! It’s been nearly 3.5 months since I posted last but SO MUCH has happened — things I’ve left out accidentally or on purpose for a more appropriate time. Let’s see where to begin…
First of all, I left this out of my last post by design since it was a tough topic, and still is, but time’s passage does help. I wanted to include a quick tribute to my sister-in-law, Lisel Weidenborner, who was killed in a horrific car accident back in 12/14/2020. Continued thoughts and prayers are needed 4 months to the day…and they’ll be needed for years to come as there’s a long road and new journey for David and family.
We’re now over the year mark with Covid 19/Corona/”Rona”. The world, for the most part, has changed both for the good and bad. Really, it’s the way the world works… the world is always going to change, just sometimes at faster or slower paces (this time it was accelerated due to a virus). This has changed the face of politics, laws, perceptions about aspects of lifr, personal life in general and business life, including the corporate Work from Home (WfH or WFH) structure for untold numbers of companies and millions of people. Regardless of the complexities involved, it has reshaped what “normal” is going to look like forever to some degree for everyone.
My company last year had several marker points that executives said we’d evaluate this date, and then such and such date, and then finally just said whenever X, Y, and Z indicators are at a certain level we’llthink about going back. Recently in an all-company meeting they told us it’s theoretically possible to go back mid this year whereas they last said it would be later this year! In my new role (explained later), I need to be in the office regularly. Even before that, I was not fond of WfH even though there are tons of benefits. I’m looking forward to going back to the office on some sort of regular basis. To each their own, right?
Last year when millions lost jobs altogether, and countless others were cut back on pay or some other aspect in their jobs, Danielle and I were fortunate that our impacts were not as severe as others have been. We’re thankful she’s gotten back up-to-par and at my company I was ecstatic when I got a promotion to another dept at a full/normal pay bump without a Covid impact, so it worked out on my end, too.
For 10 long, grueling years I’ve held some form of call center/support center job. They definitely paid the bills and I’m thankful for that, plus no qualms against the companies themselves, but that kinda role in general just takes a toll on you in a negative way. I was super, super, SUPER thankful when I got the promotion to IT in Help Desk where I could finally exhibit my range of IT skills. Hard to believe that about 3 weeks ago was my 4-month mark already! I love the team I work with and the work we do is challenging but rewarding, and we have a good time, too.
If you go wayyyyy back into the depths of my archived blog, I had a regular theme of pursuing Networking as a career option. Looking back they say hindsight is 20-20. I can see that for the better (or worse?) part of the last 15 -18 years I have “tried” (not really though, right?) to get my CCNA certification … heck or even the Network+ (Net+). It’s always been a goal I wanted to grab at but never really took the reins it seems. So I gave up for several years; however, at my job, our former Network engineer was giving me some motivation when I joined the team to pursue it again and forget the past failures of not getting certified before now, but even after going ahead and buying the latest series of study books and videos I’ve “put it aside” again. Each time an excuse crops up and each time that timeline gets longer and longer. To be fair this excuse is better than having no viable ones before. We were selling a house, temp moved then had to moved again in less than a month, dealt with initial Covid, working on land purchase then stress with blueprint planning and building issues, and my Bachelor at school, too. That’s a lot on the plate and I know the pilot light is there, I just need to ignite it somehow. No matter the excuse or the years lost to it, I can chock it up to pack of accountability sprinkled with discipline or drive. I’ve always wanted to do Networking but just can’t get the “umph” to motivate myself to get past a chapter or two (or video or two). We do have a new networking person starting soon who is aware I am interested in networking as a career, so there’s a glimmer of hope I can pickup some motivation or something to make this failed aspiration a reality.
Whew! Segwaying from all of that. We’re going to move soon into the apartment life. I’ve never wanted to rent– nothing against it and those who choose or have to — but I don’t like sinking $ into something you want get bwck (equity in a house vs the owner’s pocker per se). Right now, lumber and other materials are still astronomically high (last we talked to our builders it was like 188% or more for lumber costs). Even with our severe cuts on the house plans it was not enough. So now we’re selling the land to find cheaper land to offset the costs a tad. While, no, that alone won’t be enough, we can take more time and less stress in the build and plan process to get it built the way we want amd hopefully in the mid to near future materials costs will decrease enough to build.
Until next time,
Andrew
My Life. My Story. My World. 
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