I am getting old and getting blind. There is an ideal distance from my laptop that I need to be. If it is too close then I can not see as everything is blurry with my glasses on. I remembered that years back my optician offered me bifocals. but I said I would just take my glasses off to see if it was that close. It now seems that the distance for too close is starting to extend a bit. There are a lot of times where I do not wear my glasses if I am using my phone and it is not a big deal at all, but if I am on my laptop my arms need to be almost fully extended now for me to be able to seemy laptop screen. Further away is fine, but then I need to use one of my external keyboards. Closer and it is all blurry. I am not sure if this is due to the treatment or just old age. I will need to monitor this and see. The thing that sucks is that I am not supposed to get a new presciption while I am going through treatment as it is difficult to knowi if it is real or due to treatment. It will not be much of an issue when the basement is refinished and I get my office back. They are going to come on Monday so we will see what that is like. We are getting a new steam shower but we are having some trouble sourcing one that will work. Technically for the size of the shower we need one that is higher power, but that requires changing the breaker in the electrical panel as well as running a different gauge to it. What we have now is a 30amp breaker and the local store that would be selling the unit for us can not confirm that the unit will work. The documentation is generic and includes all models and it is not clear what the power draw is. The unit is a special order and non-returnable so we are hesitant to purchase it. Last year when I was looking I had found a unit and it is actually $1000 cheaper than what was quoted for us here in Sudbury and it will work with our current requirements. As much as I like to support local, we can not buy that unit as the contractors will not install it. At least we are buying from a small company down south though that does this.
The neuropathy in my hands is also quite manageable now and I can take things out of the fridge and it is ok. The freezer still sucks. For dinner tonight we decided to make pizza on our pizza oven since we have not used it for a while. I like to make dough that gets to ferment in the fridge for several days so it is a bit of a process. Today the dough I made was fantastic and everyone got to make what they wanted, we ended up making 5 different pizzas and OIivier made home made ricotta to add to the pizza. He had made it with my sister a couple days ago and had wanted to make it at home for quite some time now. I think that I am going to make some mozzerella cheese with him one of these days. I will buy whatever I need and do it with him because he enjoys it. Everyone loved the pizza we made today and there were not problems or issues with the pizzas. They all slid off the peel easily and I had good temperature control in the oven. I can be difficult in the kitchen when things do not go well. I am used to precision cooking with my mother where I can tell her and it is perfect every time. I love cooking with her as my sous chef because she is so damn fast and precise and without complaints. It works as long as it is not Asian food.
Xavier is quite perceptive and he hears me in meetings a lot. He was making fun of me because he hears the word alignment a lot. It is true though as most of my work is with senior leadership and there is a remarking amount of misalignment amongst groups. You need to have constant discussion to make sure that all of the groups know what is happening in order to be aligned as a company. One of the companies I work with, the alignment is poor. while the other one is great. Xavier hears me talk about strategic work with both and it is amusing that is what he picks up. On Monday I had ordered a book that a colleague mentioned and it happens to be called Aligned and it just came out. I do enjoy reading and I will read the book quick and if it is a good book I will then also buy a kindle version of it. I prefer having both so that I can do a quick search on the kindle if I need to, but I can read faster with a physical book.
Sometimes when things are rough you forget to think of the positives in life especially when there is a lot of negative things happening. It is easy to get down on things and focus on negatives. In work situations I always plan for the negative worse case scenarios and have contingency plans for that. I never really think about best case scenarios, and I am lucky that I work with great teams and great people. I do have some very bad habits with replying that everything is easy. I remember when I was at Vale, people would bring up problems all of the time and my response was always that is easy and give a solution. I think it is bad since it creates some unrealistic expectations and then if I ever do not deliver then I am questioned on it. I can not think of when it has happened right now, but I am sure it has. I have had the opportunity to work with groups of fantastic people at some places and have made a lot of genuine friendships from the work experience. I am quite blessed that from my career I still frequently talk to people from all of my jobs. A lot of them read my blog and send me encouraging words from time to time. When things are rough that is when it seems that people really rally and help out. I think within my social circle I had a lot of functional alignment, as I had so many people offer to step up and create the GoFundMe or figure out what to do and they all coordinated that without me. I think the biggest factor is cultural alignment as I have surrouned myself with like minded people. When I think of positive aspects in my life this is hard to beat. Things have always seemed to align for me when I have most needed it.
Q