010: Talk About the Passion

Part of me just wants to use R.E.M. titles for post titles, since with the way I have composed them in the past 16 years of this blog's existence that makes as much sense as anything... if not more. (I won't be doing that, since I do like them coming from the nether-reaches of my psyche.)

Good news - this is my annual post from the trailer, where I try very hard to feel profoundly about my youth times spend here as well as enjoy the present. It'sI true, these days when we come up, I do feel less like I am reliving my past than that I am simply indulging in a getaway in my adult incarnation. But I like taking time to reflect on the past and see what I remember. For a few years we had it good here, but things pass. Summer always ends.

Luckily, for once, we are not here at the very end of summer so I don't have to be quite so wistful.

I'm sitting on the deck in the morning sun watching the ripples on the lake as I like to do.

It has been busy times since late June when restrictions started to ease up and we decided to be sociable with our families again. Perhaps too busy. First stop was dad's, for a BBQ catching up on Father's Day, and various birthdays. Then Nonna's for a stiflingly hot outdoor one. Then it was Canada day, and we had Eric over at Mel's parents' place and worked from there for a few days after. Then a few weeks later back to dad's for Deb's birthday, and Nonna's for her birthday, and Mel getting her hair done. Then this past weekend we went to Mom's for dinner. It's all the kind of weekend running around I don't miss about pre-lockdown times. I hope that we settle back in at home soon after for another few weeks, but then again I don't want to waste the summer either.

Work has been chaotic. For the past several weeks that have been working toward this handover of duties as they foist this re-organization on us (basically "how can we spread all this work so that we don't need to hire new people to replace the once we've lost/let go?") I ended up with an all-new slate of categories. I was most worried about moving away from Jess, whom I enjoy working with and who is helping me grow in my role (as best she can, trying to lead this horse to water) but I did investigate the possibility of moving over to Kids (it was determined I was not what they were looking for - too senior, too old of a dog. Wow.) In the end I took what is essentially Marija's old categories, which is essentially Alina's old categories, which were essentially Isiah's old categories - History and Business, Reference, and some other stuff, under Andrew as they have always been. As well as new challenges with Kobo and Audiobooks. What I wanted out of this was to work with a manager I liked, with a category portfolio I liked, with a limited number of category managers. I basically got all of that, except for the part about working with Chi Hoe on Kobo, which I'm sure will only be somewhat taxing. I was going to work with him on SFF again too, but Don spoke up saying he wanted to while things were still up in the air, and I wasn't going to fight him on it because needing to do intensive category work for two different CMs is an experience I will be happy to leave behind. I gave an oblique warning that it may not be fun to work with both Caryn and Chi Hoe at once but he wanted it.

I hate to say it but I was pretty excited to not work with Caryn anymore. I honestly respect her a lot and feel she is very good at her job but that does not mean I feel we are a good fit, and me being me I always tried to work within it rather than speak up. It was stressful how intense and focussed she can be and not a good match for my laid back energy. I think Andrew is a better fit. Honestly I would like to work with Brandon the most but his categories shifted to Pom under Phil, and I also wouldn't want to be under Phil (I could handle it better now than then but I like my current situation best.) I tried - sometimes unsuccessfully - not to feel like it wasa personal thing with Caryn, and it really was just about a clash in work styles. I didn't want to be on calls so often, didn't want to keep reporting the same updates. Very high touch. I noticed it less - not not-at-all but less - when we were in the office and I could focus better anyway. And when her category wasn't exploding.

Eh, look at me, prattling on and on about work on my vacation time. Anyway, that's what I'm going back to. I worry that I didn't do enough to set the holders of my former categories up for success (I was sending out all those Cleanup tasks yet seemingly never accomplishing them myself) but I put quite a bit more work into the handoff than some did.

Anyway, this was all compounded by them deciding to take BW - the system that basically makes my job possible - offline for the week leading up to the handoff, so while I'm trying to get ready for vacation and prepare Don, Pom and James for their various new categories, I'm also struggling to find a workaround for this outage. It was a rough time.

On Canada Day, Lori texted me to say we could borrow the trailer for a weekend anytime we wanted, but of course that ended up having numerous caveats. We asked for late July - since we were tired of getting it around Labour Day when the warm weather was already done - and she said at that time she didn't know what the plans were. Then we couldn't get any weekends. Then we were blacked out for two weeks in August (after all the handoff and BW outage stuff would be sorted out). So "Have a weekend anytime" became "Take a few weekdays during one of these three or four weeks" which became even more narrow of a window when we factored in our own preference. And I don't mean to whine since it's such a nice gesture to allow us to use the trailer, it's just at a certain point one's generous offer becomes a big logistical headache. But we worked it out.

So we came down for the weekend  and spend Sat night with Mom and Ross enjoying their new patio, and Sunday more or less lazing around instead of pushing ourselves to go to Nonna's. I got a haircut, my first real one since before the wedding, let alone the pandemic. It went smoothly - I was worried about having to wait outside in the sun, but walked right in. Monday I hung around while Mel worked half the day, then after a quick lunch we headed to the Superstore to stock up before our trip. As usual we bought tons of stuff, probably too much (a salad we barely ate, probably too many vegetables.) Mel actually felt ill while we were shopping and had to go to the restroom so she ducked out and went to the guys' place while I finished up, then brought Eric over for his groceries, which was nice.

The drive up was the drive up, the radio wasn't playing anything good so we switched around a lot. We actually got here at a decent time for once (just after seven!) and made some burgers for dinner during a brief storm, then watched Unsolved Mysteries. The next day we determined we needed to go into town to buy water, so I made the trip (kind of nice to hit the open road on my own, ngl) and I did some shopping in Arthur, also picking up a juice jug for iced tea. Day 2 we had some time booked in the pool (by appointment during these pandemic times) which was nice. One thing I didn't get when we have been here at the end of summer when the weather is cooler is those sticky-hot "need to jump in the pool" days. And while this wasn't quite that (very rare at the trailer) it was at least appropriately warm out, and the pool was a perfect temperature, so we didn't feel like we were forcing ourselves and risking hypothermia. I only wish we could have lounged longer to dry off, but appointments are appointments, 45 minutes, and no cabana chairs. We had kebabs for dinner (we always bring kebabs and I usually struggle with them because we're so late in the summer that I'm barbequing them in darkness but this time was all right.) Then we built a nice big fire, which as my most successful fire ever because of the wood we got from Canadian tire, and of course, s'mores.

Yesterday was a bit lazier, we took turns on the kayak and Mel spent much of the day knitting while I just sat around. I could have done more I suppose, but I wanted to enjoy virtual nothingness and just dick around on my phone in the bucolic setting. Why pressure myself to write or do anything? Dinner was a box of ribs, grilled veggies and baked potatoes that set the smoke detector off.

 

It's funny how times goes by. When we got here I thought "Remember last year when we watched half of Vacation?" But then I checked the blog and found that we had done that the year before. And then I noted that times goes by so strangely now that it felt like we had just watched it, and now I still feel that way. Wild.

One time period I have thought much about in the past few days is the summer of 1999. I remember it a bit more vividly than 2000 or 2001, which would all be the height of my adolescent time here (afterward we all started sorta losing interest as we headed into high school and drifted apart.) But what I was reflecting on wasn't necessarily anything that happened during that summer, but the length of it. When you're 12 and you have no school and no anything, 70 days of summer is a lifetime. Now I just mark it as things going on between work. Sighhhhhh.

There's more to tell, and if I can get back in a reasonable length of time to reflect on it I will but it would take this post into a direction I don't want to so that will be that.

Writing these posts here has become an odd tradition, I have used my whole morning for it but I don't regret.

Keep on rockin'

-Scotto