As you have heard, all nonessential travel is on hold. The current situation is as follows:While things still settle down. I don't keep my ear close to the ground so maybe this sounds worse than it is ... or maybe it's worse than it sounds. But they're definitely watching the budget. No trips to coordinate projects, no away-from-home training, nothin'.
(1) All previously approved international travel starting WW17 or WW18 supporting power-on/debug/customer can proceed without further approval.
(2) Any international travel starting in WW19 or later supporting power-on/debug/customer needs review/approval by H_____ via A_____.
(3) All other international travel not supporting power-on/debug/customer is rejected.
(4) All domestic travel must be reviewed/approved by D_____.
Please continue to enter your trip requests into the Trip tool while things still settle down. The status within the tool may be lagging given the number of trips needing updating.
I was going to say I kind of feel the same way but as I try to explain that, I realize I don't, not really. We go to the City and downtown and so forth less than we used to, but it's not more than I want to. The only trip I'm really questioning at this point is the one to Burning Man. For reasons that haven't yet made themselves clear, I'm not actually looking forward to it, and don't know how I want to go about it. I'm connected with a bunch of people who build big things and take lots of fun stuff, but I haven't made time to build anything myself, and now that we're well into Spring I have to ask myself if this is because I don't really want to. I can come up with lots of "reasons" to not be working on stuff like that, i.e. other uses of time that are more important in the short term, things to take care of, whatever, but let's face it, excuses are just decisions that won't look themselves in the eye. I use Burning Man as a sort of transformational summer camp, and it may be I'm discovering I've used it enough and can now look for something else.
Well, but ha, that's bullshit. The funny thing about that event is that as much of a pain in the ass as it is to go, under whatever circumstances, once one gets there one is very, very glad to have made the effort. It's so much fun in so many wide open ways, and many of my friends that go are the loveliest of people. I think maybe the negative feeling of not wanting to bother arises from the surprising difficulty of doing it "right". It's easy for some of us personality types to develop ideas of all the things we didn't do last time and therefore must do next time, and then get caught up in how to go about doing that, and next thing you know you have expectations ... and if Burning Man is really good at teaching one thing, it is the utter folly of having expectations.
Some expectations are natural though and I worry about my mother. She got back from New Orleans last week, and day after tomorrow she's going on a two-week trip through Ireland. Sometime in between she moved funny and her hip hurts. It was getting better, albeit slowly, when she turned wrong in bed and made it worse. "I think it's getting better," she said hopefully, after that. But long hours in airplanes and two weeks doing a lot of walking in a foreign country are not going to allow it to get much better. I'm reminded of my ex-wife's grandmother, who spent her retirement traveling all over and then had a bad trip to New Zealand and came back ... different. Started having health problems and believing government agents were spying on her and wound up on a short trip through the care facilities. The old and fragile can break, my amazing mother notwithstanding, and I just hope she doesn't become one of those who do. She naturally has expectations of an enjoyable and educational trip through the Emerald Isle, which I guess she chose to do because she's seen Scotland enough, and I'd hate for them to get dashed for any discomfort.
7 comments:
How your mom gets better and has a marvelous time in Ireland. And comes back more or less the same. Walking is one of the few things that helps my right lumbar issue, and any more I sit with a lumbar roll behind me (at work, where I do extended sitting). So maybe your mom will be fine in Ireland!
I understand the desire to do something more with BMan than just hang out, chill, look at the , and socialize with awesome peeps, as well as having other priorities than working BMan stuff.
"How" should be "Hope" (you know the routine, right?)
It's official. I'm telling you: You don't have to go to burning man. If you miss it, go next time. Life's too short.
Had another thought. Can't you just go? Without all the shit? If you can't, maybe you never did go. Maybe just all the stuff went. Take two aspirins, recite the Desiderata three times, say two Hail Marys.
I think if I ever went to Burning Man I would dress like Tom Wolfe, and bring three cameras. Which, I realized just this second, pretty much represents, symbolically, how I go through life.
There cameras, black socks in sandals, a gas barbecue, and a borrowed RV, doing my best Bryan Cranston impression.
black socks in sandals
That is a good look...
Your mom is awesome!
Generally with an event I get excited about going when it's far off, then as the day approaches I want to cancel because ugh people and doing things blargh... if I cancel I'm happy staying home, but if I don't I usually have a great time. (Not always.) Probably is not so applicable to BM where you need to prep.
But like Roy says, meh, so what if you didn't go? It SHOULD be fun, including the lead-up.
Post a Comment