Sunset hikes
Life’s been busy…
It was a busy end of year for me.
Had a whirlwind Fall, flying back and forth between coasts for work. First for a 14hr visit to Vancouver. Then came home, only to fly back out Vegas, where I spoke at the Support Driven conference for customer support and customer service folks.
My talk was (thankfully) well received and I got to meet a lot of great people.
I brought along two people from my department who had never been to a customer service/support related conference. So it was great to give them that exposure and they seemed to really enjoy learning there.
Unfortunately, the old adage of “What Happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas“ apparently no longer applies. A few hours after returning home on my red-eye flight, I proactively tested myself with a COVID test and it was very faintly positive.
I have made it almost 3 years without catching COVID, but apparently, my time was up…
Thankfully we’re lucky enough to have the space in our home that I could self-isolate in my basement office for the 9 days I was in quarantine. It was tough not hanging out with and playing with my daughter during that time, but we didn’t want to risk anyone else getting sick. Thankfully the plan worked as neither my wife, nor daughter caught COVID from me.
As for the COVID, I was surprised how quickly I went downhill. From scratchy throat to feeling horrible only took half a day. I felt horrible for the better part of three days. Then another three days of feeling like I had a typical Flu. It then tapered off to a dry cough (which persisted for three weeks) and some head congestion that stuck around for two weeks.
Something I wasn’t expecting though was having ZERO energy. Long after I was testing negative and had no other symptoms, I had no energy. Some days it was a struggle just to make it to lunchtime, even though I hadn’t done anything. For someone who doesn’t normally drink caffeine, it quickly became my friend.
I knew it was inevitable that at some point I would catch COVID. I am however, thankful that I was able to last as long as I did – as I wouldn’t have wanted to sample the earlier/stronger variants of COVID.
Coastal updates continued
A few more shots that I picked out from our West Coast road trip
West Coast, Best Coast
Back at Christmas, I surprised my wife with a family road trip through the west coast. Fly into Vancouver, rent a car, then drive all through the Rockies and fly back from Calgary.
My wife had never been to British Columbia before, nor had she driven through the Rockies. Willow had never been on a plane. So it would be an adventure for everyone.
While our flights were booked, the actual itinerary was left intentionally blank. The only things that I knew for sure, were that we’d go whale watching in Vancouver.
I’ll do another post with some pictures, but the TLDR of the trip is:
- Whale Watching: no whales spotted, just seals & sea lions. Still awesome
- Stanley Park was beautiful and gigantic
- Whistler was just as pretty as the last time I was there
- Four Seasons Whistler was GORGEOUS and their outdoor pool was nice and hot despite the cold weather 😎
- Kamloops could have been skipped
- Kelowna is gorgeous and I LOVED the vibe. I could definitely live there
- Had a BBQ with some great friends, which was such an awesome highlight for me
- Banff is such a cute and tiny little Village
- Fairmont Banff springs looks nice from the outside/lobby, but is definitely not worth the money to stay at
- My daughter was a ROCKSTAR on the plane
Pics to follow.
April Update
Since my last post, we had four birthdays in our house. Willow, Me, Rascal (dog), and Rupert (cat).
Weather is still horrible (cold and wet), why do people say they like spring? They don’t. They like the last couple weeks of Spring. The rest of it is just cold, grey, and wet.
Until we meet again…
2109 days, 5 countries, countless moments.
A lot has happened since I started working at Automattic. We lost our house in a fire, had a child, travelled, weathered a global pandemic.
When I joined, there were a ~240 Automattians, but it still felt like a small company. Fast forward to today and Automattic has grown to 2000 employees. All working where ever they want in the world, within a fully distributed company.
I learned so much during my six years years. Met so many amazing people. Travelled to places I would have otherwise never seen.
Today I signed out of work for the last time. I had five weeks to prepare for this and going into today, I was ready. But when I closed my laptop it hit me… and I was not ready.
The tears are a great reminder that six years ago I made the right decision joining Automattic. They’re a reminder of all the great experiences and people I met. Next week I start a new adventure, but for right now I think I’ll spend a bit more time reminiscing,
Cheers Automattic and until we meet again ❤️
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