Fall Fun and Challenge #2

What a fantastic fall day. I have been feeling under the weather a bit for the last few days, but just in time for the weekend, my fever is gone and I feel great. Ok, maybe a little nauseous off and on, and a mild headache this morning, but overall, I feel fine.

So what do you do on a blue sky sunny mild crisp fantastic fall day? Well, you get out there and enjoy nature that’s what!  And we did.  Kelly and I enjoyed a long walk in a nearby natural area we both love and marveled at every beautiful fall creation that was there for us to see. We tried identifying the different Oak leaves; we stared at colourful maples and birch trees, picked up acorns and found different shapes of them. At one point we stopped and realized we were surrounded by birds. Kelly noticed first, several chickadees bouncing around from branch to branch. Then we spotted a white breasted nuthatch, a red-bellied woodpecker, and even my first ever tufted titmouse.  This gave me chance to try out my new binoculars and WOW am I ever pleased with them! I can’t wait to go birding again.  Here are a couple of pictures I took of the trail we were on today. (click to enlarge)

        

Now, as I promised a couple days ago (sorry for the delay) here is my second challenge. This one will seem much more trivial, given the complexity of challenge #1, but I assure you it is not any easier.

I need to get to work on time. That’s it. Pretty simple eh? Well, allow me elaborate a little. 

I have gotten progressively worse at arriving at work on time. I am supposed to be there by 8:30am.  Most days I get there at 9am, 9:15am even 9:30 on some days. Why have you not been fired you ask?  Well, the thing is, I work for a very easy going company. They are pretty cool about things and “as long as the work gets done” seems to be the attitude. And as a manager, I am allowed plenty of flexibility as well, even when I do show up on time, many other managers show up well after me. Not an excuse, but an observation that did not go unnoticed by my half asleep right arm that loves to hit the snooze button.

I have brought this up on a couple of occasions with my superiors and even with HR when it came time for annual reviews. I guess I figured they would say “Yes, we’ve noticed. Shape up or you’re done!”  At least that would have given me incentive to try harder. But no, I barely got the sentence out and I was waved off. “Bah, no biggie, we know you put in the hours, it all balances out.”   And I suppose it does. When needed, I work weekends or evenings, holidays even if I need to. But that’s really not the point is it? Lead by example. So I am determined to improve, if only to be a better example for my team.

So how can this be so hard? I’ll try to explain the challenge. First off I am a night owl. I feel my best in the evenings and hardly ever feel tired. I could stay up till midnight easily and not even feel like I should get to bed. So, forcing myself to go to bed at a reasonable hour will be the first step.

Now in order for me to be ready to go by 8am (it takes about 20 minutes to get to the office) I have to be out of bed no later than 6:45am. No small task. In order to do that, I have to wake up at around 6am. Before I get out of bed, it’s better if I lay there for a while and clear my lungs. It’s long story and I would need to tell you more about my medical conditions, but for now, just understand that in order to get to work by 8:30am, I will need to be awake at 6am. Every Day! So for the required 8 hours of sleep, I have to be asleep by 10pm. That means starting to get ready for no later than 9:30pm, and that’s if I rush.  So as a night owl, you can see that this will not be easy for me. But it has to be done. And I will do my best. That is my Challenge #2. And yes, I will report on my successes (and failures) in every post for the next 30 days.