BBC video of murmurations of starlings: [link]

Soaring through a rainbow: [link]

Hugs to everyone who needs them.

I got called for jury duty 6 times when I was pregnant with or breastfeeding Alexandra, so I got excused every time (once was for the week she was due, and I was tempted to send a picture of my gigantic belly). Naturally, I haven't been called since.

Lucky Charms:

Also, last week was Peanut's first week back of in-person schooling, so she naturally came down with a head cold. Sigh. I had really enjoyed the Year of No Colds. So it was a weekend of mainlining The Muppet Show and PBS Kids programming, and she's home with me today. I'll see if I can get any work done.

Ugh, I have to start working in the office 3 days a week next week. I was hired in August, so I've never had to commute.

Sorry, Dana. Hope it's not too much hassle.

I hope your commute isn't too onerous, Dana.

We're looking at going nearly fully face to face in fall semester. We have a number of non-US students who might run into difficulties getting back here, so we're keeping plans for hybrid and whatnot available. And apparently a handful of instructors had a good experience and are like, "But what if . . . we didn't?" That was kind of unexpected. Still no word on when my team's expected back or how often. I'm hoping we'll move from a 4-days in the office, 1-day work from home week to more of a 2/3 split. It would help me keep my workout routine going, as well as saving on gas.

I moved my company out of our building in Pasadena and now we are all 90% remote and staying that way. We have a warehouse space in Valencia with a small office now. Each of my full timers helps cover that office, which for most of them works out to one 10 AM to 4 PM shift in the warehouse office every other week.

After over 20 years of having a physical office we dumped it altogether almost 10 years ago. Should have done so sooner! Yes, I still have to deal with too much stuff stored in my back room and attic, but that is just my avoidance of tossing out or donating stuff that my frugal self still thinks should have value. There is a certain social aspect to being at the office that I miss, but now that I am all vaxed I can visit my customer offices as much as I want to get that social fix. IP phones was the only thing we needed to make the jump.

We were pretty well positioned to go remote. Everyone was already on laptops since we used them on jobs sites. The staff is also used to long periods away from the office when projects take them out of town. Beyond that we had been using online collaboration tools like Slack and Asana already so the transition when pretty smoothly. We need the warehouse space for the gear, but now it is truly a warehouse space.