Weeknotes 19:10

August 16, 2019

Week of August 11-16

Loving on Blizzard while watching TV with family this week.

Hard Week Emotionally

This was a very hard week emotionally. One of our beloved family pets, Blizzard the guinea pig, died this week. I had noticed last weekend that she had lost some weight. But I did not realize she had not been eating. I became really concerned when I watched her uninterested in a carrot on Monday night. She usually woofs them down and then goes and steals her sister’s carrot.

I took her to the vet on Tuesday. The vet could not find anything visibly wrong with her. Blizzard was still perky. They gave me an anti-biotic in case she had a respiratory infection and some critical care food to feed her using a syringe and My wife had made a similar thing the night before that we tried to feed. I left the vet still very concerned but hopeful that she might bounce back.

She really slowed down on Wednesday and I was concerned that she did not have much longer. I talked to each of our kids and prepared them. Blizzard was my son’s guinea pig and she had been a special friend and comfort to him during some tough times over the last 4 years. He ended up holding her for the last three hours of her life. He was holding her and loving her to the very end. I had never had an experience like that with a pet when I was a kid. He was so very brave.

My wife found an article that she sent to me on Wednesday afternoon about how to care for a dying guinea pig. It was very reassuring as we were already doing most of it. It was really helpful as she entered her final hours. I had held her for quite a while earlier in the day and held her for just a little while about 30 minutes before she passed.

I did not realize how hard her death was going to hit me. I miss so many things about her. We still have one healthy guinea pig and we love her a lot as well. It is just so strange to have only one and not a pair. I am grateful for the five and a half years of joy that Blizzard brought to our family.

Work

I felt like I had a really productive day on Monday. I made a lot of progress on the project I mentioned in my previous post. Needless to say, my work was very distracted the rest of the week as Blizzard was on my mind through the day. I took a lot of breaks to check on her. I worked for about an hour Thursday morning but was really distracted by my grief. I ended up asking for the rest of the day off so that I could grieve with my family.

I really did not want to work on Friday as I was tired both emotionally and physically. But I was able to jump into my project work because most of the things on my plate were right in my wheelhouse. So it was fairly easy to get into a flow. Cherry Dr. Pepper also helped.

Good-byes

It was one of those weeks where I had to say farewell to a colleague. Katia, one of the designers at LGND,  is moving on to another opportunity that will allow her to explore her craft in new ways.

I was really bummed when I heard the news last week but excited for her. She has been a pleasure to work with over the past two years. I also had fun getting to meet her and hang out with her at our LGND retreat earlier this year. I have really enjoyed having chats about design and development over Slack. I always enjoyed offering some help as she learned CSS. And she has been a big help to me in helping to solve some design challenges that have come up in projects that I have been developing. I had really enjoyed collaborating with her on some recent projects. I will miss her sending me inspirational links over Slack.

Good luck Katia on your next adventure.

Reading

  • How to Care for a Dying Guinea Pig – already mentioned this one.
  • Quit Social Media – This TED talk was really thought-provoking. I have wrestled with the idea of quitting social media. This video was thought-provoking in considering what I really gain for the negative effects that social media can have. Still thinking through this. I think a first step might be to pull away for a time and then re-evaluate.
  • Creating Authentic Human Connections Within A Remote Team – A good follow-up article after the remote working post I mentioned last week. I thought there were some really good tips in this article. Need to go back and review it again.
  • The Lord Can and Will Keep You – I really like the ascension psalms. Great article that I want to re-read again over the weekend.

Watched

  • I watched the finale of Blown Away on Netflix with my family. I did not see all the episodes but really enjoyed the ones I did. Really interesting to see craftsman/artists in another field.
  • A Craftsman’s Legacy – Saw an episode where Eric interviewed a glass blower. Really interesting after watching Blown Away.

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