Today starts off as any other day does. Up with the dogs, let Res out, let Res in, let Climber out, let Climber in. Give them their morning snacks. Put together mine and Jesse’s coffee. And start on my never ending email list. For some reason my Technical Support task list exploded over the weekend. I am not sure why, that will take me a little bit to go through.
I did spend some time on maintenance on this WordPress site this morning. I finally broke down and installed the Redis caching server and it took me a while but I was able to get WordPress to recognize that. Maybe that will speed up the data base operations a bit. We will see. I also had a few security related items I needed to take care of and those are now done. Updates and stuff like that.
I have decided that today will not be a swim day. I think I may have overdone it over the weekend. Tomorrow is another day. I was able to get out for a walk for lunch, I tried to take Res with me but he decided that he only wanted to go 1/2 way around the park and made me bring him home.
After I was done for the day I took Climber outside for a while, thought she may want to play ball, but not really. She wanted to be in the sun more than anything else.
And then of course Res had to have his turn. He wasn’t all that energetic and just wanted to go out and smell around.
And then back to work for a while for me. And then our usual afternoon stuff, their 1/2 mile evening walk, dinner for them, dinner for us, and that’s it for today. Not all that much exciting.
And today I did have to go into the field and do an HVACi inspection up in Fort Morgan area.
It was a residential property that had water intrusion, but it is a special property. It was one of those that the walls are insulated with straw bails. This is an extremely efficient form of insulation, but is time consuming and very expensive to build.
Look at how thick those walls are, and you can see the straw “blocks” that are being used for insulation. I love seeing construction like this, unfortunately there was some damage to the property, but the owner was really nice to work with and very helpful. And, they will be able to fix the issues and it will all be good. My trip up there was just one step in the process.
On my way home I was able to take a short “lunch break” and get my swim in. I have been trying to get a mile in every day during the week. I really need to try and get a 2 mile swim in one of these days, but during the week I am sort of tied to my desk, and on weekends I try not to take too much time away from things I would like to be doing here at the house.
Anyways, that’s it for today, I will see you tomorrow.
I think the best way to describe today is “quiet”. I got up this morning to some very urgent dogs, both of them were in a hurry to go out for their potty breaks and then they wanted treats. It was a cooler morning, probably around 35 degrees, I forgot to look. After they had their snacks and stuff I went to go get my coffee. Ooops, I forgot to set the time last night. A 15 minute wait on that coffee.
I was able to get out to the rec center today to swim, it was a shorter swim then yesterday as I do not want to hurt myself, and I also needed a recovery day after my long push yesterday. I did 1700 yards. My goal was to get my mile in, and I did it.
The rest of the day was busy with work. Hang on, I have one more email I need to answer. Anyways, today’s stats:
8 email requests for file reviews
2 tech support incoming phone calls
10 pricing requests / 4 of them commercial electrical
14 Cause of loss determinations
14 New tech support requests, all of these handled, 11 of them already complete
12 Older tech support requests handled and closed.
That leaves me with 3 in progress, and 3 sitting in my “need to discuss with management team.”
I think a good day overall.
Now I am going to spend some time with Res and Climber. Res is being a bit of a crate baby tonight so I am wondering what that’s about. He grumped at Climber a little bit earlier, again not really sure why, in this case she was innocent. Not that the grumping wasn’t deserve red for past actions.
Anyways, goodnight all. I will talk with you tomorrow.
Not all that much going on today. Got up this morning and had a 7:30AM conference call. One of the challenges in working remote from another timezone with an East Coast company. This happens every other week and I am used to it.
Spent the morning working on various projects at work. It was pretty busy, but not as busy as yesterday. I had:
18 Cause of Loss Determination Requests
6 Direct tags for quote/invoice and resolution review
12 Pricing requests
15 New Technician Support Requests
24 Total Technician Support Requests closed.
4 Technician Support Phone calls.
I finished off the day with some problem emails, but that is sort of expected when you are trying to maintain high standards of inspection and findings. For many tradespeople do not take correction or coaching well at all. Anyways, another day done. I will have probably need to have a conversation with my manager about two technicians (probably only if they complain – but I may give him a heads-up, I will see how I feel about it in the AM).
I did take my lunch/swimming break today around 11:15 or so and went down to the Rec Center. I had one of the best swims I have had in a long time. First. I was able to complete an 1800 yard freestyle (crawl) swim. I haven’t done that in over 3 years. Second, I was able to break my personal record an the 1650 yard portion of that. And finally I crossed another Swim.Com challenge for April off the ‘To Complete” list. I did my 3,000 yard swim today. So yesterday I completed the 1,000 and the 2,000 yards. Today I also completed the 1 hour challenge on Swim.Com and also wrapped up April Swim Month on Garmin. That makes me happy. I have April Swim Week left to do on Garmin, but that doesn’t start until next week and is much shorted than what I have already done. For Swim.Com my next major stepping stone and goal is the 5K swim.
This evening is a rest period, and now we are sitting down watching some TV, watching Climber be crazy, and watching Res nap. I think that will be it for today and I will see you tomorrow.
I set today’s feature image to a photo provided by NASA of the Artemis II liftoff from Florida. Best of luck to all of the astronauts aboard the ship, and may your journey be eventful, but not dangerously eventful. For many of us we remember the first steps on the moon, I think this is the first step in the path to return 50 years later, with greater technology and maybe pick up where we left off.
Anyways, today ended up being a busy day at work. Not sure why, maybe it was a full moon. But, logged in around 6:45AM, took lunch from 12-1pm, and then I finally finished what I could do around 7:00pm (I did take a break to go walk the dogs and for dinner.) My stats:
7 Commercial pricing requests
27 Tech support and coaching requests
All 9 that came in today were addressed
2 tech support from the past are still in progress
22 Cause of Loss Determinations completed
5 inbound calls for tech support (from techs)
8 separate requests for file reviews from our resolutions team
And my standard task of enrolling new technicians to Alpine Intel University
I think that just about wraps up the work tasks for the day.
I made it to the pool for lunch and was able to get a lane, had to share at first but then the person I was sharing with snagged another open lane. It was a good workout today. I managed to do 2075 yards according to my watch, but looking at my stats/interval I can see where it missed a length and this should probably have been 2100 yards. Regardless, I accomplished what I wanted to do as my average workout should be a minimum of 2000 yards. By the end of April I am trying to go to 3000 yards per workout. Slow progress is a good thing.
Came back and finished out my day. Took the dogs for their evening walk, fed them, and then us. We had Chicken Tenders and some really good potato salad. And now I am sitting here, writing my daily blog, and watching Res and Climber nap. Climber won’t stay this way long, she is really good at getting in trouble. I need to get some time to run her around a bit.
And it is the end of another month. I think March was a good month overall. I was able to get a few answers regarding my shoulder pain, and it makes sense. At work, my promotion was finalized this month, and I am getting used to the new role. I have traveled less this month than I have in prior months, and I am starting to see some results with my tech coaching. However, this promotion did come with an increase of work load.
My fitness this month has actually been awesome. I did not get as much swimming in as I wanted to, but I was able to complete all of the Garmin Connect+ fitness challenges this month.
March Calorie Burn
March Battery Booster
March Photo Share
Low Stress March
March Heart Walks
March Speed Walking
March Epic Hikes
March Time To Swim
March Walking
Active March
March Step Month
2026 Walking – Stage 1
90K Step Challenge (x4)
On Swim.Com I also completed several fitness challenges:
March 1K Challenge
March 2K Challenge
March 3K Challenge
5 Swim Activities in March
10 Swim Activities in March
1 Hour of Power Challenge
I finished out the month with a decent swim today. Did a 1750 Yard swim, 36 minutes, 32 of those are the actual moving time. I felt pretty good about it when I was done. The only reason I didn’t get to 2000 yards is that I started to get worried about time.
Anyways, as we wrap on the month of my fitness, some things to share:
133 miles of walking – 38 hours 18,925 yards (10.75 miles) of swimming – 6 hours 41 miles of hiking – 11 hours
I also have some health gains as well. Significant loss of weight while maintaining muscle tone and bone mass. I lost 10 pounds over the course of the month, and for the most part my blood pressure has stabilized in the normal range. May have something to do with my traveling as well as the fact that we are really trying to watch my salt intake and balance out the diet as well. In terms of weight, we hare wondering if I have been not eating enough. It sounds stupid, but the weight watches diet that we try to follow may not be aimed at really active people. We are starting to follow a different version of the diet that is heavier on the protein intake. It is really possible that I may have been not taking my fitness activities into account. We will see what happens over this next month.
So, what is happening this next month? I have several goals, all with the aim of being ready for the Mountain Swim Series in June. First, I am cutting back on my non-swimming activities. Believe it or not I think this may have been part of my shoulder tightness and pain. I am limiting the Garmin fitness challenges in April to mainly swimming:
April Swim Week – 3281ft of swimming in the first week of April
April Swim Month – 13,123.4ft of swimming in the month of April
April Battery Booster – Maintain a body battery of 76 or higher for 7 days in April
Low Stress April – Maintain a daily average stress level of 50 or lower for 7 days in April
April Calorie Burn – Burn 8,000 active calories in April
April Photo Share – Share photos on 3 activities in April
I am also going to make sure I complete the Swim.Com fitness challenges:
April 1K Challenge – Complete 1K of swimming in a single activity
April 2K Challenge – Complete 2K of swimming in a single activity
April 3K Challenge – Complete 3K of swimming in a single activity
April 5K Challenge – Complete 5K of swimming in a single activity
5 Swimming Activities in April
10 Swimming Activities in April
20 Swimming Activities in April
One Hour of Power – Complete one hour of swimming in a single activity
10 Hours of Power – 10 hours of swimming in multiple activities
And then, finally I am going to complete the following US Masters’ Swimming challenges:
2026 USMS April Fitness Challenge – 1000yards of Freestyle in a Single Session
Anyways, that wraps up today, I have some end of month cleanup to do on my laptop, I move my Download directory to a archived Download Directory, I clean out my mailbox and start a new month of work related emails. I move my sent mail to a monthly sent mail folder. And in general do some regular maintenance so I can find things. Keeps me out of email and download hell.
Anyways, I think that is about it for the day. We are home, all is good, and I will see you tomorrow.
Very busy day today, but also a very rewarding day. Got up around 6:30am MT with the dogs, did the outs, the ins, and the snacks. Sat down with my coffee and previewed my email for the day. Not too bad first thing in the morning. After I heard Jesse get up I migrated to my downstairs office and got the day started. Downstairs office is important as I have two additional screens for my laptop and it gives me the real-estate I need to work in this paperless environment.
Spent most of my morning working on pricing requests and finishing that large pricing project that has been lingering. It’s DONE! (For now) and submitted. I think I did it right, I can support all my numbers and I was somewhere between the engineer and the contractor when I finished everything, and that is always a good place to be. And, in between those projects I also had some tech support issues that came up.
I was able to get away today and spend some time in the pool. Thankfully I had a good workout and was able to get my mile swim in. I also decided to toss out that workout written by someone else and do my own thing, this has always worked for me in the past, I don’t think I cam going to change it. I am about 11 weeks out from the start of the Mountain Swim Series and I need to be ready. The goal is a 5K (3.12 miles) with 0 rest breaks and as much freestyle as possible, using breakstroke to give me my sighting and rest breaks. I am not sure how will this will go, but if I can do that I should not have any issues with the 2.4 mile swim in June.
Got back to my desk in about an hour (including swim time) and spent the rest of the day getting caught up with my exploding list of cause of loss determinations, pricing, tech support, resolution reviews, and so on. I spent a little bit of extra time making sure everything was caught up at the end of the day because I am taking tomorrow off. I want to do some exploring. Where you ask? Well, let’s wait until tomorrow evening and I will let you know.
Anyways, I am here, relaxing with the dogs, and enjoying my evening before a day off.
Res and Climber say, “See you tomorrow”, they do not know they are staying home for the day while I go out. Maybe next time I will take one of them with me, but not this time as I haven’t been there before.
Who’s the innocent dog? You get one guess. The easier question may be who’s the overgrown puppy?
Today started off as most others did. Got up my normal time, let the dogs in and out and in and out. Climber must have had an emergency, she never goes out twice in the morning. Res was having a good morning, he woofed at me to hurry up in the bedroom before I brought them downstairs, there may or may not have been a play-bow involved. As I said, he was having a good day.
After I found out I forgot to set the timer for the coffee maker last night and started that, I worked through my email and got the rest of the project in Visio I was working on yesterday pretty much done for the first version. I was happy with the initial version. I know I am going to have to make some changes further down the line, but that’s OK. Everyone including my manager expects that. My boss is one of the best I have ever worked for, provides guidance when needed, will tell me if I mess up, will tell me if I do something great, and is more likely to take a hands off approach unless there could be legal consequences to material made public, all of which I appreciate.
I got out for my lunch break about 11:00 and went and did a 7 mile walk today. I am having trouble getting my 10K steps per day in without spending a bunch of time with walks. I will finish this month doing it this way but am going to change things up in April and do smaller walks as breaks. If I do 4 walks around the park I can get my 6 miles or so in. I am also still considering the rec center walk with a swim in the middle, but I have to have enough time in the day to do that. I am trying very hard not to drive places if I really don’t have to. The price of gas has gotten ridiculous again.
I got to see my Prairie Dogs again at the bottom of Power Line Trail. There are hundreds of them out here just sunbathing and looking our of their holes and digging more tunnels. They are so cute.
Total distance: 7.04 mi Max elevation: 5646 ft Min elevation: 5461 ft Total climbing: 461 ft Total descent: -461 ft Average speed: 4.64 mi/h Average cadence: Average heart rate: 124 Average temperature: 30.5 Total time: 01:33:16
I am taking a day off next week and am going to go explore Red Rock Park. That should be fun, I know many years ago my brother took me there when I visited him, but I have not had a chance to go back since. And, it really is not that far from the house here, drive out in the morning, spend most of the day, and then home in the afternoon. There is a hike I want to do there. I really do need to get back into the pool as well because the Mountain Swim Series keeps getting closer.
I may next week trade off some swimming for my steps also, I am not sure yet, I need to talk with my PT tomorrow. There is a chance that I will also decide to hold off another week or so to give my shoulder a chance to heal a little more. I really messed it up when I was shoveling snow that last heavy snow we had. It was too heavy for the snow blower and we needed to make some space in the back yard for the dogs. This last snow we just left it. I really wanted the water on the lawn and we are going to be under some serious water rationing this Summer. A little bit concerned about that.
Back to work for the rest of the afternoon. I was able to finish most of my pricing, I have one large pricing project left that I would like to get done by Monday, but if it goes over a bit it won’t hurt anyone. It’s a two claim in one project, one for electrical pricing, and one for the HVAC pricing. The electrical pricing will be the difficult one as I have to work from photos and an adjuster’s documentation. It is so much easier when I can go to the site and see it as I am pricing it. The HVAC file is easier as it’s based on sq ft and use of the building. I’ll get it done.
Anyway, I am here watching the Aves on TV playing Chicago, hockey is the only team sport I will watch. Unfortunately ticket prices are so expensive I can’t afford to go see them live. TV has to do. And, I am watching the dogs nap. Not sure how long that will work.
And Jesse just got home from Costco, he only had 4 items in the shopping bag. Sort of amazing, and with that I think I am going to call it a day. Tomorrow I have a PT appointment in the morning, and then I am going to go for my Saturday walk and explore a park that I haven’t had a chance to explode yet, and then I am going to maybe go to REI or Sketches and see if I can find a decent pair of hiking/trail shoes that won’t break the bank. And then this weekend I have a bunch of other things I want to get done around the yard.
Started off the day at my normal time, getting up around 6:30am and letting the dogs out and giving them their treats, and then watching them do their post snack, pre-walk morning nap while I was having my first cup of coffee and checking my email for anything urgent. It started off as a pretty calm day, and pretty much remained that way. It was already about 50 degrees this morning.
I took my lunch about 10:30AM [I work on an Eastern Time schedule so it was 12:30PM ET] and went out for my long walk/hike that I am trying to do every day. My stride length is so long that it takes about 6.25 miles to get my 10,000 steps in. Then anything extra I walk during the day is just excess. On my walk today I saw the cutest and friendliest whippets, 3 of them and one of them looked a lot like Peanut and jumped up and gave me a few kisses.
Then I saw some geese in one of the creeks, it looked like one of them is the fun police sitting up on the bank and overseeing the children.
Then I finished up by heading up the hills on Power Line trail and back to the house. Took a little longer than I wanted to, but I will make up the time later in the evening by catching up on some training and procedural documentation that I am trying to get done. Wasn’t a bad hike at all, reasonable time and some elevation.
Total distance: 6.46 mi Max elevation: 5657 ft Min elevation: 5509 ft Total climbing: 407 ft Total descent: -407 ft Average speed: 4.35 mi/h Average cadence: 58 Average heart rate: 119 Average temperature: Total time: 01:30:45
I sat back down at my desk and spent another four hours getting my work done. At around 2:30PM I cam back upstairs and started letting the dogs out and in for their sunbathing time while I was working on email, pricing, and document review. It’s going to be really tempting this Summer to setup a table outside that I can work on while supervising the dogs in the yard. Anyways, both Climber and Res enjoyed some outside time. Climber has a leash attached to her because we are still working on “yard manners” when they are out together. Climber likes to get Res worked up and at time it gets wild enough that we worry about vet visits from someone falling. We don’t think they would ever go after each other, so that is not the concern. Anyways, they enjoyed their outside time.
After some out time they had their afternoon walk in the park, about 1/2 a mile and then it was time for dinner (for them and then us) and relaxation time for everyone except me. I still needed to do my resistance band workout to try and get my shoulder stronger so that I can perhaps eventually stop having this shoulder discomfort/pain that I am having.
I am still looking forward to Mountain Swim Series starting on June 14th and I really need to get back into the pool for a little bit. I am considering combining my walk and pool time tomorrow by driving down to the rec center doing a 3.2 mile walk to meet my Garmin walking challenge for March and then swim for 20-30 minutes and then continue on with my day.
This afternoon we broke temperature records and it isn’t even Spring for another few days.
And I think that will be it on my computer today, I am trying to cut back on screen time before bedtime. Today was a good day, there was no reason to complain about anything. I was able to solve several problems, I was able to use past skills in my current position. I never thought I would use Visio again, and yet, I spent a few hours this evening re-learning Visio. The biggest change is that now it’s a web version rather than the desktop version I was always used to. I didn’t forget that much which is a good thing. So, not only am I grateful for the nice weather, my health, my ability to judge my own fitness, Jesse, Res, and Climber, I can be thankful for things I taught myself years ago that keep coming back in my current role.
Goodnight everyone and I will talk to you tomorrow.
What’s this? 80 degrees in Aurora, CO at 4:40pm MT in the afternoon? We are almost breaking records today. Started off this morning when I got up around 45 degrees. Has slowly increased all day.
I was able to take a nice 6.5 mile walk for my lunch break today, it was a perfect day for it as it, my little Prairie Dogs were out enjoying the nice weather and warming their bones.
These guys are brave, the do not care at all with anyone walking near them on the path. It’s sort of awesome to see, but makes you wonder also. They are all over along the Power Line trail.
Total distance: 6.64 mi Max elevation: 5639 ft Min elevation: 5499 ft Total climbing: 531 ft Total descent: -529 ft Average speed: 4.43 mi/h Average cadence: 59 Average heart rate: 121 Average temperature: Total time: 01:31:18
I am still not getting into the pool, this is concerning me a little bit as I am 12 weeks away from the Mountain Swim Series, but I do want to talk with my physical therapist at my Saturday appointment before I really push it with the shoulder. Right now I have a mild aching sensation, but I don’t want this to get painful again. I am working on my endurance and leg muscles with the walking I am doing, but my shoulder and upper body strength is a problem. Most of swimming is with upper body and my shoulders get a real workout.
I spent the rest of the day doing pricing research and answering questions from technicians on an upcoming release that is coming out soon. I will probably work a few hours this evening on tech support issues. I am finding something out that I knew, but have not really taken into account in recent years. Technicians do not read email anymore. They just don’t. If the email includes instructions they skim it but they do not actually read it. I am also finding out that text messaging is the quickest way to get someone’s attention. That seems to work every time. If I can’t get hold of them via text message they are not going to respond. Very few technicians deal with phone calls, and that sort of makes sense. It’s an interruption while they have their hands full. A text message they can usually answer fast while they are doing other things, but a phone call is distracting. Now, having said that, some of our older techs appreciate the phone call over email and text. All things to keep in mind when working with 3-4 different generations.
There are several things that I have gained skills on in the past that make my job easier: I can find just about anything on the internet because I know how the search engines work; my education in education allows me to provide training and coaching when possible, and also know when to give up; and over the years I have significantly grown in my ability to not react when pushed, twenty years ago I am not sure I could do the job I am doing now. These skills are all ones that I am thankful for.
This afternoon Res and Climber got some outside time.
Res loves being outside and Climber is learning to like the outside world. She is still a little “????? What’s that noise???? Nope, let’s go in!!!” And, I still can’t really let her and Res out at the same time because she tries to annoy him and get him to run, she is a little faster and can take turns much more sharply than he can. We worry about him getting hurt as he is just a little older, a little more uncoordinated, and a little slower to turn and stop than she is.
Also, Res is giving us a little problem with his food. We are not 100% sure what is going on, but I think he is going to need a check-up one of these days just to make sure nothing major is wrong. We honestly are not sure if he is having stomach issues, nothing bad is obvious going on (at the end of the cycle), or if he is just being picky. His teeth and gums look good, he eats the good stuff. We have never had a dog as picky as he is, and a male Greyhound as well normally is not that picky about food.
I spent some time this evening doing my resistance band workout that I am supposed to be doing every day. It’s supposed to take 15 to 20 minutes but it takes me longer because I can’t remember what some of the exercises are. But, every little bit is supposed to help. Today’s workout looks like;
And with that our day is basically over. I am going to sit here and read a little, and eventually call it an evening. Today was a positive day, nothing bad happened, just life, nothing to complain about. Goodnight all!
