Jeff and I started consuming our takeout meals in local parks. We discovered quite a few new parks this way. Nowadays, we are frequently on the lookout for picnic tables as we drive around. In this photo, which was taken in Kahala, I am eating a mushroom pizza from Angelo Pietro, while Jeff holds up a slice of cheesecake from Otto Cake.
I started writing this as an intro paragraph on my New York blog, but I soon realized this deserved its own blog entry. Ive organized this blog thematically and it is not in chronological order. Please read the descriptive text on the photos for additional information.
In early 2020, we all watched with growing concern as news spread about the emergence of a new virus. In early March 2020, my employer decided to transition all workers to work from home (WFH). Apart from a mad scramble to obtain VPN licenses, the transition was surprisingly smooth. primarily uses Go To Meeting for our online meetings. Thankfully, it isnt in our culture to turn on our cameras.
When Covid hit, I was starting to expand my team. I had authority to hire a team of Technical Writers and Software Testers on temp contracts. I hired my first contractor in February, and I have hired another five since WFH began. Ive only worked with the first contractor in the office, and I have never met the remaining five in person. It has been unexpectedly easy to manage a remote team, but maybe
I have an enclosed office so Im going in to work. Masks are mandatory areas. It does help that I have a great view too!
that is because Im not a micromanager by nature. the tasks I want my team to do, the standard/format I expect for the deliverables, and a deadline. From there, I tell them to manage their own time and to call me if they need my input or intervention.
It hasnt been easy trying to define, develop, and test software package with us in Hawaii and Guam and our vendors scattered across the contiguous United States, but weve coped remarkably well given the circumstances. Thank goodness for Sharepoint, JIRA, Go To Meeting, Microsoft Teams, and the Cloud. I shudder to think how we would have managed a decade ago.
As a special education teacher, my husband Jeff had a slightly more challenging time managing remote learning. Some of his students thrived, fell off the wagon. When the new school year began in July 2020, the Department of Education required special education to be conducted in person, so Jeff reluctantly returned to the classroom.
While WFH was novel in the beginning, it quickly wore off because I didnt feel I had enough physical and psychological space between work and home. Several weeks after
Meet the ironically named Liʻi (tiny in Hawaiian), a.k.a. Meow Meow Boy. The likely runt of his litter, he was found abandoned in a parking lot in August 2013. We didnt expect him to grow up to be such a big boy. When I am working from home, he will circle around me and meow until I pick up him and put him on my lap. Most of the time, he will jump right off. When he does stay on my lap, I eventually have to push him off because hes heavy and he cuts off blood circulation to my legs. I keep a supply of catnip at my desk. To distract him, I place some catnip in a nearby box and hell stay stoned inside the box for a while. We think hes a Republican because when he was a kitten his first poop was on a magazine with Hilary Clinton on the cover.
I received the second of my Pfizer shots in April 2021, I started going to the office two or three days each week for a change of environment. I going to the office because I have an enclosed office (with a great view to boot!). When the summer temperatures hit, I started going in most days to enjoy the air conditioning.
Without a doubt, the big winners of Covid were our five cats. They were ecstatic that we spent so much time at home and we didnt travel. Radar, our biggest boy, became much more of a cuddle bug. Liʻi, our other big boy, spent a lot of time in my home office.
