Back from OR with swirling head
Aug. 27th, 2017 10:28 amBack from Oregon, and my head feels overstuffed as the anxieties and to-do lists come back into focus.
Seeing some older couples close-up is always fascinating -- this time,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
heisenbug's parents and my mother and her husband (who didn't actually show, but who was discussed). I know, it's only two data points. But in both cases it's the older man who is closing off and becoming less interested in learning/doing new things. In both cases, intriguingly, the older man is exercising a fair amount but always in very straightforward/controlled environments. One is doing a lot of indoor stationary-bike riding, but is having more and more trouble with his balance, and decidedly not working on balance or any lateral motions with any form of exercise or physical therapy. The other is at least still doing folk dance and some kayaking, which help with balance, but is losing flexibility without working on it and is becoming less open to learning new dances. In both cases the women now travel more than the men do. Whyyyyyyy? What is happening to these folks? It's scary. I wonder what I'll see next year (or thereabouts) when I see my dad and his wife, and I wonder what I'll see around me when I'm in my 70s.
Unrelated: one of my team's best people at work is moving away very soon, and it looks like HR is going to block my plan to have him work for me remotely for a few months. Argh! Big companies. :-/ The only thing worse is a small company. Anyway, here's my next really bad managerial problem to solve. Apparently dealing well with shit like this is exactly what I get high performance ratings for now, so I'd better put a brave face on it and get scrappy. (Or, as a popular internal meme would have it, drop the "s". Just "crappy". It's cleaner.)
Must not forget, one of my best handstand buddies just got her press last week. I have mixed feelings about this -- some jealousy, of course, but also the feeling of losing a friend who was on the same journey. And anxiety over some skills she clearly gained by working with a coach who I've never clicked with, a coach who in fact a lot of people say is great but who has only ever shown me bland feedback combined with an inability to break down skills. Yeah, it's me, I'm missing something there. That said, I'm working with my own special different coach, and we all have different paths, and.... agggggh. Maybe I'm just fooling myself into thinking I'll ever attain my stupid overly-difficult goal. I need to not think about this too hard.
On the plus side, I successfully and efficiently bought new Nikes in the airport, leaving them the box and also my old sneaks to recycle -- a most satisfying minimalist upgrade. Does anyone else remember when we used to expect to break in new shoes? These days I'll only tolerate that for heavy leather boots. Everything else needs to feel okay immediately. Shoes, I think, have gotten better.
Seeing some older couples close-up is always fascinating -- this time,
heisenbug's parents and my mother and her husband (who didn't actually show, but who was discussed). I know, it's only two data points. But in both cases it's the older man who is closing off and becoming less interested in learning/doing new things. In both cases, intriguingly, the older man is exercising a fair amount but always in very straightforward/controlled environments. One is doing a lot of indoor stationary-bike riding, but is having more and more trouble with his balance, and decidedly not working on balance or any lateral motions with any form of exercise or physical therapy. The other is at least still doing folk dance and some kayaking, which help with balance, but is losing flexibility without working on it and is becoming less open to learning new dances. In both cases the women now travel more than the men do. Whyyyyyyy? What is happening to these folks? It's scary. I wonder what I'll see next year (or thereabouts) when I see my dad and his wife, and I wonder what I'll see around me when I'm in my 70s. Unrelated: one of my team's best people at work is moving away very soon, and it looks like HR is going to block my plan to have him work for me remotely for a few months. Argh! Big companies. :-/ The only thing worse is a small company. Anyway, here's my next really bad managerial problem to solve. Apparently dealing well with shit like this is exactly what I get high performance ratings for now, so I'd better put a brave face on it and get scrappy. (Or, as a popular internal meme would have it, drop the "s". Just "crappy". It's cleaner.)
Must not forget, one of my best handstand buddies just got her press last week. I have mixed feelings about this -- some jealousy, of course, but also the feeling of losing a friend who was on the same journey. And anxiety over some skills she clearly gained by working with a coach who I've never clicked with, a coach who in fact a lot of people say is great but who has only ever shown me bland feedback combined with an inability to break down skills. Yeah, it's me, I'm missing something there. That said, I'm working with my own special different coach, and we all have different paths, and.... agggggh. Maybe I'm just fooling myself into thinking I'll ever attain my stupid overly-difficult goal. I need to not think about this too hard.
On the plus side, I successfully and efficiently bought new Nikes in the airport, leaving them the box and also my old sneaks to recycle -- a most satisfying minimalist upgrade. Does anyone else remember when we used to expect to break in new shoes? These days I'll only tolerate that for heavy leather boots. Everything else needs to feel okay immediately. Shoes, I think, have gotten better.
