Short Night – What’s New
Yesterday (Monday) was a very odd day and night. Went through my normal work routine, not spectaular – and left at 415pm for a dental appointment to get an x-ray and estimate on the cost of replacing a crown that I broke over the Christmas holiday vacation. Left the dentist office at 530pm and then endured a gruelling 2 hour commute home. Regrettably, I think much of the time was self-inflicted by the route that Pak Yono took. He did a great deal of zig-zagging in bumper to bumper traffic. Clearly, I could have walked or ran home faster than he drove. Thanks God I didn’t need to use the restroom from 415-730pm (when I finally arrived home).
After getting home, I worked on some travel arrangements for my May trip to the US … while waiting for Decy to get home from the salon. She had an incredibly good day …. 11 customers … on a Monday. Yahoo !! PTL !! Her business has been on the upswing the past 10 days as folks started getting paid and moving away from the post-holiday empty wallet syndrome.
Finally got to bed about 1030pm after talking to my mom, who is in the hospital with pneumonia. Had a lot on my mind but quickly fell to sleep. But, I woke up at 220am and by 230am I was up and about. During the night, I had received two emails that brought me to full attention. First email was from my sister and talked about my mom’s condition in the hospital. The comments seemed fair and balanced. Unfortunately, I am not sure how to respond / react. Obviously, my mom is getting up in years. Obviously, pneumonia is a serious illness at anyone’s age. Challenge is – what do I do with this information when I am 12,000 miles away. Do I say “thank you very much” and just go on with my life … or do I jump on a plane and fly to Florida? Just don’t know.
Second email was from a Financial Executive in our company who is in Houston. There have been some discussions in Houston regarding career paths for me – or at least, what’s left of my career. He wants me to call him to discuss. For the avoidance of doubt, this is NOT a discussion about a relocation. Rather, it is a discussion about whether I am an “accountant” or an “engineer”. While the answer might seem obvious or trivial – it really is not. About half my career has been spent in Financial positions, about half in Commercial/Planning positions. I am now nearly 52 years old, have 25 years with the company, and have 3-13 years left. The path that is chosen will define how my long career with the company comes to closure. For me, money is important but so is job satisfaction. I honestly don’t know which one has the greatest opportunity for “more money” … but I do know that I enjoy Planning/Commercial activities much more than Accounting.
With that note, I think I will close this email. Still need to work on travel plans. Plus, I need to write a letter to our medical insurance company to request a pre-determination of benefits on the crown replacement. I suspect I will get the letter written, but run out of time on the travel.
Ciao ciao. GBU.
