Hello from isolation state! Looks like my broke state of Illinois is heading for another lockdown starting this Friday. One day after my planned official goodbye to my “corporate” family. Due to the pandemic precautions, we have been required to work at home since March and it looks like that requirement will remain in effect until at least April of next year. I would not be surprised if that gets extended. Truthfully, my IT organization has limited impacts to remote working as we are typically engaged in projects that span to all parts of our enterprise covering all parts of the world. I’ve had the pleasure/inconvenience (pick your viewpoint) of conversing with team members in Asia/India at 10pm, then working with our European members the next morning followed by our North/South American colleagues throughout the day. It has been a wonderful career allowing me to engage with some of the brightest minds across the globe, be introduced to new viewpoints and certainly learn to broaden my own perspectives as a result. The work deliverables I think will be easy to let go – I’ve mentioned before that working on high profile projects (some in the multi-billion dollar range) can take its toll. What I will definitely miss are the relationships. Some I have enjoyed for the entirety of my 31+ years and many others developed over that continuum. I remember the retirement gatherings I used to attend during my early career days listening to the guest of honor refer to his coworkers as family and thinking that was odd. Now I know exactly what they meant and I know exactly how they felt as they said their goodbyes. All the pressures I’ve encountered during my years at work are probably going to pale to how much stress there will be tomorrow trying to keep my composure in front of a computer camera. A virtual goodbye probably has a reduced emotion compared to directly shaking the hand and thanking them for all the advice, all the mentoring and for being an invaluable sounding board that directly lead to my successes. Hoping one day I can take the time to do that once this pandemic crap is past us although clearly it will be more difficult say goodbye in person to my international colleagues. Many of them would travel to the US for our architecture summits I coordinated so we could at least meet face to face once a year – and that, of course, was canceled in this my farewell year.
We will see how this goes tomorrow, but all this talk of family led to today’s featured topic.
Although clearly on a different level, it seemed appropriate to bring you a series on a bird family. Now, I have brought you pictures of little goslings before (link here), but they are just so damn cute I can’t stop taking pictures of them. I am not a good judge of age when it comes to birds – not like they come with birth certificates or anything of the such. What I can tell is relative age groupings from the early chicks/goslings seen here, to the more juvi state as they start taking on more of their adult feathering and then finally adulthood.
Hit the jump to read more about our family of Canada Geese.
Wildlife Intrigued 