I’ve had an interesting time getting re-acclimated to the daily working grind. For the past three years I’ve been pretty much in charge of my own very flexible schedule. Today, however, my schedule is now quite rigid!

For the past couple of weeks, I’m up at 5:15 a.m. and out the door by 6:30 a.m. and in the office by 7:30 a.m. My last meeting of the day starts at 4:00 p.m. and often runs until 6 p.m. or even later. That puts me back home between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Those are very long days!

I’m tired of doing the driving, though. It’s right at one hour each way. I can make two round trips and one one-way trip on a tank of gasoline. I’m being very well paid for this contract, but I’m putting lots of miles on my little car! I’m going to start looking for a van pool or something like that where I don’t have to drive and can use the time in a much more productive way.

So, what am I doing? I’ve had several folks ask that question. I’m managing a project to transform their current email system into something that is close to a collaboration suite. What that is hasn’t been determined, yet. The whole project will take at least a year, but I’ll also have periods where other people are working and I can take some time off. I’m having a LOT of fun. It’s delightful being back in a familiar environment working with smart people who value my experience and opinion.

Life is very good!