Re-retired. Again.

And I'm thrilled! Not that I didn't like the Keyera gig. I did. I got in there because a couple people I've worked with before pushed for it to happen. I knew a few people at Keyera from my time at Skystone. It's a small world sometimes.

I was brought in to do a particular task, and was told there would be no contract renewal. The project would be done come hell or high water, and it was. Yay team! I was comparing notes with one of my business analyst buddies. He has had many short term gigs. I've had a few longer term gigs. The Penn West one was out of the ordinary, lasting more than 4 years and continuous rounds of layoffs, with renewal after renewal. It was nice to have one with a firm end date.

It was a little harum scarum at a few times, and there were a few 'Holy Doodle!' moments, and a couple unexpected learnings. I was astonished that Maximo let us add specifications to an asset that doesn't exist, because it created an empty asset. I was expecting an error message because if there's on thing Maximo likes to do on data loads, its give error messages. It all made the 3-day weeks pass very quickly.

I think knowing what I know now I'd have done things a little differently, but that's always the case. Or it should be. I left a document about the next steps. They might ask me to come back later this year or early next to work on a related project. Or not. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, nor am I out looking under rocks for the next gig.

I spent a happy after noon trying macro shots of a wine diamond. The shape wasn't that interesting, but it was a learning experience. Oh, what the heck, even though it's not Macro Monday, here's what they looked like. To give you the scale, that's a wine cork that they're sitting on, about 2 cm in diameter.

What happens tomorrow you ask? I was thinking of doing a ceremonial sleep in, but that's tough for me. Instead, I'm actually getting up earlier than usual, and doing something for a buddy. Should be fun. That something starts at 5am downtown, so we're getting up about 3:30. Quite the opposite of a sleep in.

I say re-retired, because I thought of myself as a retired person (even though I'm much too young to be a senior citizen) after leaving Penn West last summer, and I had a wonderful fall. Now that I'm not going to a day job, I'm anticipating having a wonderful summer. Then there was the year I wasn't working, but I was hustling for a job during that time, so that put a bit more stress on things.

Linda is done working for pay. Working in her garden, or deciding to volunteer for some organization are different. She's still decompressing. I'm not quite ready to never work for pay again. I'm interested in discussing part-time gigs doing interesting work if someone approaches me. Every one of those defers drawing on my retirement savings for another year, or gives me money to buy a fancy lens or go on a photo trip. Gotta love that.

In between gigs, I'm happy to be doing my thing. Photos, and I've been asked to do another event gig. More writing. I seem to be more productive when I don't have a day job preying on my mind. Helping with the gardening. Visiting friends. Getting out for some bike rides, and getting more regular with running again. Lots of things. Stay tuned and you'll hear about them.

A wet rose for you. This is just a warm up. Hint, hint.