I’ve been enjoying a bit of a lighter load this summer.  Well, correction – a different load that feels lighter.  It’s either that, or I’m making some tiny strides toward freeing up time in my day.  Yeah, that’s probably it.  That, and oldest grandchild has been out of town for 2 weeks, so my responsibilities there are absent.

I’m now at a point of trying to prioritize all the work and personal things I want to get done in the short-, mid- and long-term.  Many of the work items have an almost identical level of importance and frankly, I’ve dreamed of having some minions more than once in the past couple of weeks.  I just need someone to push something forward and literally get the ball rolling.

Also, I’ve been reading more – both in my most recent field of expertise as well as for pleasure. The fact that I can do this speaks to the amount of free time I have.

Traveling next week for the whole week.  Will be encountering some former co-workers and am not sure how that’s going to go.  There are a ton of reasons why we’ve not had contact, and most are due to lies told about me when I departed my job over 3 years ago.  Others are related to the perception that I am in business competition with them.

I am torn – these folks who haven’t spoken or reached out in so long are themselves responsible for not even asking me about what is true and what is not.  I have been amazed at how quickly that what I considered strong friendships have been abandoned without even a word or question.  For me, this behavior has caused a loss of respect for them on my end.  I find it hard to fathom when folks just walk away from a friendship without having a direct conversation with the other party to confirm rumors and lies.  But it is what it is.  Probably not in my best interests to have any confrontations with these folks – though the reality is that I miss many of them.

We shall see how it goes.