Half A Dozen Years Later...

 Been a while.

After a tumultuous half-decade of a pandemic, a new job, moving, raising young kids, some significant family losses and a few dives into old habits and back, I am here and moving forward.

Some highlights:

• NEW JOB
  
  In 2019, I moved from a largely commercial excellence / PowerBI development role to a new project that would operate globally. Its goal was to transform our customer support centers to a new model that aligns with what I now call the most significant organizational transformation I have ever experienced.
  
  We call it OtP ("Organise to Pioneer"), and it was basically a splitting of the company into divisions that are verticals (domestic building, commercial buildings, industrial, and water utilities (municipal / groundwater)). Teased in 2020, and implemented in 2021, we are still feeling the effects of it and the general sentiment is lukewarm, up from "this is terrible."
  
  Due to the pandemic, many employees now work remotely or in hybrid roles. Fortunately for me, mine is 100% remote and I love it. More on that later.
  
  After the transformation project was "finished," I was asked to fill a role vacated by a lady I had worked with a fair amount who moved to another company. Still in that role, I am leading a small team of engineers who maintain product data in a selection and configuration tool.
  
  The company also has started a number of large projects (with similar impact to the org change) that will update our digital platforms - long overdue - to more modern systems. Some of this will effectively obsolete the tool my team manages, so we are also looking to significantly change our working environment in the next two years. It's an interesting and challenging adventure.
  
  
• MOVING
  
  With our kids attending school across town (the opposite way for me to go to work), my wife going the same direction for work, and a desire for a different space, we started looking for something new. Finally decided on one in May 2019, and were in the door at the end of June.
  
  It has suited us well - it's almost literally next door to the kids' elementary school, so it's a breeze for me to walk them there and back. It is a split-level, which was not exactly what we wanted, and has presented some issues with older family members and pets, but there's so much more we love about it, the compromise was acceptable.
  
  In the last couple of years, the value has shot up by 50%, which is nice in some ways, but so has everywhere else. If only we could sell and move somewhere less expensive to trade in some of that equity towards a mostly paid-off home.
  
  
• KIDS
  
  I have an almost 10-year old now. So crazy. Both kids are reading well and according to other parents and teachers are behaving pretty well, too. My son is a math whiz, and my daughter is not far behind. They are both very creative, and have very distinct personalities and interests.
  
  Parenting feels like coaching a game with infinite quarters.