I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.
Today’s tip is to look around and spot three things you find unusual or pleasant.
I was lucky enough to travel recently a few times. One trip was to upstate New York to see my daughter, and I made it a point to look for a few different things. Here are a few things I noticed:
Cheese Curds
I don’t see these around Colorado (or many places I travel), but looking for a late night dinner on a drive between cities at 10pm I found multiple bags of these at a small rural gas station. At a few other convenience stores, I saw quite a variety.
Interesting, and quite tasty.
Cash Only
We drove a few towns over to bowl one day. We walked in, got our shoes and a sheet, and proceeded to bowl. The person at the desk said we would settle up later.
While we were there, my wife went to get a drink and was told that it was cash only. I had some in the car, and again, they said to settle up later.
It was interesting. They used old fashioned, mechanical cash registers to total our bill and then gave us change for the cash. They trusted us to pay, and I was reminded of times when I was a kid when that was how many businesses ran: cash, trust, and things totaled without electronics.
I miss those days sometimes.
Weather
The weather was rainy, chilly, and damp. The old house we were in was designed early in the 20th century, with older architectural elements, big floor heating ducts from an oil furnace, and a bit of a draft.
We looked over the weather, on average, for the area. It’s often cloudy, which made us miss Colorado but reminded us to be thankful for all the sun we get. I missed the sun last weekend and am glad to be home.