I woke up this morning at 2am thinking of the events of yesterday, not able to go back to sleep, so I decided to write this blog article.
Several things happened yesterday. Work, life, death, and adventure. For me, IT is my work, and my company has all of its employees working from home. While the life and death struggle of COVID-19 is occurring all around us in the United States, our work continues in a remote sort of way. What this means is you are on your laptop computer and conference calls all day. Yesterday, there were a couple of things that happened at work that kind of bothered me, but later I realized they were not as important as I thought, in the big scheme of things. First, there was a discussion of what organization should own an API that needs to be built. Should it be an enterprise service or should it be a locally owned service? Such a simple decision invoked lots of conversation, meetings, and turmoil. In the big scheme of things, is it really such a big deal? Probably not.
Later that day, I was working on a different effort, trying to upgrade a product, trying to meet a deadline we had established. One of our dependencies of this upgrade was some work by our vendor that needed to be completed so we could test the upgrade. At the end of the day, one of my team members informed me that the vendor had laid off the employee who was building the components we needed to complete the upgrade. Wow. Another casualty of the virus?
Kind of a depressing day at work.
YouTube To The Rescue
My wife and I spend our evenings watching several YouTube channels we subscribe to. Last night there were several new videos that appeared that gives you a different perspective of the day. I thought I would share them with you.
Our Wyoming Life
YouTube is almost like God. It suggests videos based on your past viewing patterns. One of the YouTube channels that we started watching and subscribe to is Our Wyoming Life. It is about a cattle rancher in Wyoming who shares videos of his work on his ranch in Wyoming. Recently during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mike started posting a daily video of what was occurring on the ranch. Daily life on the ranch for 30 straight days during calving season where his pregnant cows give birth. Spring calving season. Life and death. Mostly about life.
Yesterday, Mike posted a video of life and death on the ranch.
At the beginning of the video, Mike shows another new life on the ranch with a recent birth of a new calf at 10:40 into the video. Number 14 for the year. Then later in the video, Mike arrives home after going to town, to discover one of his pregnant cows had fallen and appeared to be dying, so Mike performs an emergency C-section on the mother in an attempt to save the calf. The attempt ultimately fails, leaving Mike in despair and depression for a short time until he realizes you have to be optimistic to be a rancher. Life must go on, and hope for the future is what keeps you going. Interestingly, the first calf born for the year is named Faith.
Trail Recon
TrailRecon is another channel the YouTube gods suggested, and the most recent video is a collection of videos from the channel’s viewers about offroad vehicles they have built. It was Brad’s idea to ask viewers to submit videos of their overland vehicles to share with other viewers.
What is interesting about this video is that in the midst of the COVID-19 virus pandemic, one YouTube channel decided to post videos about the accomplishments of his viewers. Accomplishment and adventure.
Kind of like Mike, the rancher in Wyoming, Brad is giving us some positive hope for the future while we are all stuck inside.
Mediocre Amateur
Mediocre Amateur is a YouTube channel that focuses on adventure. One of my wife’s favorites. Danny and Christophe posted a new video of their adventures. Since they are locked down, Danny decided to ski a mountain in his backyard of Orem, Utah. His buddy, Christophe, comes along for the adventure, as usual.
On a beautiful day in Utah, Danny takes us on his local adventure, climbing up the mountain in his own backyard and skiing down to his truck strategically placed at the destination of his trek.
There is no wind at the top, which Danny comments on several times. A rare event on this mountain.
This is what is really important in our lives. Adventure gives us hope.
Nolan Ventures
Nolan Ventures is a recent addition to our YouTube subscription list. My wife and I have only watched a few of their videos. Last night, they posted a new video on a trip from August 2019 of a trail called Paintbrush Canyon which my wife and I hiked several years ago. It reminded me of our past adventure in the Grand Tetons.
Summary
As I look back on yesterday, I realize that the frustrations of work are not that big of a deal after all. Over 6000 people died from the COVID-19 virus in the United States yesterday. A Wyoming rancher showed what life and death really is. And the adventurers remind us there is something better out there. The journey is what is important and make sure you enjoy the view along the way.
