Thin layers of ice and snow

I flew up to the Portland area just for the day, for a short series of meetings and then home again. The views from the air were idyllic: Trees dusted in powder, farmhouses and barns under a white blanket straight out of New England, fields in alternating patterns of brown and white. On the ground, it's not all that cold outside. Well, I missed the storm, is why. Darn.

Fearing people will never end. I would always rather hide in my electric blanket than go put my personality, my knowledge, my judgment out on the line for all to see. But I can't hide because doing all that is part of what the job has become. Should I choose to try the job, or kill myself with self-doubt?

Thus the meetings. The trouble with meetings is they are a direct engagement, face to face, brain to brain. That's also why they are indispensable. I came all the way up here for just that: Face time. For the value it has over talking on the phone, a value my management evidently feels is worth the price of airfare. That I would much, much, much rather work it all out in spreadsheets sent in email is not the main issue here. Getting the job done is the main issue. However ambiguous the job turns out to be.

The great thing is, well, the great thing is people. We all cover ourselves with a veneer of sorts. Especially engineer types. Most engineer types would rather do the spreadsheet and email thing than talk face to face. But that doesn't work so well so here we are, and those thin layers of ice and snow really do melt and shovel aside fairly easily. You only have to try.