…it feels like the first time I’ve seen the sun at home since I got back from London.

I came out of work this evening and the sky was clear, the was sun out and I had to rummage around in the car looking for my sunnies. Last weekend, and again today, I was reminded how much I miss the sun.

I’ve been travelling a lot for work in the last few months, and there will be more plenty more in the immediate future. There have been times when inspiration has been difficult to come by and motivation may not be totally there.

One of my friends called it before I recognized it, I’m approaching burnout.

I’ve been here before, taking a few moments to look I recognize the symptoms and about the only surprise is that it’s taken this long to get here. So what do I do about it? How do I handle it?

First, work less. Doing what I do it’s way easier to say “work less” than actually do it. I’ll start small, lets say no weekend overtime for the next month or two.

Then reduce what I work on from home by leaving my laptop at work and only take reading and editing stuff home. From experience, working less does not always mean getting less done; it means being more focused on what I do work on and delegating to my group more.

Hand in hand with not working, as much is a little redefining of what a good or successful day looks like. Progress on the program can be somewhat stop-start. The goals can be huge and occasionally unrealistic. I think I deal with it better than most, but the frustration of a perceived lack of progress is obviously felt by many around me. Maybe it’s time to step back and examine the goals. Are they achievable and is the time line realistic? If not they need to be changed.

I see progress, positive progress towards the ultimate goal (proven processes in place and metrics showing cost saving), but I’m also too close to appreciate what we’ve achieved as a group in the last few months. First glance I see what’s left to be done, rather then what we’ve done. The overarching plan that I first saw six months ago is “chunked” into very large blocks. Stepping down a level and examining the project work breakdown got us to somewhere with a little more granularity. These steps are way more achievable and make recognizing the progress we’ve made easier and more fulfilling.

That’s work dealt with, what about real life? It’s that delegating thing again and looking after myself. My lawyer is very good, we had a discussion last week and I trust her to take care of what needs to be done. She is the professional and looks after my corner. So far I’m very happy with that.

There is one last part of this, if after taking it easy for a month, getting more sleep, more exercise, reducing stress and so on and I feel the same way, then perhaps it’s just time to apply myself and get on with it. Not use burnout as an excuse, manage my stress and health and ignore the fact that I feel burned out, and just work through it until I can take a couple of weeks off in the spring.

Had a visit to the V E T with one of the guys tonight, just a follow up. The good news is she has put on almost 3/4 of a pound in the last couple of weeks and is as feisty as ever.

I love that moment when I get to lay in my own bed for the first time after a trip away, it really does feel good to be home, even if it is just until next week.

Of course after they had finished eating they guys joined me. This is DB’s shadow on the bedroom wall.

I’m a day late in getting this up, but it was nice to be warm in LA and Vegas. In the perfect stereotype, Seattle was raining and cold when I got off the airplane.

I rather like how this longer exposure picture of the Mirage hotel from last night came out. I think a couple of days having fun with a friend in the desert might be just enough of the place untill Stephens 40th Birthday this summer.

I spent 45 minutes on a flight sitting next to two women on their way to the Miss America pageant at the Planet Hollywood Casino in Las Vegas a couple of days ago. In all my years I have never heard a more vacuous conversation.

And I’m including socially climbing 6 years olds telling me about the hierarchy of the elementary school playground, their plan for domination while starting the conversation with “Us popular girls…”

I was sitting in my window seat when they boarded, huge over sized bags that would not fit in the overhead and both were wearing “Miss America” jackets a size or two too small. I’d say both were around 30 and with the fake tan to match the unbelievably white smile. Think of surgically enhanced, over made-up Oompa-loompas and you are getting close.

Then the conversations started… Fuck… How do these people survive in society?

They were talking about their kids and who was looking after them; Not-a-natural-blond said “you’d think their grand parents would be happy to see them for the weekend again…” The other replied “Oh yah, they should know they signed up for being grandparents the moment you were born…”

Awesome, more attentive parents who put their kids first…

Then it got worse – they opened up People magazine. For reasons too deep to go into here I think the so-called “celebrity” magazines have a lot to answer for in the world. Clearly I’m never going to appear in one, and I’m strangely OK with that.

First thing they stopped on was a piece about Kim Kardashian, one of the people famous for being famous. I’m not saying she contributes little to the world, I just don’t know enough to form a reasoned opinion.

So Ms Kardashin was always referred to by the witless sisters in the familiar “Kim”, and how she is (and this is a quote) “probably the most beautiful and complete person in the world”… I shit you not… “I’d love to hang out with her, I think we’d be BFF”.

The piece had a few photos of “Kim” hanging out at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel in Vegas, coincidently, our destination. They read the piece (out loud BTW) and said “O M G (and that was the letters, with a space between each one) Kim is going to the same clubs we’re going to!” They then squealed, and high-fived.

A few pages later there was a picture of the aforementioned “Kim” with rather full looking lips and speculation that she had collagen. Again there was a squeal, more disappointed than excited this time.

And Number11 said “O M G, I hope that’s a shellfish allergy and she’s not had collagen, she was so beautiful.”

We had not even taken off yet…

The Chinese new year does not start for another couple of weeks, but there were a few decorations up for the Year of the Rabbit that starts Feb 3rd.

King Kong about to have an unfortunate accident with a guitar at the Universal Studios Citywalk in Hollywood. Seeing the sun was so overdue, it feels like it’s rained everyday since I got back from London.

It’s missing a few flex-ducts, but I still think the inside of LAX would feel at home in a dystopian Terry Gilliam  movie.

I had an early start today, I need to get out of there close to on time for a change tonight. This is what greeted me when I looked out onto the deck, as forecast – Snow! I’m sure the more wussy local news stations are running “StormWatch 2011!!!”

Clearly the Miata was not the smart decision this morning, but that meant I had to clean the snow off the Land Rover… More motivation to take a trip to the dump and get both cars in the garage at night…

Thanks Land Rover for the heated seats, steering wheel, windscreen and really manly, powerful wiper motors. It made clearing the car the work of moments.