A Day In My Life

I can't believe that January 2021 is nearly over. It has been a quiet month. Alison and I have spent most of the month at home. Other than going to the grocery story, occasionally spending time with Alison's family, and running a few errands, we have been at home. Staying close to home feels like the responsible choice right now. Covid-19 continues to rage in Utah and throughout the US. Daily death tolls have accelerated and hospital systems are overwhelmed. There is a light at the end of the tunnel - mass vaccinations are underway, but it seems like it will be months before we really see the impact of these programs.

This month the days all kind of blend together - they are often very similar, if not identical. I decided to record the events of one day from January 2021. Five years ago, I did a similar exercise when I wrote about my experiences during the first week of busy season. Alison and I recently reread some of those posts and couldn't believe some of the details of our lives back then. I am sure I will have a similar reaction when I look back on this day 5 years from now. 

Here is one day in my life in January 2021:

At 5:00am the lights in the master bedroom turn on. They are dimmed to 15% brightness. Our smart lights are set to come on at 5:00am every weekday. I find this helps me wake up and get out of bed in the morning. A moment later our Amazon Echo begins playing "I'm Still Standing." Today I tell Alexa to stop as I roll out of bed. This doesn't always happen - Alison will tell you there are plenty of days where I will roll over and pull out my phone. On days, I pull out my phone I might spend 30-40 minutes in bed catching up on the news. Today however I am up with the alarm. I take my temperature first thing - Alison and I have been taking our temperature most mornings since last April. I also weigh in. Then I pull on some warm clothes and put on my Apple watch before heading downstairs. 

Tex has taken to sleeping on our bed. He often won't get up until after I am up and head downstairs.

I pull out our blender and make a chocolate banana smoothie. I enjoy my smoothie along with a couple of energy bites (oatmeal with almond butter, dark chocolate chips, Turkish apricots and a few other things). While I eat I pull out my phone and check out Apple news, KSL, and my sleep/readiness stats from my Oura ring. When I finish I clear out the dishwasher and load my dirty dishes. Then I call Tex to come over. He is asleep on the couch, but perks up as soon as I ask if he wants to go on a walk. I pull out his leash and harness along with a ball and a handful of treats. Tex knows the drill. He trots over and lifts his front left paw so that I can put the harness on him. He is ready to go. I grab a beanie and some gloves. I dress warmly because it is 27 degrees outside. I also grab my AirPods on the way out the door. Today I am listening to Transcendent Kingdom by Yah Gyasi. It is a thoughtful novel about a young Ph.D students search to understand herself. So far, the novel has dealt with addiction, religion, immigration, family dynamics, and more. I look forward to listening to it each morning while I walk. 

Tex and I follow basically the same route most mornings. We loop through our neighborhood to the path behind Mountain Creek Middle School. When we get to this path I let Tex off leash and throw his ball. He chases the ball through the field while I walk along the path. He loves this game - he is so athletic. He will run and jump and tumble; all in his effort to get to the ball as quickly as possible. There is a little risk in playing this game on winter mornings. It is dark so if Tex doesn’t see where I throw the ball it could easily become lost. We have had a few close calls, but so far, we haven’t lost his ball this year. Once we have walked the length of the field I put him back on leash and we continue our walk. We walk past Creekside Park and up a trail that climbs a small hill overlooking Daybreak Lake. This is one of my favorite parts of our walk. This time of year, it is dark and from this hill I have an incredible view of the Salt Lake Valley. From this vantage point I love to see the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and Draper Temples lit up like beacons in the darkness. Today looking at the lights of the valley I am in contemplative mood. I pause my book to have a few moments with my thoughts. This feel refreshing. Before the pandemic I wouldn't take headphones on these walks. It was just me, Tex, and my thoughts. Since I don't have a commute right now, my walk has become prime time to listen to an audio book, but sometimes I want a few quiet moments to think. 

When we arrive at Daybreak Lake we loop around and walk back. We take a slightly different route home. All told our walk takes 50 minutes and we walk 2.42 miles. At home, I put walking gear away. Tex sits expectantly near the coat closet. Before I put my coat away I pull the rest of the dog treats out of the coat pocket and scatter them on the floor. Tex vacuums them all up. Alison is just finishing her morning workout. We switch places. She heads out on a walk and I head downstairs to our gym. Today my workout is Endurance and Agility from Amoila Cesar’s Six Weeks of the Work . It is a challenging 45-minute sweat fest. Today the workout destroys my legs. After I finish, I mix up a protein/creatine drink and eat one cup of pineapple. Before I head upstairs I portion out one cup of sliced zucchini and squash for Alison and one for myself. I put the veggies on sheet pans and put Alison’s portion in the oven. Then I head upstairs to the office Alison and I are sharing. I log into my computer and review our finances. I track our monthly budget and key financial metrics in an excel spreadsheet that I built. Every day I spend a few minutes updating the spreadsheet. 

I finish eating and put my dishes in the dishwasher. I then throw my veggies into the oven and head upstairs to shower and get ready for the day. CC is waiting for me by the bathroom counter. She meows until I lift her up and turn on one of our sinks to a slow trickle. She then drinks water out of the sink. She used jump up on the counter, but she is a rather portly cat and is not as young as she used to be. Once she began only making it up ~50% of the time she mostly gave up and started relying on us lifting her up. 

Today it takes me ~15 minutes to finish my morning routine. I shave every other day, and since I shaved yesterday I skip that step today. When I am clean and dressed I head downstairs. I throw some turkey bacon onto the griddle on the stove. While it is cooking I begin making some lemon-poppy seed muffins. I finished the last of my energy bites today and I decided to make muffins to go with my shake in the mornings. After I have let the turkey bacon cook for ~5 minutes I start some eggs and toast. This is my breakfast most mornings – baked zucchini and squash, turkey bacon, two eggs sunny side up, and one piece of buttered toast. It is a solid breakfast. After I eat I put my dishes in the dishwasher and finish making my muffins. I put them in the oven and head upstairs to start working. 

CC spends most of the day sleeping on a rocking chair in the room that has become our office

Work was busy today. We are currently still working to close out 2020, while also preparing to close January 2021 next week. It is a delicate juggling act. There is a bunch of extra accounting work we must do because of the Blackstone transaction and Ancestry’s decision to discontinue the health product in December. Basically, the Ancestry balance sheet must be revalued and we must book a few additional transactions. We were waiting for data from a third-party firm so that we could book the adjustments. The data came through yesterday and we could reconsolidate. This threw off many of my assigned reconciliations. Fixing those reconciliations for the adjustments was at the top of my to-do list. I knocked those out first thing in the morning. 

Then I joined a companywide all hands meeting. We have these once a month. The executives give an update on the business and share information that is relevant to the entire company. The information they share in these meetings is confidential. I find them to be quite valuable. 

After the all hands meeting I reached out to my team to check in. I was recently promoted to be a manager. I am still working on a cadence with my team. So far, their preference is to check in a couple of times a day. I knew they had a few reconciliations that were impacted by the adjustment. I wanted to be sure they knew they should focus on getting those updated first. I also knew they were a little overwhelmed with everything on their plate so I wanted to reiterate I am here to help in any way I can. 

I spend the rest of the morning working on a couple of projects. I have to set up a file that the accounting team uses to track month over month variances, as well as, variances to forecast.

Around noon I take a break. I tell Tex to get his frisbee. He runs full speed into the basement and comes back up with his frisbee. He drops it by the door and waits while I put on my shoes and coat. I open the door and tell him to stay. He waits, almost shaking with anticipation, until I tell him he can go. We spend the next ~5 minutes throwing his frisbee in the green space in front of our house. I keep playing fetch until Tex doesn’t bring the frisbee back. Instead, he heads for the door, a sure sign he is tired. 

Back in the house I heat up my lunch. Today I eat roasted butternut squash, roasted fingerling potatoes, a barbeque chicken thigh, and an orange. I made these all earlier in the week so I just have to heat it up and it is ready to eat. 

After lunch, I head back upstairs to work. Alison and I finally caved and turned our empty bedroom into a home office. We share it. I get to listen to Alison’s afternoon calls while I work on a project. I am doing some testing of reports that are used by the controller in the controls he performs. Our auditors need the documentation on this testing as soon as possible so my goal is to knock it out today. I get through most of it in the afternoon. There are a couple of outstanding items where I am waiting for responses from other members of the organization. 

I wrap up work a little early today. We recently signed Tex up for training. He has been barking more often at people who walk past our house. The issues really coincided with the start of the pandemic. Overall, he is such a good dog, but his obedience has slipped so we hired a trainer to help us. The trainer comes every Thursday afternoon. Today Tex demonstrated our biggest concern because he barked like crazy when the trainer rang the doorbell. I talked to her for a few minutes and observed the training before she took Tex out on walk. I resumed work while she was out with Tex. I would take a break from working when she was back and she would show me what they were working on. The focus this week was on placing Tex and then using the "place" command to teach him to stay when someone is at the door. The trainer would have one of us place Tex on his dog bed and give him the command. The trainer would then go out the front door and ring the doorbell. Alison would open the door and chat with the trainer while Tex had to wait on his dog bed. It took him a few tries, but after a while he started to get it. 

After the dog trainer left Alison and I made dinner. Our dinner tonight was parmesan garlic chicken wings (cooked in our air fryer), with roasted asparagus, and one pot lentil dahl. It was delicious. When we finished eating we had one errand to run. We had to stop by Sam's Club to pick up a few things. Normally we would do a pick up order, but because of the earlier shortages during the pandemic you can't order toilet paper or paper towel in a pick up order. We needed both of those items so we went inside. We shop at Sam's Club because it is not at all busy and we can find most of the things we want. Today was no exception there was hardly anyone else there.

Back at home we relaxed before bed. We decided to watch some TV downstairs. We tried a new show "Dickinson" on Apple TV+. It is a dark comedy that imagines poet Emily Dickinson as a rebellious teenager. The costumes and set are period appropriate, but the language and other elements are more modern. We enjoyed the first episode. I will say Apple TV+ is an underrated streaming service. They have some great content. 

By this point is was ~8:30pm and we decided to get ready for bed. Before heading upstairs I joined Tex on the carpet in the basement and we played one of his favorite games. He has these three rubber loops that form a chain and he loves to play tug of war with them. I pull on them and he shakes his head and growls. Sometimes I will grab them and hide them behind my back and Tex will hop around me looking for them. It really gets him riled up. Then he tries to herd CC on our way up the stairs - Alison and CC both hate that. 

CC stand by the counter and meows for us to lift her up and turn on the water. She drinks while we brush our teeth and get all ready for bed. By the time we are ready both CC and Tex have made their way onto our bed. CC is waiting for treat time. Every night when I get into bed I give her a few treats. Tex is so good he either waits patiently for her to finish and then licks up the crumbs or ignores it all together. Before going to sleep we watch one episode of Schitt's Creek to unwind. This has become one of our favorite sitcoms - it is a funny and heartwarming show. Then we ask Alexa to turn off the lights and we call it a night. 

CC eating her treats while Tex lays on the bed