I’m going to pretend I write all the time and this is totally normal. In fact, I’m going to re-publish every post I’ve ever had. Why not.
Today I started off the same way I start every day these days. Waking up. Good start. The last several days I’ve been sore because my coworker, Scott, and I are building a gym in the barn so that staff who live down there have some privacy and so that people working out do as well. You probably don’t know what I’m talking about.
I work as the Front Office Manager at a guest ranch in Idaho. I’m one of only a handful that are full time. I, and Scott, are the only two full timers who live on the ranch…full time. So for me, the ranch is home. Our season is from June 14 through September 18th this year and since it’s a leap year, that has no effect on us whatsoever. We hire around 25 or 30 seasonal staff per…season. They start arriving around June 6th this year. Until then, we have lots of projects to get the ranch thawed out from winter.
One of those projects is building walls around the workout equipment we’ve added over the years. I’m impressed with how it’s turning out. Scott worked construction before coming to the ranch fourish years ago, so he’s much better at all of the things than I am, but I like to think I can at least hold my own.
I established that I woke up today so far, and that’s about as excited as I was about it. My morning routine is to make coffee moments after my eyes adjust to not being closed for hopefully 8 hours. As the coffee’s brewing, I put on my $3.33 readers (since my $200 glasses give me headaches) and I check my email to see if anything happened between last night and today. Generally, email can wait until about 9. I then start reading.
Depending on the type of book, I try to read a chapter each morning. I’m currently reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss. In related news, I just looked him up for the first time and he’s young! Based on the life stories he’s shared in the book, I figured he’d be older. Good for him. I’ve been putting off reading this book for about 5 or more years because it’s massive. I’m almost done with the book, and I’m on around page 620 or something. Everybody in the world probably knows him, but I didn’t really. I knew his name and knew that he is “somebody” but I didn’t know much about him. The book’s pretty great. It’s essentially a snapshot into the lives of people he has interviewed for his podcast. I’m not much of a podcast guy (unless I change my mind and start my own podcast), so the book version is working very well for me.
I read as much or as little as I want, but I’ve just CHEWED through books this winter. This is my first winter at the ranch, and it turns out that exactly where I’m living is consistently among the coldest places in the lower 48. I think the lowest I saw was -28, which – for those of you scoring at home – was colder than when I was in Antarctica. This place, however, is much more pleasant than my experience there.
By about page 5 of reading, my coffee’s done. Now I read and drink coffee. It’s a delightful start to the day.
After reading, I’ve made myself incorporate stretching into my morning routine. Now that I’m 43, I realize it’d be nice to be able to ski and stand upright when I’m 75 or 80. I do some sit ups and push ups and about 20 other things. It’s pretty tolerable.
Then I go upstairs in my work-provided housing and start work. I’m very fortunate to work in a place that appreciates me, and allows me to live on the ranch, and allows me to help with things that are “outside of my lane” in the front office. Today, for example, after taking a ski on one of the hills on the property, I plowed the driveway since we got a few inches of snow last night. No gym work for me today because I spent the morning working on reservations for our season.
My “normal” day consists of emailing current guests back who had questions, emailing potential future guests responses to their questions, scheduling off-ranch guests to join us for dinner during the season, answering the phone, updating the website, etc…office-type stuff. But then I also get to do things like help Scott with the gym. Or geek out about projections, or install a live camera that shows what’s happening at the ranch, weather-wise, from our main lodge. On days when I have a lot of computer/internet work, I work on the computer. On days where I don’t, I am able to do stuff that helps Scott or Connie. Connie’s the GM of the ranch and Scott’s the facilities manager. Connie is currently living about an hour and a half away from the ranch, because she’s taking care of her mom. We’re always in contact and she’s a “lead by example” kind of person, which is great.
Today, after working for a while, Scott and I and Scott’s friends’ who are visiting for the day, went back country skiing. It was pretty awesome. The snow we got last night was just the right consistency, and it was on an icy layer that was a good base. At the ranch, we don’t have chair lifts, so we have to walk up the hills and mountains nearby if we want to ski. It’s a great workout and pretty darn fun.
At this point, life’s pretty good. I have been thinking about keeping a blog/journal again for a while, but this book I’m reading keeps suggesting it, so here we go. Not sure that there’s a point yet, other than to remind future me of what I was doing at this moment of life. I’ve enjoyed re-reading past blogs/journals that I’ve kept, so why not try it again. Welcome.