Approved!

Is it really nearing the end of March already? It's been another blindingly busy week - we've decided that there wasn't enough chaos in our life at this point, so we got a new puppy. I've never owned a dog of any type, so this is all new to me. It feels like we have a newborn baby, and has made this week all the more chaotic.

Alright, let's get into it!

From the field:

Funding is approved! I've already received a quote for some of the necessities (drones, batteries, generators, charging stations), and I hope to be officially purchasing them within the next week or two. Then the mastery of the drone flying skillset will commence.

The other big purchase will be the trailer and then the fabrication of the trailer. What is my design going to look like? It may not be identical to this example, but I imagine it'll be pretty close.

Some random thoughts on this. I'm legally not supposed to fly these drones when winds are greater than 10 MPH, so that means every day I'm out there, we're going to have limited air movement. If it's 95 degrees out, that makes for a really hot day. So I need some sort of cooling device on the flight deck. Maybe it's as simple as a portable fan, I don't know. I wondered about getting one of those misting machines that would pull from the water tank below.

What about to keep drinks cold throughout the day? A Fridge on the deck below? Seems like a viable option.

Do I want a TV screen that we could cast our remote screens to? Heck, could we get a smart TV set up and be able to have sports on in the background while we're doing this? I know I'm going to miss my son's state baseball tournament in mid-July but will have the capability to watch it livestreamed, so it'd be nice to not have to keep it on a tiny phone screen.

I'm open to other ideas as well if anybody's got 'em!

From the office:

Steady work. This is the first week since I left corporate America where I've had all the work I can handle, and we're 6 months out. I'm well aware that this work could go away tomorrow if they decide to hire someone permanently instead of use a contractor like myself, so I'm still looking for ways to develop business outside of this.

And one of those ways is learning how to code. Specifically, SQL. It's become such a valuable skillset to have, and many projects on Upwork are looking for those who have that skillset. Being able to access data and turn it into a useful dataset quickly is vital to growing companies, and SQL allows for doing just that.

One thing I've realized is that there had to be a lot of downtime when I was working a traditional Corporate job, at least in certain seasons. With Upwork, you clock in and clock out, and there are screenshots taken randomly every 5-10 minutes to prove that you're doing the job you were hired for. When I'm not working, I'm off the clock. It feels like I'm working really hard right now, and I'm not really close to completing a 40 hour work week.

What I'm reading:

What book did I spend the most time reading this past week? Puppy Training In 7 Easy Steps. What I can tell you is that none of them have been easy, and I didn't make it to steps 5, 6, and 7. And I may never make it that far.

Thanks for hanging in - until next week!