11am and slowly on. Warming up again, finally. Using headphones, not for voices but against the grinding sounds of gears running in sand today. There are good days, and there are days where to just hide from the waves. (And, in some cases, not being in charge is a relief, even if that doesn't mean one's able to withdraw from a great deep mess completely.)
9am and on. Caught between continuously reconnecting sessions and continuously getting distracted so they expire before any serious work has been done. There's a good mileage spent on this kind of boilerplate tasks, and at some point it becomes challenging to even remember what actually should be accomplished. (Also, on another note: Communication with group chats in a bigger meeting is a bad idea if the facilitator is both sharing screen and part of that very group. Know your distractions.)
Closing in on 9am. Reviewing yesterday, missing out on critical communication. Repeated insight: If people owning problems don't see their responsibility, problems won't get solved. Expecting people with tightly filled schedules to follow the "right" priorities even if it leads them off their current tracks is hope but not a strategy - and mostly pointless. And language barreers aren't something resolved easily on the fly. (Loads of small pitfalls. Considering wireless headphones to be able to get coffee without disconnecting.)
11am and on. Watching icicles grow. And a small airplane circling above the city, a vague grey shape suggesting the morning lost a lot of its initial clarity to thin clouds or floating fog. How to fill the empty yet short gaps in a tight rhythm: Trying to lead the model astray by discussing questions of metaphors and analogies, but getting stuck in ones own thinking even before dealing with odd responses. And trying to switch contexts profoundly, to avoid stumbling across similar names in different projects. Things get confused all too easily.
(Die Verkäuferin in der Bäckerei, die bisher immer ungeduldig und schroff Kunden zurechtgewiesen hat, ist seit Wochen betont freundlich, aber man spürt, dass ihr das schwerfällt. Man spürt das Geübte hinter den Worten, das Angespannte in Mimik und Gestik, und irgendwie ist dieser Zustand bedeutend verstörender als der, den man davor gewohnt war...)
10am and on. That moment of relief if, just minutes before dialing in again, a close look reveals a communication strategy that might even work out and leave crucial work on someone elses table. Dimming window blinds, having some of the chocolate from the kitchen, moving on cautiously, as if any new insight might break to pieces at the slightest shake.
9am and on. Between rocks and hard places. Unsure what's more challenging - steering around pitfalls of communication or pitfalls of technology: The need to solve issues while interacting with others or the need to solve issues by tinkering with machines and where presence (or absence) of a working solution is obvious and visible. At least, trying both at the same time gives a somewhat viable base level for comparing both.
4pm, stop-motion. Crows screeching in grey skies. Wire sounds in headphones, waiting for the other end to connect. Street's echoing with laughter of pupils returning home, a loud car horn in between, alarming, briefly ignored. (Late coffee, again. Browsing notes, sorting phrases, trying to imagine a flow of conversation even knowing things will most likely move completely elsewhere. But at least it's worth a try.)