Quattro Stagioni: Fall

The fall started in late September, since the month was quite warm and not as wet as August.

In September the weather became a little better, but the wind was difficult. There were weekends with no wind at all and weekends with too much wind. Despite the work situation, I still managed to take a couple of days off and sail to Jurmo for a little mountain biking, something I had wanted to do for a long time. With some 43 NM distance, the day in the middle on September does start to limit things, but I managed both a sunset and sunrise ride, which checked off a box of mine.

The rest of the fall was busy, I did some more sailing and managed a six month sailing season, which was a goal of mine, as well as a little sea kayaking, all while pushing the burnout boundary at work. I also started photographing birds with a little more focus.

In the beginning of November a project I had been working on for over three years finally was ready, which meant that I could relax a little. It took almost month to get the stress levels down to something more normal, even measured by direct physiological means like rest heart rate and HRV. The product in question will need additional development for a few years, but hopefully at a more reasonable rate.

The last week of November saw the start of the winter, with cold temperatures and snow. More about that in the next blog entry.

The year 2023 saw the most work related stress I've had in my life, something I really must address next year. Despite that, the year wasn't totally wasted from an outdoor point of view: I managed a little over 40 nights out, which isn't actually too bad. A little more than half of that was on the sailboat. The sailboat has enabled me being out also during the work week, since I can work remotely from the boat, something I will try to utilize a little more next year.