Friday Donuts

Friends, Memorial Day weekend is here and, with it, summer season –any purists out there are welcome to wait 25 more days for June 21 st  to come around, but I’m ready! It hit me when I was looking out my airplane window and saw… a dashboard. The river a line chart; the center pivot irrigation fields Harvey balls (or pie charts); the heart-shaped lake a proxy for customer satisfaction. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I took one for you, and annotated it in Comic Sans (because nothing says business like Comic Sans!). As we all know, no dashboard could be complete without a donut (chart), which mine appears to have. Of course, the only thing better than a donut chart is an actual donut, so, as you prepare for the long weekend, grab yourself a sweet pastry and think of all the carefree summer days ahead. Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Friends, With the U.S. marking its one millionth covid death this week, I couldn’t help but notice this side of the world has way more than its fair share of the action. The Americas are home to about a billion people (12.7% of the world’s population) yet our hemisphere accounts for 40.5% of deaths. This means we have 3x more covid deaths per capita (3.75x in the U.S.) than the global average. So, what’s driving this disparity? If you look at historical mortality rates, both the global average and the U.S. are about even at 1.2%, so it's not the quality of care that's lacking. The culprit are infection rates. A quarter of Americans have tested positive, way ahead of the 6.6% global number. Bottom line, you’re way more likely to catch it if the Atlantic is to your East and the Pacific to your west. Granted, there may be testing and reporting disparities skewing the data —and recovery rates have drastically improved. Still, food for thought on this grim milestone. Speaking of foo

Friends, Burnout. What comes to mind when you hear this word? A poor, tired, unmotivated, self-doubting and cynical soul? (we’ll call her Susan). A conventional lightbulb in need of replacement? A silver Nissan Rogue scorched to a crisp in a trailer park fire? If the latter description fits the bill, you have an oddly specific word association. You’re also envisioning the very vehicle sitting on the bed of the tow truck dispatched to gather my donation of a 2006 Dodge Caravan with a quarter million miles. If, on the other hand, you pictured Susan (or worse, feel like Susan), I’m happy to listen and provide some overly-simplistic—albeit well intentioned—advice. Things like making time for self-care and outdoor physical activity. One great way to do this is to use an app. Sounds stupid, but I must confess I’ve been taking the dogs on longer walks and making my runs a little longer so I can sneak ahead of peers on my employer’s “Step it up” challenge (the ones who don’t appear to be train

Friends,  Given the choice, would you rather be an eagle or a goose? Eagles soar, effortlessly surfing thermals, their telescopic vision able to spot small prey from their perch in the sky. Geese fly in impressive "V" formations and can migrate up to 1,500 miles in a day. One is solitary, the other social. Both weigh about the same. Eagles rest on trees, geese on the ground. Of course there are exceptions. This week I saw a goose --we'll call him Eagan --perched high on a cottonwood. While Eagan's motives are unclear (for all I know he may identify as an eagle), the sight brought a smile to my face. Chillin' and looking around from his high perch, Eagan seemed to enjoy his unique perspective. So maybe you don't need to choose... maybe you can have the best of both worlds. Speaking of eagles, I got a chance to watch the Colorado Eagles rout the Henderson Silver Knights 5-2 during game 1 of the AHL playoffs. I also got a chance to savor Lil' Orbits' Donu