Week 2023#14: on taking responsibility
Taking responsibility means paying upfront: you see the cost but only get the reward later. Sometimes you don't get the reward at all.
This week’s post is inspired by Luma, the Toy Poodle whom I’m dog-sitting until the 18th of April.
What I’ve learned
Taking responsibility is hard when you decide to take it because the reward is delayed.
Sometimes you don’t even get the reward.
This week has been dominated by Luma. I severely underestimated the impact she’d have on my daily routines and plans for the week.
Here are the constraints you get in your life if you choose to dogsit this dog:
can’t be left alone for more than 3 hours,
needs multiple walks per day,
you constantly need to watch her when she is with you, because of other dogs being around,
you need to choose dog-friendly transport and accommodation options
Doesn’t sound too bad!
Frequent walks were an easy requirement for me to fulfill, the rest was tough.
I took her to the office on Monday and she left marks on the carpeted floor. Twice.
She was also barking at random people (once per person) and constantly trying to dry-hump me.
After that experience, I decided to work from home for the remaining three working days that week.
Things I didn’t do this week due to dog-sitting:
join the Noor Eesti 200 people for a night out on Friday in Tartu,
visit Tartu on Saturday to go to the party’s General Assembly,
stay until the end of Roberto’s 30th birthday party.
Not being able to do these things (or rather not being willing to pay the price for making them happen) felt very limiting and annoying in the beginning.
However, after spending more time with Luma I found the more relaxed rhythm of life (no more evening plans: it’s walking the dog; not traveling to other cities; not staying out too long) a refreshing contrast from my usual I-don’t-get-home-before-10-at-night-three-days-in-a-row lifestyle.
I’ve actually started caring about my space at home more and have more time for reading and letting my brain come up with creative thoughts.
I even enjoyed coding again.
Most importantly, dog-sitting pushed me to do the one thing I struggled with the most until then: going to the gym before work.
There is simply no other good option right now.
So while the constraints imposed by this extra responsibility really weren’t pleasant in the beginning, I’ve come to find joys on the other side of responsibility.
Expectations vs Reality
Goals for week 14:
Automate collecting utility bills from my inbox using ChatGPT: yes! AI-assisted coding has been a sheer joy! I haven’t enjoyed coding for such a long time. Now it feels like the computer is taking care of all the busywork for me and I can focus more on solving the actual problems I’m interested in solving.
Goals for week 15:
Stay positive about dog-sitting
Complete all four workouts prescribed by my program
Fix the gate to my garage garden: somebody broke it open and it looks like they camped in my garden.
What happened
Highlights of last week:
the long weekend combined with the good weather actually felt more like a week-long vacation 🎉
I finally started coding a scraper for https://sonaveeb.ee to run analyses on the Estonian dictionary
Roberto’s 30th birthday party was just amazing - he has a very diverse circle of friends and there were many new people for me at the party. Very enjoyable!