American Giant Sunflower

Trying a new version of the Sunflower this year.  This one promises to reach 16 ft.  It is planted now.  We shall see.

Barn Movie Season

It is barn movie season!  The first flick of the year was The Flintstones, which we had never bothered to watch before now.  

Shush Yourself

Yes. It is particularly rude when the individual you are shushing has held back their own shushing, quietly soaking in all of your rude, obnoxious and unnecessarily loud volume.  That person has tolerated your shouting across the building, your talking loud to anyone and everyone around, all of the constant and irritating level of noise that surrounds your entire being.  And, how do you repay that person that has put up with that?  You rudely shush them.  Shush yourself.

Arkansas and the Eclipse

Wandering down to Arkansas to take a look at the total solar eclipse offered up a few new opportunities, a chance to catch up with the usual haunts, and generally enjoy some time with family.

The first day in residence looked in on Mossy Bluff National Nature Trail, which found local holly berries, soft blue monkshood, bright red buckeye, and a multitude of dogwoods all glowing brightly from the forest floor and the understory, a recurring theme on all of the trails.  However, water flow seemed minimal, considering the time of year.   The tenant cascade splashed along with less enthusiasm than usual.

A trek around the Sugar Loaf showcased much of the same, to include bright yellow cowpea and purple phlox fringing clear views of the mountain from the waterfowl pond.  Likely the most interesting point on this visit proved to be a sublime new stone map and accompanying trailhead markers.

The day ended with a bit of bingo up in Mountain View.  It was not the most interesting experience for me.  Usually, the ladies go have their fun with all that and I go find something more intriguing for myself, like wandering the woods.

After wandering about woods again on Sunday morning, a trip down to Little Rock to take in the Symphony ensued.  Some in the party were a little disappointed that there were no visuals, in spite of the fact that plenty appeared on the backside of my eyelids.

The following day brought the eclipse, and the lack of turnout for the event in our little neck of the woods. The highway patrol and Department of Transportation were ready for it, as well as many other organizations.  The crowds never materialized, but I did get a few good shots.  There is this one of the moment of totality, and another of the diamond ring.  More wandering about the woods completed the evening, along with some tasty treats prepared by one of our hosts.

The journey home on the following date offered little time for distraction.  The beautifully warm, clear day had a few agenda items and the rare timetable.  Arriving in Warsaw on scheduled, a pause to look in on some land in Warsaw proved enlightening, though a rare opportunity to reconnect with a long-lost friend failed completely.  A little further up the road, a few amusements in Clinton posed for their close-up while we surfed around for a bit of sustenance.

None could be found, worth having, until we began to edge out of town.  The realization hit us that we had yet to try Mallard's Roadhouse though and, after a quick search for their hours, we discovered we were lucky ducks.  What had been Graffiti's for untold years, then Mallard's for the last 10, we were pleasantly surprised to have found a new roadside haunt for our non-franchise appetite that proved itself worth every cent.  Satisfied, the remainder of the journey included nothing but music, sunshine and relatively empty roads.

Colorado Visits

Stumbled on this interesting little piece of related history sitting all lonesome by itself out in Orrick.  We met up with the Colorado folks there this evening and enjoyed a full night of conversation.

Another Failed Collaboration Request

In the middle of sending out an email to a colleague informing them of our newly evolving SharePoint policy, she happened to pass by my office, so I asked her to pause for a moment.

I smiled and explained that I was about to send her an email when she walked by.  I told her I would go ahead and send it along anyway so that the rest of her department was aware but wanted to talk with her instead.

I asked her, "Hey can you do us a favor and coordinate with IT on creating new SharePoint/Teams sites?  Last week, you created a Team that seems to overlap with other Teams ..."

She immediately interrupted saying, "You need to just leave her alone and let her ... "

Having had enough of her rude and interrupting behavior or previous occasions, this time I interrupted her, talking over the top her to finish what I had started to say.

Starting again, "You created a Team and Channels that already exist, and we are only asking that you coordinate with us prior to creating any new Teams.  We just finished cleaning things up in that space, removing a lot of abandoned sites and merging some that were redundant, and are wanting to guide things a bit more."

She rudely interrupted again saying, "I am not sure why this matters to you."

"Well, I am the SharePoint Administrator and we have left things open to make collaboration and continuity a little easier.  Again, we just finished cleaning things up in that space, removing a lot of abandoned sites and merging some that were redundant."

She asked, "Why isn't it just locked then and bar everyone from doing it?"

"We have a small IT staff, and we keep costs of support and management down by enabling folks to do what they need to do without excessive interference from us.  We could just as easily lock it down and force everyone to go through us, but we are choosing a more collaborative path."

She kind of huffed a "fine, whatever" and walked off.

I followed with the email as promised, so her group would know.

Hi QS!

As a follow-up to our conversation, we need your help in reducing redundancy and information scatter.

Please come and discuss any plans for creating new SharePoint/Teams spaces so that we can help guide the process.

The new SharePoint/Teams space you recently assisted VPCP in creating duplicated space already allocated to those programs.

We only recently completed an effort to clean up the SharePoint / Teams environment, removing numerous abandoned and redundant spaces.  Some of that effort continues with those that are more integrated with other services.

Her boss immediately shot back a response.

It’s my understanding that QS was helping VPCP with Channels within her existing team.  Educating her on how to create and ideas on how to utilize.

Are you saying we need your approval to create any new channels within our teams?  And need approval for any new Team creations in MS Teams?

I waited a little while before responding, feeling that perhaps she might realize her own misunderstanding of the situation.  An hour later, I responded.

Channels within SharePoint/Teams are always at the discretion of the Team owner.

We are asking that users assist in reducing information scatter and redundancy across SharePoint/Teams.

The best path forward for that is through collaboration with the SharePoint Administrator, which happens to be me.  

Doing so will help to ensure that SharePoint/Teams already supporting a given effort are utilized to their fullest potential, as well as eliminate the site redundancy, abandonment, and information scatter of the past.

As explained to QS, SharePoint/Teams has been left wide open not just to facilitate greater collaboration, but more importantly, to lower support and management costs for those IT-managed cloud services.

We appreciate your patience as development of policy and guidelines surrounding governance of this space and associated data continues to evolve.

As always, let me know how I can help.

She replied again.

Sorry, I’m still not following you.  QS helped VPCP create a channel.  This was for her other groups outside of My Day.  If she needs a team for those groups, then she should be able to create one.

This is first we’ve heard that consultation with the admin/you was needed prior to creating new teams and/or channels.  So noted and we will advise others to reach out to you moving forward. 

While we are talking about Teams – please remove yourself as owner the General/Files folder in our Teams

I look forward to the policy so we can clear up these communication issues.

Clearly, she is not getting it, so I went to look for her to "clear up these communication issues."  Email is always difficult with this person.  They never seem to comprehend, even when it is presented in bullet points.  Actually, I don't think they want to comprehend.  They are too busy trying to rule over things that they have no authority over.  

She could not be found, and it appeared that she had left for the day to work from home, so I replied again.

There does seem to be a little confusion.

QS created a new SharePoint/Team and Channels beneath that for Teams that already existed.

We are only asking folks to collaborate with us prior to creating a new SharePoint/Team.

Channels remain at your discretion. Create as many as suits your purpose.

Otherwise, I am not now, nor have I ever been, owner of anything within your Teams, or even a member of those.  Consequently, I am unable to make that adjustment, but will stop in and clarify this with you.

She replied almost immediately, validating my thought that she was working elsewhere.

The other teams you are mentioning are the Director’s Teams, not VPCP.  She wants an area where she can manage the information across her teams.  An area where she will only invite the directors and she doesn’t want to traverse a bunch of teams to store her own information.  But – this is a good conversation for you to have with her.

Then she fired off another note.

Here’s the screen shots of where I see you as “owner”.  You were on other folders, but that has been removed from what I can tell.

I responded.

Thanks for sending that along!  It is a huge help!

I never noticed, but it appears that since I am Site Admin, I show up as "Owner" of document libraries in SharePoint.

Let me see what I can do to change that.

She replied.

Only on the two I listed. Not on any others. 

However, her statement is inaccurate.  I am very much "Owner" of all Document Libraries in SharePoint.  It seems that because we do not have a group and I am Site Admin for all the sites, I show up as "Owner."

I didn't respond any longer.  There is no need.  Talking with my C-Boss about the situation, he seemed in perfect agreement with me and added that she probably needs to get used to the idea that IT has insight into everything. Indeed, she should probably already be fully aware of that, having come from the Cerner Sweatshop.

Karen, Tennessee, and the Opry

The dot on the map tradition continued again this year, this time in the highlands west of Nashville.  Looking forward to visiting "The Home of Country Music" and an assortment of other random places in the city, we ultimately decided exploring the surrounding hills would be more interesting than battling throngs of people and excessive entrance fees.

We only paused for a couple of minor distractions along the way.  Some ancestors left a fort unattended in O'Fallon.  It had had been taken over by Christmas on the last visit, but this reconnaissance found it accessible with only minor foot traffic wandering about.  The only other distractions involved gas and grub.  When attempting 1000 kilometers in one day, it is best to stick to the interstate and not dawdle too much.

The last 80 km twisted and turned along back roads, making for slow progress in the dark. While not particularly engaging, our patience was rewarded the following morning with a contrasting bright and quiet view from atop a ridge.  Humans could not be seen or heard.

Down the hill, Harpeth River Narrows waited to enable a minor adventure for the day.  The spot stands recognized today as an engineering masterpiece and historical landmark.  Almost 100 years ago, Montgomery Bell initiated a project that excavated a tunnel 2.5 x 4.5 meters wide, 88 meters through a limestone bluff, successfully diverting water from the stream back into itself in order to maintain the stock of mermaids.

 

His namesake state park is just down the road a bit, promising a showcase of artifacts from the nearby mound excavations, as well as construction by the Civil Conservation Corp.  It seemed reasonable enough to investigate and we also discovered a restaurant in the park, which fueled the afternoon perfectly. 

After spending the day in the peacefulness of the surrounding countryside, arrival in eastern Nashville proved a bit of a culture shock.  The hoards promised by others that had been before were on full display and accessing the area of our intended destination for the evening proved quite the task.  The mall associated with that region helped pass the time before the show though, offering up a culture twist of its own, with delicious snacks and music.

The Grand Ole Opry was the real prize of the day though, and this first-time visit left a strong desire to do it again, in spite of the challenges in getting to the show. It lived up to its own relative fame, cycling through a solid mix of old and new, gospel, traditional, and popular country and folk demonstrations.  The only downside to the situation was getting out of that area again.

Successfully returning to our roost just west of the city, peacefulness surrounded us again and another morning equal to the one before greeted us.  The trip home was generally uneventful, starting off under bright, sunny skies and spirits.  The former held its ground, while the latter turned dark. One of the drivers fell to gastrointestinal assault, which complicated the effort to make the return trip in one day.  It did not deter success.  It was not worth repeating, though everything else was awesome.

. . .

A few related links ...

Harpeth River State Park — Tennessee State Parks (tnstateparks.com)

Montgomery Bell State Park — Tennessee State Parks (tnstateparks.com)

Country Music's Biggest Stage | The Grande Ole Opry