Greetings and Salutations as the Seasons begin to Slide,

I’ve been thinking about the difference between batch and continuous operations lately.  It started when I was in a limited time frame for getting out the door to teach.  I was watching the clock in minutes to be sure I was on time and got the essentials done, like eating and putting on clothes, the basics.  And so in that 15 minute period I was aware of minutes.  And then, without  much forethought, I went to my computer to just “quickly” check emails. Okay it’s true I have more emails accounts than most people have fingers and that is another quirk of my life, but when I was done with a very peripheral check, six minutes had elapsed.  I mean,  I didn’t even respond to anything.  And six minutes of my 15 minutes were gone.  I was shocked at the time the task took.

And I thought to myself, Batch It, Hirschl.  Just do email once or twice a day, don’t do it as continuous flow.  This sort of thinking goes back to my days in manufacturing supervising, one of my many work incarnations.

When I was in the Brewing division of Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and making beer, it was most definitely a batch process, meaning the workers sat around a lot and checked temperatures and opened valves occasionally.  I supervised and also was required to be on the QA taste test panel to check that the beer was good before moving on.  This wasn’t exactly hard labor.

Contrast this to the bottling line where the bottles and cans go by continually as our ‘batched’ beer flows through pipes to the mechanized line.  Hey, there was no doubt which was a better job, besides the inherent fun in making beer (seriously foam might just overflow from fermenters right down into the streets of Miller Valley and then baby, the plant manager was in your face).

So now I’m seeing choices in email and other activities:  what can I group together and waste less time, and what do I do on a continual basis, like, well, how about:  taking a breath, pausing and smiling.

Speaking of choices, I had the occasion to drive through Texas recently, to attend a 50th wedding anniversary of my Aunt and Uncle, a celebratory event especially in these days of fragile marriages. Driving through Muleshow, Texas I noticed the MacDonald sign in the picture, which I’m sure is in Albuquerque too, but somehow when I travel I see differently. It recommended a new bacon cheese snack wrap.  When I went inside the store, I talked with the friendly clerk who let me know it is one of the new healthy snacks.  Well, I must have a different idea of healthy.

So my idea of healthy and worth recommendation:   I came home to harvest some eggplant and basil to make an Eggplant Parmesean meal, which in my humble opinion was scrumptious (if you want the recipe, please leave a comment and I’ll put it in my next blog).  This is the picture that made my eyes sparkle:  

FINALLY, don’t forget the GONG BATH this Sunday, August 29 at 7:30 pm.

Sending you big hugs, smiles and hopes for fresh yummy food, for anyone’s garden,

namaste,

Meta.

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