Reflecting on the Past Year
This year has been a wild ride. I’ve been seriously overworked, and it wasn’t until I took a breather at Yellowstone that I realized just how much of a whirlwind it had been. Change freezes finally slowing things down is something I’m genuinely grateful for.
The Year, Month by Month
- January/February: The other DBA dropped a retirement bombshell while our boss was on vacation, which threw our on-call rotation into chaos immediately.
- June–October: Buried in work projects and training the new DBA. On a personal note, I got back to the gym with my wife and started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Also prepped the truck and fifth wheel for a spontaneous Yellowstone trip — one of the better decisions of the year.
- October–Now: Finally catching a breather.
Work and Career
- Getting into the DevOps groove for managing databases more consistently.
- Diving into Puppet for automating SQL Server tasks.
- Mixing things up with PostgreSQL and a bit of MySQL to reduce licensing costs where it makes sense.
Goals for 2022
- Going all-in on DevOps and Infrastructure as Code for database work.
- Leveling up PostgreSQL skills.
- Applying what I’ve learned at work to the home network and homelab — automating smart home integrations with Home Assistant is on the list.
It’s time to focus on some self-care after a few relentlessly busy years.
Key Takeaways
- Losing a team member to retirement mid-year, with no runway, is a gut punch. Coverage planning matters before it’s a crisis.
- Picking up BJJ mid-year was one of the better personal decisions — physical training is a real pressure valve.
- PostgreSQL as a cost-reduction lever is worth exploring if you’re paying SQL Server licensing for workloads that don’t need it.
- Yellowstone didn’t fix anything at work. It did make the situation easier to see clearly.