It is official… I am on vacation.
Oh glorious glory, I am on vacation.
Six business days without having to go to work and do business. Ecstasy at its finest.
In less then 48 hours I will be in Florida where it is not 24 degrees out. It is just too amazing to be real. Warmth in January. Pretty please.
The countdown to the end of the work day and the start of my long weekend continues. I was pulled into a meeting for the stretch of time that I was planning to have lunch so I had to delay my break for an hour. It’s 3:00pm now and I am just wrapping up my lunch. My stomach has been okay for most of the day, though I’ve twice been hit with empty stomach hunger pains. The second time was at 11:00am while I was in a (different) meeting and it was pretty uncomfortable. A protein bar and some sugar free chocolate at 11:30 put me right. I’m optimistic that I had enough lunch to hold off any further issues until I get home. Cross those fingers, kids.
For the third day in a row I am trying to get through the day while dealing with feelings of exhaustion. Why? I got a decent night’s sleep last night. I should feel better today than I did yesterday or the day before, right? Nope. I am super tired once again. Last night at about 9:00pm I could barely keep my eyes open. Then, magically, by 10:00 I was wide awake. I was able to get to sleep by 11:00 though so I thought it would be okay. Today I’ve just been wiped out all day. If this comes up again tomorrow I might actually take a nap. Wouldn’t that be fun? I mean, I am old so of course it would be fun. The older you get the more that a good solid nap is a thrill ride. Bring it on, people!
Okay. Back to work. I have a meeting in 18 minutes, and a long weekend two hours after that. Power through, Robert!
The title of the post says eight hours but it is really eight hours and 13 minutes, give or take a few seconds.
Long weekend approaching. Prepare for the arrival of a long weekend.
I am so tired today. I slept for six hours last night. I was hoping I would feel better than I feel right now. I’m exhausted and I haven’t done anything yet. I’m sitting at my desk in the office fantasizing about going home and taking a nap. It is going to be a long day, I can feel it.
The weather forecast says the sun might come out mid-morning tomorrow. Could that be enough to get me out of the house and into the city for a little photo-walk? Probably not, but maybe. Just maybe. I want to take some photos and I want at least some of them to be on film. We’ll see.
Apart from that, and needing to get a car inspected, I am hoping my long weekend will be a musical one. I am hoping for lots of recording and guitar playing. All I have to do is get through the work day today. Eight hours and eight minutes to go.
We are in our second week of having to come into the office twice per week instead of once. It’s Monday so here I am. At my desk. In the office. Monday feels like a really crappy day to come in, but I need to pick a day to go along with our usual Wednesdays and I don’t want to come in two days in a row and Monday just feels better than Friday so I’m here on Monday. I did Friday last week and the morning commute was all right both days. Friday had the benefit of having far, far fewer people around. Monday has the benefit of getting the second day out of the way really fast. I think we’ll stick with Mondays for now.
My step daughter is flying home tomorrow afternoon. I took the afternoon off so I can get her at the airport. I am thankful to have as much personal time available to me so that I can do stuff like this. It’s a good thing and it makes me happy.
I took a pic this morning. Nothing special but it’s a photo a day challenge kinda thing.
I need a haircut. Did I mention that? Do you care? No? That’s okay. I need a haircut anyway. Just sharing, or maybe just over sharing.
What else… I don’t know. I have a meeting in half an hour. That’s fun, right?
I watched the third episode of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (aka the Rick and Michonne show). It’s the weakest of the three so far (there are three more coming this season), but it was still pretty good. I am pleased with the season to this point but I am hoping the quality goes back up starting next week. No spoilers. If you like The Walking Dead, you should be watching. That is all.
Jen and I have been watching Star Trek: Lower Decks. I started watching Penny Dreadful the other day. I’m still plowing through The X-Files. I watched the first movie after finishing season five. Tomorrow morning I’ll start season six. I’m getting near to the point where Mulder leaves and that’s going to make it hard to power through. I’ll stick with it though. I promise.
Okay, back to work with you, Robert.
My company gives us all 16 hours of personal time each year. They also give us weeks upon weeks of vacation time. The difference is that the personal time is meant to be used in small chunks at short notice, while the vacation time, which they don’t actually call vacation time, can only be used in four or eight hour chunks per day and is supposed to be booked in advance. The other difference is that vacation time can be carried over from this year to next year if needed while the personal time disappears on January 1st.
What does all of this mean? I had five hours of personal time left in the bank and I used it all up today. Robbie will not be having any time vanish on January 1st this year. I started my weekend five hours early, babie!
How did I celebrate this happy surprise of a half day? I ate my lunch too fast and made myself gastric bypass sick, that’s how! Yes! Well played, Robert the putz! I had a hamburger again to have another test of the sugar free ketchup. Yes, it does taste like ketchup and no, it is not disgusting! What a treat! It was such a treat that I ate way too much per bite and plowed through it all way too fast and got something stuck in my stomach tract and had a full on case of the foamies.
I am better now that a couple of hours have gone past. I’m okay!
Happy weekend plus five hours of personal time, everyone! WOOHOO!
Three hours left in the work week.
180 minutes.
10800 seconds.
It’s a long weekend for me too. The company I work for puts a cap on how much personal time you can accrue and as your bank builds up you have to take time off to stay below the cap. It’s not as bad as the Boston Bruins salary cap woes right now, but it will get there if I don’t use time regularly. Because of that, I took two days off next week. Monday and Tuesday. That all means that ol’ Robbie has himself a four day weekend coming up.
Sadly, Jen was not able to take the two days off too, so that means I am on my own for the second half of my super long weekend. That means there will be lots of personal creative project type stuff. I checked the weather at the ocean for the next few days and both Sunday and Monday are looking like good candidates for sunrise photos. At least one of those mornings will be Photography Day where I will grab some sunrise at the beach and then hit a few places on the way home. Film and Digital. Bank on it (weather permitting).
There will also be a lot of music. As much as I can stomach. I plan on making gigantic progress on the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. That includes guitar tracking, vocal tracking in the car (because I have a weird mental block that won’t let me sing when people can hear me unless I am playing guitar with a very loud band), and mixing songs as I finish recording them.
There will also be progress on the current Doctor Who series binge watches. I finished season one of the original show this morning, and I am almost done with season four of the current show. So very many more seasons of each show to go. Progress will be made. I fully expect to move from the 10th doctor to the 11th doctor in the new show but I expect to still be on the first doctor in the old show. Like I said… so much Who to watch.
I am also thinking that I will be back on the couch to 5k wagon next week. It’s been a couple of weeks since I stopped. I want to get back into it, even though I am very doubtful I will ever run that mythical 5k. It’s still a goal, I just don’t know if it’s an achievable goal for me.
I have two days off booked in August too. They are for a weekend trip to Maine for a wedding. Bellana will be joining us for that and I expect lots of photos from Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor. Again, film and digital. That include Cadillac Mountain, which is the first spot in the continental United States that sees the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean. It would require a SUPER early wake up to see, but I want very much to see it and photograph it. Now that I think of it, I should replace my broken tripod before we leave for that trip. The broken guy is good enough for this weekend, but for Cadillac Mountain? I’m going to need something that works. I’ll take care of it.
Okay, my late lunch break is over now. Time to get back to work and finish off this work week on a high note.
I am nine minutes away from a four day weekend. Jen just told me she put in for Monday off too, so we’ll have an extra day together to do stuff! I think we should go leaf peeping, or lighthouse chasing, or stay home and watch Andor… twice.
We finished Cobra Kai’s new season last night. Why is that show good? It should be idiotic, but it’s good! Why? How?
My back is killing me and I am feeling weirdly full. I had breakfast a little late and had to break for lunch a little early and the two combined to make my stomach feel completely full five hours later. I am optimistic that come the time I finish preparing dinner I will be hungry again. It’s possible though that I just need a good fart and I’ll be fine. Welcome to the dream factory, kids!
My back is hurting today. I am sitting in a new office chair. I don’t know if the two things are related or not, especially because I have done 60 minutes of exercise today after doing more than 60 minutes yesterday. I even jogged in place a little this morning instead of just walking. Those things might relate to my back being sore, but it might be the chair too. I need more data to say for sure.
One minute to go…
…and it’s 5:30 and I am officially on a four day weekend!
WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
My CPAP machine pissed me right off last night. I went to bed at 11:00 and then woke up a little before 2:00am with the mask sliding all over my damn face and leaking like a… like a… like a something that leaks a lot, I don’t know. I sat up and screwed around with all of the harness straps and stuff and eventually was able to get back to sleep.
How much does it suck when the thing that is supposed to help you sleep stops you from sleeping? It sucks a lot.
Change of subject…
When the hell am I going to use all of this time off? My company changed the way they dish out time off, including taking a bunch of holidays that we used to have off and turning them into floating holidays and rolling that together with the couple of personal days and the huge pile of vacation days and renaming it all Personal Time Off. We accrue x number of hours each month and there is a cap on how much we can carry before we stop accruing more.
The good news is that we get a shit load of personal time off. The bad news is we actually have to use it if we want to keep getting more. Oh, the webs we weave. I am about a minute below the cap right now so I have to use some time this month… and next month… and every month. That’s a good thing, but it’s also a logistical struggle, you know? Times are tough. Anyway, what I really need to do is take a week off and get the accrual down a bit so I have some breathing room. Good idea! But when? The best time would be a time when kids are here. Bellana won’t be home for months because she’s going to be in Europe for the next semester. Harry will come home on breaks. Good idea! When is the next break? March 7-11! I’ll put in for that week!
I love it when a plan comes together.
I’m working a half day today so that I can go visit my father in the hospital. I’m off the clock at 1:00pm. Sweet. I’m off for a full day on the 18th as that’s the day we help my step daughter move out of her dorm. Mothers Day is Sunday, that should be nice. My step Daughter’s birthday is the 19th and it’s a milestone year for her. Very excited.
There’s something else going on this month too. Another landmark event type of thing. I wish I could remember what it was but it seems I’ve blocked it from my memory. If I remember what it is I’ll probably write about it, but even though it’s a huge landmark it can’t be that important, right?
Inside the Red Head's Head 