I knew that my boss was going on vacation this next week. He always likes to pad his summer vacation a little by using 5 days’ vacation but starting the previous Friday to a 3-day weekend. I knew, for a while, that the guy on our team was going on vacation because he’s getting married on Sunday.
What I did NOT know was that my boss’s boss is going on vacation next week too (and he’s starting tomorrow as well).
Which means that I will be ALONE in the lab. I have a small handful of tasks to do… but the large list I had at the beginning of August has been whittled down into finishing up paperwork and testing a handful of spares that haven’t been touched since the last time they were tested sometime around this time last year.
Work has parts of the year where we try to stuff 10 hours of work into 8 1/2 hours. It looks like we’re entering one of the parts of the year where we try to stuff 2 hours of work into 8 1/2 hours. And it’s EXACTLY at the time when my boss and my boss’s boss are going on vacation.
I have considered coming in on Labor Day and moving that holiday to the Monday when they both come back… but, at the end of the day, that’s probably a bad idea. I mean, I’m sure that after a week of everybody being on vacation that I’ll almost be starved to have people come back so I can have somebody to talk to.
Almost.
As such, this weekend will have chores that will involve going to the grocery store and transitioning from yelling “WHY IS THE HALLOWEEN CANDY OUT! IT’S AUGUST!” to grumbling about how the Halloween candy is out even though it’s only September as well as a gaming-turned-movie night with the gaming group where we’re going to watch the Blade Runners as prep for some Cyberpunky RPGing… and a last lingering stroll through the last of the 3 Gates of Summer as we wander into Autumn.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is “Alone..Alone..Alone..” by Tim Patterson. Used under a creative commons license.)
Well, I am moving my oldest daughter and her two cats from the Bay Area to Houston, TX. We are loading the trailer on Saturday, and setting out on Sunday, hoping to arrive on Tuesday.
I’m driving a Highlander, pulling a 5×8 UHaul trailer. The cats each get their own kennel in the back of the Highlander. Wish me luck.Report
Poor kitties!
Good luck. That sounds like a heck of a trip.Report
One of them likes being in the car, and will probably enjoy the trip. The other hates it, and might well yowl the whole way. I hope not.Report
Got my August worries out of the way today. Closed on the sale of the house my wife and I owned, that my daughter and her family had been living in, to said daughter. Now the things that they want to do to the house is their problem, and our retirement finances are simpler.
The woman who handled the closing was happy that we had all the information necessary. She entertained us with tales of screwed-up private-sale closings while we signed a few dozen documents.Report
Off to San Diego for a friend’s 50th birthday. We’re all old and fat! And we DNGAF!Report
If there’s one good thing about getting older, it’s the ability to not GF’s. Have fun.Report
I will be glad when I’m old enough to stop giving fishes, but I’m not quite there yet. (50, but socialized as very stereotypical people-pleaser)Report
Remember the scene in Wizard of Oz where the Good Witch shows up and says that Dorothy has had the power to go back to Kansas the whole time?Report
Jeez, you kids today.
I am pushing 60, and I shall wear a bowler…
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/warning/
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.Report
I am now past 65, and I endorse this message.Report
I need to remember to do my own version of some of this:
I will code in Perl with a command line and a plain text editor
Just to irritate the youngsters.
And learn WordPress and PHP to show them that I can.Report
When my mom was in her late 50’s, early 60’s, she discovered that poem and immediately bought, like, two or three copies of the magazine it appeared in and cut it out and put it up all over the house. One in her office, one on the fridge… everywhere.
“Jeez, mom”, I thought.
Now? Heck, yeah. Go for it. Wanna listen to the author read it?
Report
Thank you.
My mother also liked that poem, and I found the book containing it among her effects after she passed away.Report
I’m taking my mom out to lunch on Monday.
I will be certain to tell her that I remembered this poem because someone talked about it on my site in the comments and that I think it is awesome.Report
Ha! My mother has a copy of this framed and on display.Report
Same thing. Turning 50 next April, and unfortunately so used to my role of people-pleaser. But I bet this year is going to be my tipping point—high time I started living for myself.Report
Yes. Old, fat(er) and DNGAF. It’s kinda nice to be this close to 50…Report
This week has been a whole year. (A friend of mine asked yesterday: “Is it just me or has this week been four Mondays?”). Lots of upsetting things happening along with having to cope with the big ongoing thing, but the less said about them now, the better.
Saturday morning the tree guy comes to deal with one of the upsetting things; after that I think I’m going to go in to the office; I am close to getting partially caught up on the research that I got so far behind on. (I’ll never get back the August 2019 sampling period, but even if I were in town it was brutally hot and maybe unsafe to go out and sample). Monday, if it’s not death hot (or if I can get myself out there very early in the morning) I can get the next sample.
So a working long weekend, I guess, but it’s going to be the only way to be anything like caught up.
And then Tuesday I have an appointment with a CPA to try to deal with another of the upsetting things…Report
One of these weekends, just buy a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and spent the evening in front of the tube and watch several episodes of your favorite season of whatever.
And watch them out of order if you feel like.Report
I fear I no longer possess the ability to sit semi-still for that long.
I did watch “The Goonies” last night but I didn’t have any ice cream.Report
It’s the first weekend of the semester for me. Getting a tattoo, going to a concert at the state fair with my wife, and I really need to mow some weeds in my front yard. My allergies have been killing me the last few weeks, payback for a relatively mild summer.Report
Tonight is the first big college football game, and as we are a PAC-12* school, it is against someone who will kick our tails, Oklahoma State. Traffic will be backed up from here to Portland, an hour-and-a-half away. So, I will be doing everything possible to be as far away from the stadium as I can.
Other than that, I have some woodwork on my porch to take care of, so underneath I go to sister some of the 100+-year-old boards that have been standing the test of time. Oh, and I might take a jaunt up to Portland.
*I was born in a PAC-8 town, as was my mother. It should still be PAC-8.Report
Time again for the Apaloosa Festival out here in the Valley… so any Valley adjacent folks looking for a fun grown-up/kid-friendly event come on over.
I think I mentioned last year that the host band, Scythian, are “kids” we’ve known for years… one of those musical families where the youngest three just went off and formed a band and have been making a living off of it for the last 15-years. After touring for 10-years they had built enough of a following to launch this annual project, which gets bigger each year.
The headliners are what I might describe as Milennial Hipster Eclectic Americana… Spotify describes Dustbowl Revival (based in Venice, VA) as a “large string and brass ensemble whose coloful combination of swing, bluegrass, jazz and Americana has earned them a national following.” That’s about right for the Main Stage performances.
During the day, the music trends a bit more Folk/Bluegrass with a celtic sub theme…
Oh, and its also our 23rd anniversary on Sat… so Apaloosaversary.Report
23 years! Awesome.Report
I grew up with swing and bluegrass, but I’ve recently discovered Mongolian death metal and now it’s my favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD1gDSao1eAReport
Favorite what?Report
Favorite musical genre. It makes me want to conquer most of Asia.Report
They’re touring North America right now so depending on where you live you may still have a chance of living out your pillaging fantasies, in song form.
A friend of mine was pushing me to go see them with him but (fortunately or unfortunately) the birth of his child has made it impractical.Report
That’s kind of worrisome. If they take American extension ladder technology back to Mongolia, the Great Wall of China won’t even slow them down anymore.Report
And then you get all into heavy metal and then your eight-year old sister and her friends form a band, get popular, and ruin it for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPE0YtMqjCAReport
Today is my 53rd birthday (DGAF) and I am …working. Its OK celebrated last weekend with the kids and my mom. Between Aug 12th and Sept 6th we have seven birthdays so we celebrate them all together, Hubby probably has something planned tonight. Tomorrow is the draft for our family Fantasy Football league so dinner, the draft and then watch the first OU game. OSU played Oregon last night and won (sorry @Aaron Davis) so turning into a football weekend.
Found out I have 25 pounds on my twin sister so I have till Thanksgiving when she will be back to shed the weight…Report
I might be weird, but I see 53, do some math and think, “Huh, upperclassman… a junior… nice of her to talk to us.”
Happy birthday from the freshman.Report