Whoa...Where's my Youth?

There was a time when I could enjoy long days, brief nights, and hectic activity and be none the worse for wear. There was also a time in which I was an ardent advocate of Santa Claus. Both times are now neatly filed under "F" for Fantasy. I know many of you either continually work or have in the past worked long hours. This past few weeks, I have as well.

At my employer, we must submit our electronic time cards by early Monday morning. I dutifully submitted mine this afternoon. It read 65.5 hours. That's an hour for every year I'm feeling right now and 30 minutes thrown in for good measure. My weekend began around 5pm today. In another 90 minutes it will be over. At least I didn't have to agonize about how to spend it.

One project is drawing to a close. Yesterday, I jumped from it to the other one and went into the customer site to work on it. Roughly half a day later I left. I say roughly because that's how I looked and felt. Today was only one-quarter of a day. Everything is in decent enough shape that I can work it from my company's premises now. That is nice. It means I don't have to scamper around with a jump drive because I have no e-mail access. Hopefully, I can take a day in the middle of this week, sit in a lawnchair beside a major thoroughfare, and grin at all the people going to work. On the other hand, I may invest my time in sleeping in as an attractive alternative.

We've heard from one group of Florida family. They had lost electricity at last contact, but all were well. I still haven't heard from my sister in Orlando, or my cousins in the more western parts. I looked at a map today and Charlotte county, where Punta Gorda is/was, is seriously near Venice and Sarasota, so I can only imagine what things might be like there.

Being a staunch supporter of change, I've moved the Mac to the basement. For the first time in a very long time, those little round things on the legs of my desk chair serve a useful purpose. What remains to be done is some intense tossing of items accumulated over 20-some years of married life. The Chinese placemats say I was born in the year of the Rat. We don't need to think very long about what type of Rat that might be, do we? Can you say Clutter?

Having proven my inability to maintain the pace of my younger days, it's time to see I perhaps I can sleep longer than I used to. Comment, e-mail, or whatever and let me know how you are. I've missed staying in touch lately.