Wednesday's Ramblings

Furlough day today - A special day, granted by the Police Department and the City of Baltimore, during which I get to stay home and not get paid - which is not necessarily wrong, but is something I would prefer to have a way to arrange from time to time, but can only arrange when decreed by a higher authority.

The city can direct that I take a day off without pay - but there is no easy way for me to take a day off without pay without incurring raised eyebrows and questioning looks. And sometimes I'd like just to take a day off, even if it meant not getting paid for that day, just to save vacation and sick leave for times when I really was relaxing or sick.

Today I had Grandfather Duty - drop off and pick up a grandson from private school, as nobody else was available to do this, the school is close to home, and I had a furlough day I had to use. I didn't get much else done because of timing, but I did arrange for transport for said grandson with alacrity and timeliness.

It's not that I don't need money - the stuff gets away from me faster than I can believe - but once in a while I'd like to choose not to earn on a given day. I'd like to retire, but with the best of will I can't see it happening before 2012 or so and maybe not then if I can keep on being productive. I like what I do, and am not ready yet to hang it up - I'd just like to take a motorcycle or mental health day once in a while, unpaid and not open my future employment to question.

So today was a furlough day, and I stayed home, and got some stuff done on the server; made some space, created some ISO images to mount instead of burning to optical media, things like that - and clean up some space, standardize some MP3 tags - I guess I got a lot done.

But what I didn't get done that I ought to have done instead includes dragging some cat5 up into the living room because wireless is not fast enough for my media center PC, replace VISTA on this machine with XP because at least drivers for XP are available and reliable, and loading the VISTA that used to be on this machine onto the IBM IntelliStation that is waiting downstairs for the last half year for me to get around to getting it turned on and working.

I should also have gone outside and pumped up the suspension in my Honda so it won't fall over in the carport, and checked the tire pressure on the Kawasaki and the Volvo. Maybe I should take another furlough day tomorrow and do those things, since it won't be long before it is just too cold for me to want to go outside and do things like this.

I'm missing choir tonight for my once-a-month Ramblers meeting. I get there all the time in the summer, but in the winter it is tough because it comes on Wednesday, along with choir rehearsal. I married the choir director, she has expectations....

So it's time for the first Bones fix of the evening, then it is off to Ramblers, then back for more Bones. Then sleep then work.

Just another day, I guess.

I forgot why I started this; getting old, I guess, so I'd better wrap it up.

Y'all have a good evening.