This Was The Week That Was

Last week I took a vacation. It was my first week off I've taken that didn't involve job hunting or house-painting since 1995. (Some of you may recall my week off during Christmas week of 2004. That truly did not count; it was part of a short layoff at my then-employer. Vacations without an income are no vacation at all).

And starting today, I'm off for another week.

I know. I know. Dumb.

It's been so long since I've had paid vacation (and spent it on other than a day here and a day there for kids' illnesses and the like) that I completely forgot about the iron rule of vacation: you pay ahead for the week before, and pay back the week after; you spend the preceding week getting all your work caught up and tucked in, and the week after you come back putting out all the fires that broke out while you were gone.

So this week - with a week of vacation behind me and a week in front - was really, really bad. It coincided with big due dates for a bunch of software releases - so I've been just buried. How buried?

Most of what I've published this week on the blog was written last weekend!

Blah. Anyway, I'm out on vacation again, although I see someone has scheduled some more meetings. I'll have some 'net access, so I'll be able to do some posting, albeit probably light.

Oh, yeah - it's summer!

I'm going to need a vacation from all of this "getting ready for vacation" crap.