A day off.... maybe?

[Particle Man]

(Cross posted from ADVRider)

I tend to not take time off.

It’s not for lack of wanting to take time to get away from the office, rather, it’s more because, apparently, other people with whom I work get very antsy when I’m out of the office and just need to talk to me when I’m not there.

Over the past 6 months, I’ve tried (unsuccessfully) to take several days off. On each of those occasions, some “emergency” (note the quotes) came up and I ended up where I am every other day: staring at my laptop and gritting my teeth or getting on an airplane to go somewhere in a suit and tie rather than wearing riding gear and going somewhere I actually want to be.

As I sat here thinking about why this might be, I finally stumbled on a conclusion: plans. I had made plans to do something or ride somewhere on each attempt at taking a PTO day (or more than one… you know: *gasp* consecutive days off)… maybe without a plan, I’d have more success in actually getting away from the office.

With that in mind, last Tuesday I looked at the extended weather forecast and saw that Monday, November 9, 2009 (ie, today) was predicted to be “Sunny, Warm, High of 65” and marked my territory for that day off. Had I been able to pee on the calendar to seal the deal, I would have. Bad visual, but you get the picture. My work/life “balance” has been in the toilet for the past 16 months so my “filter” is somewhat shot… I did not, however, make any plans to do anything on this hypothetical PTO day (thereby keeping it hypothetical).

Even without plans, I had a loose framework on where I wanted to go…

… little did I know that the framework would be have to change at the last second.



I am off to try to get some sleep (have to get up extra early to try to catch up from today… sick, isn’t it?). I’ll leave you with this for now:

This was a good omen for my last ride:



I shot that from my front porch.

I wasn’t sure if it would be a good omen this time.

Stay tuned.