OK, Everybody. Back to Work!

"So, what is it you'd say that ya DO here?"
Back to work!

This marks the end of not only a nice extended break from real life, but the symbolic end of summer. We really have a few weeks left of the season, and until early November before we get back to Standard Time (and really dark early evenings), but this is when the year starts to landslide into Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year's. Faster every year (trust me, kids).

For me, it's also the end of the summer I was least engaged in blogging, since I started this little enterprise in 2007. It's not that there wasn't any news to report, or outrages to be outraged about. There was and is. But I make it my policy to report on mostly things that interest and engage me. And while I will occasionally comment on big newsworthy events that aren't really in my "zone," this summer I haven't been much interested in the endeavor. But that was the summer. Fall is falling soon, and it's time to get back in the game.

So, for the small group of people who checks in here on a regular basis (and thanks to both of you!), expect a renewed vigor to the blog in the coming days and weeks. There will be a down week in October--everyone needs an actual vacation, and not just a staycation--but it's mostly going to be back to blogging at usual strength from here on out. Blast from the Past will return next week, and I'm going to be trying to focus on my regular features again, where possible.

So, happy Monday Tuesday, everybody! Let's get to work!

Back to Vegas

And back to work. My full-time job, my part-time job and my hobby job (this blog). Whew, that's a lot of work! Maybe I should've taken a little more time off? 

In any event, my arrival in Las Vegas tonight will be rather late, and work is rather early on Monday morning. So, unless I had an extraordinary stretch of time during my trip (I'm writing this before I've even left Vegas in the first place, how trippy is that? Hello, future me!), there won't be a Blast from the Past feature this week, and shoot, I might not even blog again until Monday night! So, please come back when I've gotten myself back together, and slogging on toward Christmas!

Back to Ohio, Day Four: Back to Las Vegas

Trips home--in the age of unpaid vacations--generally mean an abbreviated stay. I try to incorporate a holiday, or a day that I'd be off anyway, along with a weekend. It used to be I could go for nine or more days, with a whole week off, both weekends, and maybe an extra day. But that much time can sometimes be too much. So, shortened trips can sometimes be a little more appropriate. But you know what? I hate going back to work 8 or 9 hours after I get home from a trip.




















I hope you've enjoyed the posts by Stupid Monkey Planet, my partner in crime. I'll be back blogging on Monday night, but don't expect too much. It might be Tuesday before I really feel up to it!

Nap Time at Work? Sign Me Up!!!

Image from source, AOL

This story makes me feel like Eric Cartman felt when he found out that there is such a thing as home schooling, and he wouldn't have to go to school anymore! I've often thought--and said outright--that we should institute nap time (followed by cookies and milk, of course) at work. Maybe twice a day! Maybe that way, I wouldn't feel like saying, "screw you guys, I'm going home!"

[Excerpt]

Why Sleeping on the Job Can Be a Good Thing



Kim Kardashian does it. So do 23 percent of American workers. You can (and maybe should) do it, too, for about 30 minutes a day. We're talking about napping. Kardashian, the paparazzi-hounded star of Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Kourtney & Kim Take New York, says she naps to feel refreshed. . .
 
Read more at: AOL

And because I can't help it, Eric Cartman from South Park:

Ahhhh.... It is Monday

The End of My Vacation

Photo from SEOBlackHat

I always look forward to time off from work, but rarely more so than when that week falls over the holidays, and I'm spending that time at home. But, even with the unusually long break, from Christmas Eve until today, the days zip by way too fast. The task I'd scheduled for myself didn't really get underway until Friday evening, and I've only just finished, taking away any relaxation the weekend might have brought.

So, it will be off to work in a few short hours, which does make me sad. The "event" I so long had to look forward to will now be in rear-view, and nothing much to look forward to for the bleak winter months. Martin Luther King Day? No presents, so meh. Valentine's Day? It's great that I have a valentine for a twelfth consecutive year, but we don't celebrate it much. No, I think that I will have to wait until the days start getting longer, and when Daylight Saving Time starts before I lift out of a gentle funk.

But the new office space--my big project--is comfortable, and looks great. We will spend the next few days cleaning, painting and redecorating the old space into a guest room. And of course there is the Christmas tear-down, something we usually hold off until the 9th or 10th of January. So the change of pace, and the activity of doing it will at least be a distraction.

And, we have inauguration day to look forward to, the end (no doubt, with a whimper) of the Bush Era. That alone ought to lift my spirits, if only for a little while. It's oddly anticlimactic, actually. Can't we get somebody like Patrick Fitzgerald to supply us with some orange jumpsuits and shackles for the march out of the White House? Ah, dreams. . .