Family times sneak up on you

I'll be out of town this weekend, visiting family on the Left Coast. I haven't been that way since my SGI days, when I used to go to Silicon Valley for the occasional dog and pony show.

I'm not looking forward to the plane flight: 4 hours in a crowded tube with 200 strangers, but I hope the Dramamine kicks in quickly and I doze off. I've got plenty of reading matter: a rough draft of the Oz book, my netbook, my Itouch loaded with books, a magazine. I'm taking carry-on (at least that's the plan), so it should be a relatively straightforward event.

As it turns out, I'm out of town every month (at least once a month) for the next year. Yep, a year. I've got something planned every month through next April. About half are road trips but half are flying. I took a look at my vacation time at work and, yikes, I may run out in October. I'll have to either work a bit of overtime or maybe take a day here and there without pay. Not a problem, but a surprise since I usually have an abundance of time off.

Our company was bought out, though, by a Left Coast company and they're pretty stingy with time off. I'm not complaining, really -- I've got a job and in this economy, that's a biggie. And I can miss a day or two of pay here and there. So I'll go ahead, use up the time, and enjoy myself. After all, it's what vacation is for, right?

So I'll post again next Tuesday and let you know how the trip goes. Then it's off again next weekend (road trip this time), so posting will be erratic again. Enjoy the spring and look forward to summer! I surely am.