Last of the first of the new

Tonight will be the last night of the first rotation of our new schedule at work. I could call this my "fifth" night, but the first night was actually only four hours long, from 10 PM to 2 AM. As of tomorrow morning I have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off, and then go back to work for another four-hour night on Thursday.

Part of my problem with the new schedule - aside from the mathematical result that you get when you compare number of hours worked per eight-day period (up) with amount earned each week (down) - is the fact that regardless of how many hours you are putting in, you still have to make the full commute, and now you have to do it an extra day. In my case, this is an extra 66 or so miles, and an extra 90 minutes on the road.

In recent weeks I've seen one highway accident almost as it happened, and have come across the aftermath of another shortly after it happened.

It would be simple to assign a universal per-mile probability of bring involved in an accident. But the probability tends to vary with the day of the week, the day of the year, the time of day, the weather, and a bunch of other factors.

I know every time I go on the highway I am running the risk of getting in an accident. It concerns me that I am taking this risk now for less than a full day's pay.

I will have a stretch of four days off at the beginning of February, the fourth through the seventh - though I think I may already have plans for those days. After that my next four day stretch off is April 9th through the 12th February 27th through March 2nd. Make your reservations now!