The Fog of Work

Umm, hi.  Remember me?

I've just gone more than a week without blogging.  That's something of a record for me.  In the past I've only missed blogging for that much time because I've been in another country with limited access to the internet.  But not this time.

Work is winding down.  According to the official notice I received earlier this week, at some point on or between December 13 and December 26 my current employment, like that of many of my co-workers, will be terminated.  But in the meantime, there's overtime to be had.  Overtime is valuable.  I'm trying to get at least two days of overtime out of every four days off, though I've only managed that once.  To increase my chances of getting one or two days of overtime, I'm actually selecting days in three-day groups, with choices ranked first, second, and third, and the maximum number of days requested specified.  Unfortunately, this means that the days that I work overtime are not necessarily continuous with the days that I am normally scheduled to work, resulting in alternating days of work and not-work.  So instead of four-days-on four-days-off, or five-on three-off, or six-on two-off, work is dissolving into a cloud of days, like a fight scene in a cartoon.  It is hard enough to remember if I'm supposed to be off or working on any  given day.  This has made it difficult to dedicate any time at all to blogging.  In fact, this is the first time in several days I've actually been online.

That's not the only reason for this hiatus, though it is the major one.  But I've been doing some thinking about my life, about the priorities I've established and the commitments I've made.  I've realized that I've been neglecting some of those commitments, and that maybe some of my priorities have been out of whack.  Which is not to say that blogging has been responsible for either of these problems.  But upon coming to this realization, a cloud of guilt settled over every other commitment and priority in my life.  So I've got that going for me, too.

I have three consecutive days off now, counting today.  I should really be sleeping right now, or mowing the lawn or raking leaves or conducting a job search, but instead I've chosen to catch up with my long-neglected online life.  This post is a part of that.  In a few minutes I will head for bed, to sleep for who knows how long.