Back to life, back to unreality

The 2010 Sideshow Gathering is fading in the rearview mirror.  There will continue to be pictures and videos posted, and maybe a few more articles to be written, and my friends and I will continue to bounce around stories (or "cut up jackpots," in the carny vernacular) for the rest of the year.  But almost as soon as the event was over it was time to get back to other things.

I took two days off from work for the Gathering - the only other time off I had taken this year was for my nephew/godson's First Holy Communion, so that should tell you something - and I had to head back to work the next night, Monday.  I called in to work early Sunday morning to have myself put on the overtime schedule for our first two days, but with erratic workloads it wasn't clear if I would or would not be working those days.  Road conditions were also very erratic, so I left for work twenty minutes earlier than usual on Monday afternoon - and got to work more than twenty minutes earlier than usual, too.  I checked the overtime list and saw that I was third on the schedule for each of our first two days off, meaning I would only be going in if at least three people were needed for that day.

Tuesday I left the house five minutes later than I had the day before.  I ran into a traffic jam right at a badly-engineered merge point, and watched in growing anger as fifty or sixty cars came off the exit and forced their way into the front of the jam.  This told me that traffic was moving, at least, though the police car and tow truck that passed me on the shoulder told me that there might be a real issue ahead.  I called in to work and advised them of the situation.  Minutes ticked by as we crawled along at just over zero miles per hour, thanks mostly to the merging vehicles coming off the exit - and the rubberneckers at the very minor accident in the construction zone.  Once I was past the accident, it was like I had the highway to myself.  I accelerated to ludicrous speed and got to work five minutes late.

Wednesday morning I called in to find out that, yes indeedy, I would be working overtime that night.  Ditto on Thursday night.

(I have to squeeze in as much overtime as I can while I'm still working.  In a month or so, I will be losing my job.)

Friday was mostly a recovery day, but I did take my mom out to run some errands.  Saturday I raked leaves, for the first time in over a week.  I gathered two bags from our front yard, two bags from the neighbor's tree lawn, two bags from a pile on her front lawn, and filled four bags from the cans she had filled the day before.  Both her tree and ours have quite a few leaves left, and I haven't even touched the side yard or the other neighbor's yard.

After church yesterday I headed out to my comic book store, which is only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  I got there too late, unfortunately, and backtracked to do a shopping run to Sam's Club and Barnes & Noble.

Now it's time to go back to work.


TITLE REFERENCE:  Soul II Soul, "Back to Life"