Christmas--Vacation

Christmas is arriving a little late this year. Due to budget constraints at the North Pole, Santa had to defer the delivery of one of my presents till the new year.

I just got word today (placed my order) that this beautiful (I mean that in a manly sense) jacket will be arriving at my house no later than Wednesday, January 10th. Just in time for my trip to Lost Wages, Nevada to blow a lot of cash, but also get to spend time with friends from my wasted days at ASU back in '79-80. These Frat brothers (ΘΔΧ) are still my closest friends, even after all these years.

This trip to Vegas is the first vacation I've had since '05. Due to all the crap that's been going on at work, even though I've put in for vacation time, it kept getting put off "cause we're going to start up next week, and we need you there". We never started up and the company finally had the opportunity of 1) I take all my vacation right now and I'll see you in a month, 2) Pay me now for the vacation time I wasn't allowed to take or 3) Carry it over (not company policy) and I get to use it in '07. I know the company is short of cash, so I accepted the carry over, now I've got 6 weeks vacation to use up--minus the 7 days I'm using now.

Typically, now that I get to take vacation, my wife can't get the time off. Just before the end of the year, the guy that knew all the secrets to get the jobs done at her company left. Now they "can't spare anyone until they get things under control again".

We'll still get to spend time together, as I won't leave town until Thursday, but she still has work. This is still an improvement over our normal schedule as I'll be home and awake while she's home. Being on a rotating shift schedule can take a big toll on together time. I don't think she knows how much I appreciate her tolerance of things not getting done around the house when I'm on graveyard and the day or so period when I try to force my body back onto a daylight schedule.

My major project over the next week is to cash in all the aluminum cans I have been saving for my Vegas trip over the last year and a half. This should be fun, as we tend to drink a hell of a lot of coke (and another thing thing that comes in cans), so I probably should be able to gamble with little or no drain on our banked money. I actually have $100 left from my last gambling trip stashed, so that will make my spree that much cheaper (Ha-rationalization at it's best).

All I can say is those Video Poker machines had better watch out, they won't know what hit them with all the money I going to pull out of them. Hoped the cashier has stocked the vault.