A glance or two over my shoulder

It has been an interesting week away from The Employer. The greedy part of me - the part that hears the alarm clock bleating and thinks, "Five more minutes?" - would like to take tomorrow off, too. But alas, it's not gonna happen. Reality is beckoning.

Things didn't quite go the way I would have chosen. But they have gone all right, I guess.

I didn't stay away from work the entire 5 days I was gone - but after Monday noon, I did. I didn't write the great manifesto I'd planned to send about how under-recognized and under-compensated I am, either. But I think I'll be much, much less resentful in five or six hours when I do start writing it than I would have been last week.

My apartment still looks like a pit - but I've at least moved the PCs into the air conditioned bedroom, so that working from home will be more tolerable.

I sure didn't want to be sick as a dog Monday night, Tuesday and Wednesday - but no one else got sick as a result, and I managed to get two books by Henri Nouwen read in between the both-ends gastric distress.

And the last three days have been damn good days.

It's 1:15 AM; and I should be in bed. But I was talking to folks in AA and responding to emails until 12:30 - and I was determined to have one last burst of "vacation" today. So it was that I sat down to four ears of the most absolutely-glorious "butter-n-sugar" bicolored sweet corn I've had in, oh, a hundred years or so. Even at 1:15 AM, it's still 84 degrees (and 86% humidity) in Chicago - so I guess perfect sweet-corn, freshly-picked this morning and freshly-boiled this evening, helps folks like me remember that even a little bit of Heaven can offset a big chunk of Hell. Well, that, and a well-blessed window air-conditioner...

"Hell Week" (and all it entails) and "the Monday after vacation" starts in about six-and-a-half hours. So I really do need to get to bed. But I'm going to bed in a lot better frame of mind than I did seven days ago, about this time. For which I give thanks to God for undeserved mercy and grace.

We'll see how long it lasts...