Forced Vacation

The same weather than kept us home from Safari Sam's on Saturday caused the wedding reception we were supposed to attend yesterday to be postponed and Anthony to not make it into work this morning. He got up, brushed his teeth and all that hoopla, then looked out the window and came back to bed.

If he'd wanted to go, he'd have had to wade through snow with drifts up to about 3 feet for about a half a mile to get to the bus stop where he'd be waiting for a bus that may or may not be stuck in the snow someplace, as many of them are this morning. Or he could have walked a mile to the MAX (light rail) stop. The trains are, apparently, running today. So, he could have gone, but it would not have been a fun experience.

He called this morning and one of his drafters did make it into the office. As there are only three other employees there, the receptionist and two engineers from other departments, there isn't a lot for this drafter to do. However, said drafter has vacation time scheduled. He's supposed to fly out on Wednesday, which isn't looking promising, as there aren't any flights going out just now, but, if he is able to go in his vacation, he needs his vacation time.

Early last week, when the weather started going all wintery on us, Anthony's office sent out an email saying, "Hey, feel free to take a vacation day if you can't make it in, but we're not closing the office and giving free days off," more or less.

Anthony made it in all last week, as did many people, as the weather was wintery, but not impassable last week. However, there were also many people who didn't. Part of the problem was that the schools were closed and many people had child care issues. Kids home with no one to take care of them if the parents went to work.

Some people, though, who took time last week, are not in a position where they have no vacation time left. One of his drafters who didn't come in today will be taking the day with no pay. Other people in the company are sure to be in the same boat.

I must say that I'm really glad that we're a single breadwinning family. Anthony was able to go off to work last week without worries. Although, we did talk about that if Max were still with us, he might have had to take a day or two last week because otherwise things may well have fallen miserably apart at home.

This week he is only scheduled to work two days. Christmas is a holiday, it's his Friday off anyway and he was taking a vacation day on Wednesday to have Christmas Eve off. So, even if he takes tomorrow off, too, he'll only be taking two unplanned vacation days. That's not too bad. He has them, even with having just gotten back from Florida and planning on time next week, as well. He doesn't call in sick. Ever, really. And he went in all last week. Whew.

So, this morning we got to wake up slowly and cuddle. Davan jumped for joy when she saw that Daddy was home. Anthony helped us with chores, which let us get extras done for the chore break that is coming for Christmas time. We have another together day stretching ahead and that's a good thing.

A not so good thing is that I finally decided over the weekend what I wanted to get him for Christmas. The chances of going out to get said item before Christmas are looking worse and worse. Yikes!