Sorry I didn't write last night. My body pretty much shut down around 5:30. Patricia was worried that I wasn't even fit to drive home. I was. I promise.
My body chemistry just works that way. There are days when I get home from work and I am so dog gone tired that I have to call it a night as soon as I get home. Other nights, like tonight, I feel just great.
Tomorrow's lunch should be awesome. I bought some beef over the weekend, including a really nice roast. That roast, along with some onions, cauliflower and green beans, is in the crockpot, where it will cook all night long. Certainly hoping that within the next seven hours or so, it will have finished cooking. Fingers crossed.
So, I messed up recently. Over the years I have heard about people who "had to" take vacation time or they would lose it. I thought they had lost it, alright, if you know what I mean. I was never in a position where I would have so much vacation time left to use that I would be in danger of losing some of that time.
Until this year.
I checked recently and still had over 100 hours of vacation time left. You're allowed to carry over 35 hours, and that goes into the "carryover" bank automatically. Then, you can add another 35 hours to an accumulated bank. So, 70 hours. I had misunderstood the regulations and thought I could put the rest of the time in the accumulated bank.
I was... not correct.
I found out from checking with HR that if I don't use the balance of those hours, 36.33 to be exact, by March 31, then I lose those hours. That is not going to happen. So, I put in for next week for vacation, and that time was approved today. So, after Friday, I will not be back to work until the 19th.
I suppose I am looking forward to the time off, but it feels forced on me. It just tells me that I must be more vigilant in the next fiscal year so that this doesn't happen again. Also, on April 1st, I get the full benefit of six weeks of vacation, up from the present five. With the two weeks I am carrying over (carry over and accumulated) I will effectively have a hair under eight weeks of vacation to use next year, unless I carry over yet more time in a year's time.
I started off in government with a scant three weeks of vacation. They changed the rules so that I got four weeks of vacation after.. six years or whatever it was; and it was in the sixth year of my service, so I just waltzed right into it. I got five weeks of vacation after sixteen years or whatever it was, which seems like yesterday. Now, sneaking up on me, is six weeks of vacation. It makes me wonder where the years have gone, and what I have to show for them.
Well, I have this incredible Model M keyboard for one thing, but that only cost me fifty cents.
Anyway, on that maudlin topic, I think I will call it a night.
See you tomorrow, folks.
Bevboy
No comments:
Post a Comment