InsaneJournal

The weekend of
preparation.

That is what this weekend has officially been dubbed.  There are a lot of things that are requiring preparation right now.

I'll start with the weather.  The forecast is for... lots of it.  The problem is that they can't seem to pinpoint exactly what types of weather it will be, so time for the preparation.  I need to get things ready in case of a power outage in 12 degree weather, food in case the roads become impassable, ice melt for the walk and have enough fuel for the snow thrower.  Lots of running around to do today.

At work, I've got to prepare for the major project (implementation of National Provider ID) into one of our System Integration Testing environments.  Not as much to do here, but it is still something for which I must prepare since it needs to smoothly as I do not have time to 'do it over'.

Which brings me to the most important thing for which I must prepare.  The trip to New Zealand.  7 days and 4 1/2 hours from now cluegirl and I start the grand adventure.  Granted it has 4 days in Phoenix on the front end, but still.  This will be the first 'real' vacation I've taken in 7 1/2 years.  Yes, I've taken time away from the office but I've always taken my laptop and usually my pager.  This trip I will take neither.  I will be fully out of contact with the office for 3 full weeks.  I really need to do this more often, not take work with me that is, but I find it really hard to do.  I'm not the work-a-holic I used to be but I still find it hard to be completely out of contact for that long.  For my health and sanity I really need to walk away more often than I do.  That is something I intend to work on in the next few years.

Ok, time to go swap out loads of laundry so that we can handle one of those preparation items.... packing.