Friday, 1/4

If this were a normal year it would be mid-May right about now.

I know; when is a year ever “normal”, right? But here's now 2019 is abnormal, at least for me. Loraine and I are going to Europe, like we usually do. But for the first time, instead of heading there around the Labor Day weekend we're going in late April. That's four months earlier than usual. And that means I need to be doing work right now that I'm normally doing in mid-May.

Because, you know, we're leaving four months earlier than usual.

Those of you who've been reading these forever know that the one slight pain in the butt about our trips over there is the fact that I need to work ahead to make sure everything's ready and able to run while I'm gone. So I'm not overwhelmed in the weeks before I go I usually start working ahead on what I can as far ahead as possible. Usually, that's in May. But since we're going in April this year, January has become the new May.

Now if we could only get May-like weather in January. THAT would be cool!

While my schedule and the routine I've established over all the years might be a little discombobulated by our early vacation, there's one incredible silver lining in the whole thing (well, two, actually, if you consider a Spring trip to Germany a silver lining, which I certainly do). Once we get back on May 1^st I won't have to do what I usually do starting in May. I won't have to work ahead to get ready to go to Europe in late August.

That means I have my entire summer to play in the sun and to not worry about a thing. And that hasn't happened since 2007, and that was the summer we moved into our current apartment. So this will really be the first summer in almost 15 years that nothing “big” will be happening.

I actually kinda like that concept.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE going to Europe around Labor Day The weather over there, when it's not raining for six days straight, is usually quite nice, and the holiday allows us to save a precious vacation day to use some other time during the year. The only reason we're going in the Spring this year is because we're going to see a soccer game right around our 30^th anniversary (okay, technically two reasons, but you know what I mean). Otherwise, we'd be going in the late summer, as usual, and I wouldn't be worry (or babbling) about this.

But if I keep referring to January as May or April as August this year, at least you'll know why.

Have a great weekend; hopefully, your calendar and your routine stays as usual.

(jim@wmqt.com)