Today marks my last day. Last day of what? Riding season? Boot wearing? Enjoying flip-flops? Hunting deer? Chasing the Spouse?

… no, none of those things–especially about those flippy-floppy disgusting things. And absolutely not last day of boot wearing!

No, today marks the last day of a 131-day stretch where I have been “holding the fort” at the office while The Boss was on a long-term assignment. He returns to the office on Monday. Yay!

Holding the fort essentially means doing two jobs — the boss’ and my own — but limited mostly to maintaining the bureaucracy of endless meetings, coordination on “urgent” responses to inquiries, and planning. Lots of planning. Endless planning. All this planning with no direct tie to actual work. Gotta love it, especially when planning is supposed to be strategic. Hardee har har.

I did get to travel three times during this period — to Sacramento to facilitate two three-day meetings (and in down time, get to see some old friends); to Alaska for two meetings, then a one-day adventure to Denali National Park with The Boss; and to Puerto Rico for four days of site visits/inspections on recovery.

Mostly though, I held on at the office, not taking any time off (except to drive The Spouse to endless medical appointments.) I actually do enjoy (most of) what I do at the office and have been doing to hold the fort. The part of it I look forward to giving up most is attending some windbag meetings. ‘nuf said.

I look forward to returning to and concentrating on my real job, and organizing a big event in January on the left coast.

Life is short: enjoy your job so much that it doesn’t feel like work!