Sabbatical!

My sabbatical started last night and I couldn’t even write about it until today. My cable has been out. There was a microburst yesterday afternoon and it downed power lines, which in turn, knocked out CableAmerica in a large portion of Mesa. I’ve had to watch TV from rabbit ears! Cable came back on tonight in the middle of the Diamondbacks game (which we won, I might add.)

But back to the most important event in my little world. Sabbatical! As I drove out of the Intel parking lot last night, I called Daryl, because I knew he would understand the elation. Then I called Alice, then Mom, then Robin. It feels good. It won’t really sink in and feel real, though, until Monday morning when everyone is getting up and going to work except me. All right, I know there are people who read my blog who don’t get up and go to work on Monday mornings, but I’m talking about my co-workers in my department still trying to tape out that chip. Yes, it slipped the deadline, and they are still working on it. But not me! I have 10, count ’em … TEN … glorious … weeks!!!

I’m leaving on Wednesday night for Alaska. I talked to Robin last night, and it looks like I’m going to need to pack sweaters and pants. Their highs have only been in the 50s. We had our last forecasted 100 degree day today, so fall is on the horizon, but it’s going to be a few weeks before our high is only 50. The Alaska temps will sure feel chilly.

With the disaster in Mississippi and Louisiana, Glenda and I are waiting to see if our road trip plans still make sense by October. If gas prices continue to hover around $5-6.00 a gallon in some parts of the country, we may make some adjustments to our route. We are also waiting to see when we can leave. Glenda’s dad is having surgery as soon as he is able (he is battling an infection that needs to get cleared up before they will operate on his hip). Of course, Glenda needs to be here with him until he is over the hardest part of his recovery. So we may not leave here until the first or second week of October instead of the last week of September. Since I took an extra two weeks of vacation, we have until mid-November to complete our travels.

Be sure to check out Heather and Mark’s website. They’ve joined the blogging world.