Waiting To Breathe

It was my last day of work before my vacation started. I was in the 2-10 spot in 4 house thinking to myself "Okay, I can coast through this day and then I'm off. No big deal. I can get out of here before count time and be home."

And for the most part, that was how my day went.

Did some wing walks. We were all caught up on cell searches for the month so I didn't have to worry about those. Went down to dining and did some pat searches for awhile then walked around inside the chow hall.

So far so good.

One of the many (too many) Assistant Wardens came up into the bubble and hung out for awhile. Not on any kind of mission, it seems, just doing a routine walk through and killing time until he could go home. That wasn't bad.

Right after he left I was thinking about going to do another wing walk when Gums got up and said he was doing one so I decided to jump on the 'puter and clear out my email. I usually get about ten to fifteen emails a day on the system at work. 99% of them are complete garbage to me and I delete them sight unseen. I mean, what do I care if the fax machine in District 9 is broken? But they still send those out to everybody in the state, then another one later to say it's fixed. What a bunch of........ snap.

I'm going to be off for the next nine days so I figured any emails I could clean out of my inbox before I left would be that much less I had to deal with when I got back.

It's a good thing I went and looked. I'm in recert training the first two days off vacation.

Oh joy!

I have nine days where I can sleep in and then two days where I have to be up by six a.m. and in by eight. Nifty. Ah, well.

I was thinking "If that's the worst news I get, I'm okay."

Then Lt Gerber calls me and says "You have to go up to 1 house and relieve Miz Maybe. She's sick and has to go home."

So I toddle on up there and get her out of the house. Then I look around. There's no sergeant and it's just me and Chopper and Galahad in the house. And Chopper and I are both in the 2-10 slot. Oops.

I can't leave with only one person in the house, so I call Gerber and offer to stay late of he needs me. He says "No, I got it covered, I think. Maybe. If nothing happens."

Mr Peepers rolls in the door as Chopper heads out at 9:45. Me, I'm still waiting, wondering if I'm going to be here for awhile. I still can't leave. It takes three people to count. Two to count and one to open the doors.

Finally somebody rolls in from a house on B-side at 9:55. With five minutes to spare. Whew! Peepers takes over the bubble and I'm relieved! Yay! It was a close call.

So my vacation has officially begun. Nine glorious days with nothing to do but some woodworking projects and replacing the living room carpet with laminate flooring.

Oh boy isn't that going to be fun! Maybe I'll take some before and after pictures for you.

Let's check the calendar before I toddle off to bed, shall we?

Oh... crap. Well... Saturday is National Corn Chip Day, which isn't too bad. I like corn chips as much as the next guy. But Sunday is Escape Day. Oh man, I'm glad I'm not going to be there for that one! Yikes!