Get-aways and Holiday Madness...When Will It End?

Jeff and I really do enjoy getting away for the weekend. When I say weekend, I mean our days off. We don't have the typical weekends off like everyone else does. My work schedule is Wednesdays through Sundays, working during the day while Jeff works over night Thursdays nights through Monday mornings.

I do sometimes get bothered by the fact that we work opposing schedules. While most of the time I am ok by it - he's usually in bed asleep for most of the day so the house is quiet while I am working (I work remotely), but when planning a weekend get-away (there's that word again), we can't just leave Sunday afternoon or evening once we are off work and come back Tuesday afternoon or evening. Jeff gets up 2-3 hours after I am completing my work day to start getting ready for his work day. 

That means we can't head out until he gets home from his work day, which is between 6 and 8 am Monday morning. That leaves us with only Monday evening away wherever we are going before we need to head back home on Tuesday for me to prepare for work Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Jeff doesn't have to start preparing to go back to work until Thursday morning!

We either have to do a short trip somewhere that could normally be done as a day trip, or I have to plan to take Wednesday off work to add that second day in for our weekend together. Occasionally Jeff will take Sunday night off work, so we can go ahead and head out when I am off work Sunday afternoon. I'd love to be able to leave out on a Sunday afternoon, coming back on a Tuesday. But I have a feeling that won't be happening until Jeff retires, or is able to find a less physical no longer outside job, like what he has now.

On that same note...holidays at the end of the year get crazy as well, and I'm looking forward to when Jeff no longer has to deal with that too. I can pretty much work from anywhere as long as I have good internet connection and my laptop. Jeff's job is not remote, and will never have that option to be. Coupled with the fact that the only other person who works overnights at his job takes off the last 2-3 weeks of the year...every year, leaving Jeff to have to cover both their shifts for 21+ days straight is getting really old.

There's no consideration for Jeff being able to take time off to spend with family during the holidays. He's spoken up about it the last couple of years at work, and slowly, other people on other shifts have taken some of the night shifts to give him some time off to be with his family. More needs to be done to correct that.

Hello September...Here We Go!

The arrival of September usually brings stress, frustration, anxiety, and lots of additional work. It marks the onset of "Holiday Season," which is quickly approaching. 

This means decorating for both fall and Christmas, buying and wrapping Christmas presents, deciding if we are going to be able to meet with family for the holidays (we have issues in the holidays due to work schedules), completing delivery schedule changes for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's (all to be completed within the next 3 months), making spur of the moment changes for stores' deliveries...

Not to mention planning and executing Fall and Christmas concerts, publicity for the concerts, rehearsals, social media blasts, emails to patrons, designing and printing the concert programs. 

I have already planned some outings with a friend for Friday nights during this time. It will force me to get away from the work, and spend some time decompressing from everything. I'm already looking forward to it!

In October, we will see "Sleeping Beauty" in a whole new way, as the ballerinas wear LED lights, lighting up the stage as they dance!

Also in October, we will see the Houston Symphony perform "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

In December, we will see a parody of Die Hard, called Yippee Ki Yay.

There are some other Christmas themed attractions I would like to see, and may be able to get around to them in November if available to. The Museum of Fine Arts puts out a Christmas Village every year, and last year the friend and I were able to go in January to see a whole Christmas Lights display set up in the local shopping mall parking lot.

It is Getting to be That Time of Year Again...

I start dreading the end of the year, beginning in August. I know within a few weeks I will have to start working on holiday delivery schedules for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and deal with the headache that comes along with it. 

Also, there are so many neat events and shows going on during the holiday season, and I'd love to experience them all. I am hoping that now that we are fully integrated into the National Routing Team, the new OMS system, and have a department who is responsible for updating and maintaining the delivery schedules, that it will make my duties planning the schedules less of a headache.

When we were in the old system, each product type had it's own sign on into the mainframe (dry goods/frozen, meat, produce, Dallas area meat, Dallas area produce). So in essence, I was responsible for maintaining 5 sets of delivery schedules. If I wanted to update a customer's delivery schedule, I had to make changes on multiple screens.

The schedules are all housed in the same area now, and so I just need to look on one screen to see all the different product types for a particular customer. And when I get the spreadsheets to start working on the schedules, it will all come on one spreadsheet now. Before, I had to get spreadsheets from each product type's mainframe. I used to have to go through all 1,000 customers on for grocery/frozen and make changes for holiday billing. Then go through all 1,000 AGAIN for meat, then AGAIN for produce, then AGAIN for Dallas meat, then AGAIN for Dallas produce. 

As soon as I was through for Thanksgiving delivery changes, I had to immediately start again for Christmas/New Year delivery changes. September through the end of December was hell - having to make the changes, and then as we are going through the holiday week, make last minute changes on the fly.

Excited to see how it goes now that we are all in one system!

Aftermath of Hurricane Beryl

What an interesting, scary, and wild week it has been so far. Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda, Texas as a strong Category 1 hurricane early Monday morning. When it went over the Yucatan Peninsula prior to that, it spun the hurricane, and aimed it towards Matagorda...it was originally supposed to make landfall near Brownsville.

The hurricane made a direct path to Houston, and the eye of the hurricane actually traveled almost right over our neighborhood. What an insane experience that was, to be going through hurricane force winds and rain, then all the sudden NOTHING.

The company I work for took on damage to the frozen warehouse, which will now need to be repaired. Both the grocery and frozen warehouses are without power, and work is having to be done manually to get loads out since they do not have access to printers or copiers right now.

Over 2.25 million customers were without power after the storm hit. Centerpoint Energy has restored a good portion of those customers as of today, but many are still without power, during the hottest part of the year. 

So far, the death count is up to 11 in the Houston area due to the storm.

Happy Hurricane Season (sort of)

It has already been quite the active season, and we are only a month in to the Hurricane Season.  I can only imagine what it is going to be like in August and September...hope it does not get more intense!

Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in June - in Mexico. Florida had a few scares as well in June, with some disturbances along the east coast.

We are now prepping for landfall of Hurricane Beryl.  It was originally supposed to make landfall in northern Mexico, but has shifted to the north, and is now aimed squarely at Brownsville. It could turn more and head towards Corpus Christi more, which will put us in an area with more rainfall expectations.

We are already on the dirty side of the storm, and are expecting several inches of rain Monday - Wednesday of next week. If the hurricane turns more and aims toward Corpus, the rain will be much more intense.

We've already been sending water and supplies down to Brownsville to prep for the storm to be hitting them early next week. Here we go!!

New Research Is All The Rage

I do enjoy posting my ramblings in this blog. I'm going to continue posting my ramblings and musings as I have them, They are very therapeutic!

I am also thinking about starting a new blog, in addition to this one. I am always looking for weekend getaways and vacation opportunities. I've thought about starting a blog on our travels, and specifically on ideas I get for weekend getaways in and around Texas. 

I have a notebook that I've been keeping information in, and have tried starting a bullet journal on it. But I have not been able to keep with it and make it look nice like I would like for it to look like. Keeping it online would also allow me to see it whenever wherever, without having to carry the notebook with me everywhere we go.

Hmmm....may have to look up design options to see if I can create something that would look like what I envision what I would want it to look like. This is exciting!

Caught Between Going Out and Staying In

A part of me wants to go out and do something on my days off. Get out and see the world! Travel! But another part of me wants to just stay at home and take care of the tasks at hand. Lots of things to do, lots of things that need to get done...

We have been away from home for 10 days now between our vacation to Fredericksburg and the Tornado hitting West Houston - causing us to lose power at home for 5 days. That part of my head just wants to stay at home and get caught up on shows, do laundry, grocery shopping, etc.

But another part wants to still get out and see the sites and sounds of Texas and beyond. We've enjoyed the road trips, exploring small towns, eating at local restaurants, visiting local museums, etc. I want to do more of these.

One thing I have noticed is that when I am home...I want to be out on the road. When we are out on the road...I want to be home. Day trips out would probably be our best best right now.  That way I can be home after a while to handle the things that need to get done.