"How was your weekend?"

A typical Monday-at-work will often early on experience the "How was your weekend" question. It's pretty safe, really, and it's pretty much a soft question- there's almost NO way that this ice breaker can fail. Please note- I said ALMOST.

"Weekend" means the end of the workweek: no work, no school. Downtime. Sometimes, occasionally, it means that despite prior commitments, stuff that needs to get done at home, or an astronomical event that last occurred in 1982 and won't happen again until 2033, you have to work.

I'm trying really hard not to sound like I'm complaining, but the plain fact is this: I do not relish working on Sundays. Sunday has always been the quieter day of the week for me- relax, maybe catch a sporting event on TV, and do a bit of home-related stuff (grass mowing, etc.).

Not this weekend, though. This weekend was nonexistent for me.

I rolled into the office around 2230 on Friday night. It looked like a fairly busy night from the start; I had no way of knowing exactly HOW busy it would be. Busy ended up being NINE hours of overtime of Friday, and another SEVEN on Sunday. The downside to all of this was no weekend. The upside is overtime pay. We just had a few medical expenses (optometrist, veterinarian), so the extra buckazoids are much appreciated. Still, my "weekend" is shot. Gone. Nonexistent.

It's now Monday, approximately 1000. I had stuff I wanted to do that won't get done today because my sleep is totally hosed. Yes, the money is great- and needed- but the time lost to work cannot be recovered. Friday ended up being a 15 hour day, and Sunday was another seven hours (hmm, that sounds familiar!).

It is now Tuesday. We're so busy that I already have 21.5 hours on the clock, and only eight of these are "straight" time- the majority are overtime. And this week shows no promise of slowing down... I predict major overtime for at least the next three days.

Wednesday update- sixteen hours of straight time, and nineteen of overtime. Crazy night.

Thursday- I think the O.T. now is ~22 hours. And my supervisor has even more.

Friday- The week has officially ended with 29.5 hours of overtime. I am going in to work (tomorrow) for the second Sunday in a row.

So, here I sit on Saturday afternoon, decompressing. I'm in the Secret Underground Lair, trying to finish this blog on one computer and playing Railnation on another PC. I'm tired beyond words, but not exactly sleepy... I still have things on my mind. 

Sunday- One is not required to work overtime in my company, but as the reader can see, we've been busy. My supervisor has put in as much overtime as I have (and possibly more), so I went in to the office today. I had anticipated a "light" day- boy, oh boy, was I ever mistaken. I ended up working on three projects in addition to the one I was there for. Total time on Sunday? 13.5 hours. Adding insult to injury, Jennifer had a lovely roast for dinner which I missed out on. I had also planned on a nap- which obviously never happened. Lastly, as I had anticipated a "light", short day, I didn't bring a lunch. Fortunately, I am prepared for situations such as this, and grabbed a canned pasta meal from my emergency office supply.

The last day I had off was two Sundays ago. Not bragging. Not complaining- I get paid to do this. I'm just stating a fact.

That's all from the SUL (Secret Underground Lair) for now. No data news to report, no Arduino progress report, and no Raspberry Pi update.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.