Excuses, Excuses

Hi, Folks!

Geez...another five days have gone by, and no posts from me!

I promise...the ones that I've let you know were coming are still coming.

I was slammed with writing work over the weekend, in addition to participating in (and winning!) a Toastmasters Humorous Speech Contest and attending my last Lamaze class with my husband.

On Monday, I spent the whole day - and it was a long one - preparing for the all-day training classes I was coordinating for my full-time job (coordinating and presenting, I should add...and boy, am I tired!) and so that, of course, bled over to being very busy on Tuesday and Wednesday as well.

And then...we got the call yesterday that Chris would be deployed to the Galveston region this morning to assist in enforcement efforts for the areas hit by Hurricane Ike. In other words, he's going down there to police the idiots who either (a) refused to leave initially or (b) are now trying to get back on an island that has no power or running water. Yippee.

MESSAGE TO IDIOTS IN GALVESTON: If you cause any harm to befall my husband, with our child only weeks away (we hope - please, God, let her at least wait until her dad comes home) from being born, I will hunt you down and kill you myself. That is a threat and I do mean it. I'm nearly as good a shot as he is and I'm fueled by hormones that you cannot even comprehend.

So, in any case, he is leaving this morning at about 9 AM to arrive in some little podunk town down south called Sante Fe by 4 PM, where the Galveston County Sheriff's Office is using the local high school for staging. The amazing amenities he'll have access to during his 10-day deployment (which doesn't count his travel days...aren't we cutting it *just* a bit close here, folks, with baby?) include a hot shower (occasionally), three meals per day, and a room that the six agents who are traveling together can share, provided they bring all of their own bedding. (You can't imagine how much camping-type stuff Chris has packed in his state police vehicle, which I am now very thankful is a truck. I think he's taken every camping supply, in fact, that we own. Which is a lot!)

During the time he'll be there, they'll work 12 hour shifts on a rotational basis on each of those 10 days. As the state has not authorized overtime, they'll be compensated when they return by receiving an equal amount of compensatory time to the hours of overtime worked during those 10 days. This doesn't impress me. Chris already has hundreds of hours of vacation time banked. A few extra isn't exactly a boon. Plus, he's going to be exhausted when he gets back, which isn't exactly the ideal state to be in when a newborn baby comes along. And let's face it...we're only four weeks away from my actual due date, and since it's been the plan all along to go about two weeks early...we are definitely cutting it close here.

So yeah, I'm whining a bit. Sorry! Snapping out of it, now. I've decided that to keep myself busy while he's gone, I'm going to accomplish things that have been sitting on my to-do list for way too long. So I've re-done the list, and intend to be a busy little bee over the next week and a half. Watch out world, I've got lots to do!