Arontius of Bygelswade

.....For the last couple of weeks things have been very intense at work. The equipment our group installs aboard submarines has been failing and no one can figure out exactly why. We've had dozens and dozens of meetings and Telecoms with some of the smartest people the Navy can find trying to work through the issue. Not much luck so far.

.....The word late last week was that we were going to work through the Holiday Curtailment Period. Several of us have quite a number of 'Must Leave' hours to burn that we were all hoping to use up during the last few weeks of the Calendar Year. But as 'Managers' there was a somewhat delicate push to let the Must Leave not used 'go away'. Or better yet, donate it to those who needed donated leave because of medical and other required leave that left them in the hole.

.....I had (92) hours of Must Leave to use this year and I hit that magic hour yesterday at 1120 and was still at work five hours later. I still hadn't been given definitive word on what was going to happen with that leave. I'm sure there were interesting conversations happening though as we all had turned in Leave Applications for using all of that leave and those applications had neither been approved or denied.

.....The Mid-Level Boss told me to not come in today. But the Big Boss told me he needed another letter written first thing in the morning, so I was in at 0600 working on a letter. When the Mid-Level Boss came in a couple of hours later he was rather upset and he walked on over to the Big Boss' Office to chew him out. Made me feel special, it did. Someone was trying to look out for his guys. Kind of rare sometimes in the government work force these days.

.....Conversations became even more intense today. I took part in one Telecom where Captains were actually yelling at each other. I've been part of conversations before where they've subtly told each how screwed up they thought the other was acting, but this was the first time I've heard one Captain tell another that they didn't understand what they were talking about and maybe they should study it a while before they say something that further revealed how little they actually knew. It was quite intense.

.....By Noon little progress had been made and I was getting ready for the next round of meetings when the Mid-Level Boss walked into the office and told me to go home. I was caught off guard and asked him when I should plan to come back. He told me to call in on Thursday and again on Friday, but that his plan was for me to not come back until January.

.....I thought this was a fine idea, but wasn't going to be the guy who leaves everyone else there to fend for themselves. But it looks like there is going to be a couple of weeks of R&D to the mid-level boss is going to stay through Friday so as to conduct a couple of tours for Admirals visiting site, but he was going to start using his Must Leave this weekend.

.....And the eight hours of Must Leave I've used so far? Looks like I'm going to get it back next year.

.....It was a good day in the end. I think that I'll sleep in some tomorrow morning and then spend a couple of hours doing very little as I slowly draw up a few 'to-do' lists to cover the next couple of weeks. :-) This down time will be good. I'm tired and need to recharge the mental batteries a little bit. It was starting to get to the point where I was simply focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and letting everything else go as needed. Not exactly a good way to run a life.

.....Hmmm, maybe a trip to the Beach is in order. Certainly lots of time with some friends. Definitely some quality time with TBT (can never get too much of Vitamin TBT :-)). A couple of movies would be nice. Lots of reading. I think I can fill the down time. :-)

.....Right now? I think it is bed time. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.