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"Officially on holiday" and other things
Dec. 19th, 2020 11:02 pm[A quick bash out, things aren't quite as dire as they may read]
Yesterday (Friday) was the last day at work for the year. There's a skeleton crew next week leading up to Xmas but I'm not officially back until January 11th.
I say "officially" because I was back in the office today (Saturday) to make up some hours for the week, and will be next week to finish off my end-of-year cleanup. Weekend visits have become quite regular, partly because I am trying to clock more hours to earn more money and partly because life keeps getting in the way of me competing my targeted, or even my contracted hours during the week. My body clock continues to be uncooperative, and a steady stream of appointments and misadventures have been sucking away at my time as well. (For example D has sprained her shoulder for the second time this year, same shoulder, different muscle.)
I also say "officially" because I intend to spend several half-days in the office over the next few weeks off-the-clock dealing to a project which is eating at my sanity but just isn't going to get done on paid time. It's big but a lot of it is also a rebuild and I hope I can get most of it out of the way.
Combined with the long list of other things which need to be done over the "break" - including some which weren't able to be dealt with last year because we had the kids and I had limited computer access/time, and some which were just shoved into storage in the crush to get moved, and some of which are just "spend quality time with my wife" and "catch up on some webcomics/computer gaming/other me time which has simply been pushed aside" ... although I plan to take things more gently than usual I don't expect the demands on my time to recede to the point where I really feel that I am "on holiday" for more than the odd day which I dedicate to "not anything" .. and odds on those are going to be sabotaged by something.
Speaking of moving, another of the things is "find a new rental by the beginning of February, as close to Rolleston as possible". This is proving unlikely to improbable; in part because landlords really want a year-lease and we don't expect / can't /afford/ to be renting for more than 6-8 months, with prices where they are for the amount of space we "need". So there's the stress of conceptual homelessness.
The build is another sore point, the contract we signed with the building company was to begin work /on site/ in November and yet practically the end of December and they have not yet managed to get the plans into council for consent. (Which also means our mortgage approval is up in the air...) It's not clear to me if the building company are the ones stuffing us around or if as they claim the developer of the sections is stuffing them around / being incompetent by not having information on the land which is that entity's responsibility to supply.
I'm leaning towards both actually. Anyway this close to Xmas/NY shutdown means best-case scenario consents won't be done until mid-January .... which means work may start in February ... we can not actually afford this. We are not actually bleeding money as much as we were (and /that's/ going to change going into a more expensive rental) - but summer has a lot to do with that. The longer things drag on the less likely we are actually going to be able to afford to finish the build, and basically lose everything.
And even then if I can't get my f*&^ing S&^t brain/bodyclock sorted out to work better hours we're not going to be able to pay the mortgage either, because I haven't been managing the hours the calculations are based off and we will have /no/ free capital and /no/ wriggle room in said mortgage for emergencies or even unexpecteds.
So I actually really need to be able to work on recharging and resetting this break. Which is ironically why there are so many things which need dealt-to, as I've identified each of them as taking up mental/emotional resources which I want freed up.
[deep breaths]
Yesterday (Friday) was the last day at work for the year. There's a skeleton crew next week leading up to Xmas but I'm not officially back until January 11th.
I say "officially" because I was back in the office today (Saturday) to make up some hours for the week, and will be next week to finish off my end-of-year cleanup. Weekend visits have become quite regular, partly because I am trying to clock more hours to earn more money and partly because life keeps getting in the way of me competing my targeted, or even my contracted hours during the week. My body clock continues to be uncooperative, and a steady stream of appointments and misadventures have been sucking away at my time as well. (For example D has sprained her shoulder for the second time this year, same shoulder, different muscle.)
I also say "officially" because I intend to spend several half-days in the office over the next few weeks off-the-clock dealing to a project which is eating at my sanity but just isn't going to get done on paid time. It's big but a lot of it is also a rebuild and I hope I can get most of it out of the way.
Combined with the long list of other things which need to be done over the "break" - including some which weren't able to be dealt with last year because we had the kids and I had limited computer access/time, and some which were just shoved into storage in the crush to get moved, and some of which are just "spend quality time with my wife" and "catch up on some webcomics/computer gaming/other me time which has simply been pushed aside" ... although I plan to take things more gently than usual I don't expect the demands on my time to recede to the point where I really feel that I am "on holiday" for more than the odd day which I dedicate to "not anything" .. and odds on those are going to be sabotaged by something.
Speaking of moving, another of the things is "find a new rental by the beginning of February, as close to Rolleston as possible". This is proving unlikely to improbable; in part because landlords really want a year-lease and we don't expect / can't /afford/ to be renting for more than 6-8 months, with prices where they are for the amount of space we "need". So there's the stress of conceptual homelessness.
The build is another sore point, the contract we signed with the building company was to begin work /on site/ in November and yet practically the end of December and they have not yet managed to get the plans into council for consent. (Which also means our mortgage approval is up in the air...) It's not clear to me if the building company are the ones stuffing us around or if as they claim the developer of the sections is stuffing them around / being incompetent by not having information on the land which is that entity's responsibility to supply.
I'm leaning towards both actually. Anyway this close to Xmas/NY shutdown means best-case scenario consents won't be done until mid-January .... which means work may start in February ... we can not actually afford this. We are not actually bleeding money as much as we were (and /that's/ going to change going into a more expensive rental) - but summer has a lot to do with that. The longer things drag on the less likely we are actually going to be able to afford to finish the build, and basically lose everything.
And even then if I can't get my f*&^ing S&^t brain/bodyclock sorted out to work better hours we're not going to be able to pay the mortgage either, because I haven't been managing the hours the calculations are based off and we will have /no/ free capital and /no/ wriggle room in said mortgage for emergencies or even unexpecteds.
So I actually really need to be able to work on recharging and resetting this break. Which is ironically why there are so many things which need dealt-to, as I've identified each of them as taking up mental/emotional resources which I want freed up.
[deep breaths]
