Take a deep breath and begin again

"End of the Trail" by James Earle Fraser

Well, our big, rush project is finished and I hope I'll be able to calm down and not be so weary in my off time. Then, maybe, I can catch up on my blog. I was going to title this post, "Back in the Saddle Again," after the Gene Autry song. But I feel like the past few months have been all in the saddle with no breaks and what I need is to get out of the saddle.

My part of this project, let's call it Project 3, started right after a previous project, lets call it Project 2, that had finished in early January. That's right, I had to shorten my Christmas vacation because we had to finish Project 2 over the holidays. And before Project 2, another project, we'll call that Project 1, had been scheduled to finish in the second week of November.

I hadn't been able to visit my mother for over a year and had been planning to see her for a week in October (she lives about 600 miles away). But then they moved the end of Project 1 up a week to the first week of November. I worried that my week at Mom's was too close to that deadline so I canceled my trip to see Mom until after Project 1 finished. The day after I canceled my tickets and other plans, they moved the end of Project 1 back to the original date - the second week of November! It was too late to change my trip to the earlier time so I planned to visit Mom after Project 1 completed. Then my wife broke her foot and I needed to stay home to help her. As sad as I was, it was harder for my wife because she had to limp along over Thanksgiving.

Of course, I figured I'd just visit my mother after Project 2 was finished after Christmas but then Project 3 was announced and that it was a "fast track" project to see if we could get it done faster than we normally do. It was a much bigger project that involved new equipment and more departments. Oh boy. I'd have to wait again.

So, we're finally done and I've bought tickets to visit my mother again. It's been over two years since I've been able to visit her. As has been the case the last few times I've made the trip, I'll be going alone. While she would love to see my wife and our kids, we just don't travel well as a family for long trips like that. Also, she has a lot of work needing to be done around her house so it's better if I just go alone. As lonely as it will be and for as much as I will miss my family, it just needs to be done.

So, I hope to write up a bunch of posts before I travel on May 16 and I hope to schedule some for the week I'm gone. Let's hope I can get back in the groove again. I really enjoy writing in my blog and I always feel badly when I can't. It's like not going for a walk.