Today inaugurates my last working week of 2020. Thursday afternoon after logging off for the year(!), I shall do the usual run to the pet store to buy cat food, and (assuming further restrictions are not imposed in the meantime and there’s a free table for me to sit down) then visit the Kroger bar and raise a glass of something strong and dark to the symbolic end of the hassles of this awful year, at least at the office.

Before I can do that, however, I aim to route one more acquisition package through the gauntlet of reviews, so it at least has a chance to make the January review deadline. Said package is together, aligned with all the latest templates and requirements I’m able to find, and I even built myself an interactive tracker of required documents built according to the most recent “checklist” template, and I’ve passed it to the first level of unofficial review, while the one wildcard (an unqualified, possibly felonious actor who’s somehow managed to insert himself even further into the process in recent months) generates his bullshit bullet points.

Beyond that and a couple of end-of-year check-ins, I’ve got things all but wrapped up.

Leaving work aside, I’m tying up the last couple of loose strings regarding holiday gifts, and once again keeping a very close eye on Congress, who’ve kicked the can down the road another week, because I’d like to know whether my time off for the holidays is paid leave or furlough. Such is life in the public sector, no matter who’s in the White House.

I even managed to get a little low-impact outdoor time in this weekend, and my bum ankle isn’t complaining too much. I’ve been trying to be serious about resting it and not pushing, though when we get a couple of sunny days in the 60°s in mid-December, my first inclination is to disappear into the woods and put ten or fifteen miles behind me.

But that didn’t happen, because I practiced self-control, and won’t happen today, because it’s raining something awful.