Indeed, it was a little quiet in this space the last few days. Why? Because I decided to take the Veteran’s Day holiday on Thursday and stretch it into a long weekend, because I could, and I needed a short break. That short break included spending quite a lot of time away from the computer.

So what did I do?

Thursday morning, I did another half-century ride on the Virginia Capital Trail. the weather was beautiful, and I wanted to get one last long one in before the cold really sets in. Fifty miles in the saddle along Route 5 was refreshing and rejuvenating mentally, and not nearly as painful as I was kind of expecting the rest of the weekend. The fact that I can do this sort of thing at 47 at all is a good feeling, and having something like it in recent memory is something I can look to when I’m not necessarily feeling my best.

As for the rest of the weekend…I had a beer or two (along with some always excellent curry…) at one or two local watering holes. I watched a couple of movies. I took my lovely spouse out to lunch and did some shopping at the specialty grocery store. I baked an apple pie (because my farmers’ market hook-up keeps bringing new varieties of apples every week, and I always buy some, usually faster than I can eat them). I enjoyed some quality time with my cat. I ate my daughter’s excellent broccoli-cheddar soup. I played some Dungeons and Dragons with friends…

…but most importantly, I didn’t think about work for a couple of days.

It was a nice break, leading into the last part of the year, which in terms of work is going to be concurrently kind of slow and really pretty busy. In the next four weeks, there’s a list of stuff that needs done at work before the calendar runs out, and it’ll occasionally be a struggle getting it done, what with everyone dealing with use-or-lose leave to spend because we’ve been in pandemic conditions for the last nearly two years and nobody took any vacations. Plus, there’s that whole expiring continuing resolution looming on December 3rd, which is making getting those things done a lot more difficult, and preventing me from working ahead on stuff because until it’s resolved, we can’t effectively work toward anything requiring funding after that, because as far as the books are concerned, nothing exists beyond the end of the CR.

That’s fun.

In any case, I’ll be doing my best to knock all that stuff out before I take my usual end-of-year break, so I can start thinking about the holidays, which will, once again be low-key, because of, well, the State of the World™, and not just because we’re tired and don’t need to build up any more stress.

Oh, one more thing – social media reminders pointed out that my first record, World’s Okayest…, was released two years ago yesterday. Thanks to everyone who’s supported it so far; it’s not perfect, but it is, I think, a solid effort, and something I can be proud of. If you haven’t listened to it yet (or even if you have!), why not give it a spin on your favorite streaming service? I also wouldn’t complain at all if you bought it at the link above.