Could be worse

I had to heed my alarm clock pre-dawn today because, although President’s Day is a federal holiday, it is not a holiday for my company and as a contractor I am therefore expected to either expend floating holiday or personal leave time, or else show up to work. I am of course being miserly about all of my leave time right now, since I’ll need all I can get when the baby comes, so I opted to work.

BUT, at least I didn’t have to choke myself into a necktie since working holidays are business casual, so it could be worse.

The VRE wasn’t running today because of the holiday, so I had to forgo my customary relaxing train ride and brave the length of I-66 in my car.

BUT, loads of people apparently were given (or gave themselves) the day off, plus due to the holiday the HOV restrictions were lifted. Traffic was extremely light and, despite leaving the house a little later than usual and having to stop for gas, I actually made it to the office before my usual arrival time. So it could be worse.

There had been warnings disseminated last week that the entire building would be on weekend staffing and operations through Monday, which meant the HVAC would not be on and it could very well get uncomfortably chilly in the office.

BUT, as it turns out, those concerns were wildly exaggerated, and I’ve been so comfortable all day I haven’t even had to reach for my fleece (which lives at the office for just such emergencies). So it could be worse.

Far and away the worst part of today was the fact that my wife called me from her car, ostensibly en route to work, to tell me she was turning around and heading home because our daughter had just ejected the not-inconsiderable contents of her stomach. There’s an argument to be made that dealing with such unpleasantness is part of the whole paid childcare thing, but our babysitter has a baby of her own and it really seemed best to get the little ones separated before any viral exchange took place, if possible.

BUT, since I got in early I was planning on leaving early anyway, and on top of that my contracting boss sent word around at about noon that everyone who showed up today could take off an hour early, on him. In fact by the time this goes up, I’ll already be winging my own way home. So, it could be worse, and hopefully once I’m back at the house to help take care of the little girl (not to mention her pregnanter-every-day mother) things will be considerably better.