Since the New Year, work has been nuts. I have been very busy at work. Full days. Less “slack time”. And full long days. 8 AM to 7 PM pretty much every day. Usually no lunch or lunch at the desk. Lots of cola that I actually shouldn’t be drinking, but am.

It has been fun. I actually feel good being useful and productive. Much better than having extra time to kill or let myself procrastinate, as I am wont to do if given the option sometimes. But it is also stressful and exausting. I finish up at around 7 PM (as I am doing right now) and I just want to go home and crash right away. So stuff at home is falling behind.

Looks like this pace will probably last at least the end of the month given what we have coming up. Maybe after that I’ll be able to rest. For a little while. Maybe.

But it is “good busy”.

Time to go home.

I have lamented for several years that the 1998 Q4 random vacation, the very first of the true random vacations, did not have a full narrative like the rest of the random vacations. This was the trip to Lac Megantic, Quebec that I took with my mother the weekend after Thanksgiving that year. It was only a two day trip, but it started the whole random vacation thing for me. However I only started writing up the trips and posting details about them with the next random trip. For years this website has had a note apologizing for the lack of a narrative and pointing to a few pictures.

Recently though I asked my mother if she could write up something about the trip since she had been with me. She kindly obliged, and now the Lac Megantic trip has a full narrative like the others. Click through below to see the whole thing.

1998 Q4 Random Vacation

There were fewer and fewer tracks as we passed uninhabited summer cottages. I kept suggesting a driveway etc where we might turn around as I looked straight down a very steep bank to the stream in the distance below on my side of the car. Roads were treacherous and getting stuck was a very real possibility – as was sliding out of control. However, this was Sam’s trip and he was in no mood for suggestions – especially from a parent – so I TRIED not to either boss or panic! But I was REALLY anxious – and increasingly annoyed at Sam’s pigheadedness at continuing forward, higher and deeper into snow!  Finally Sam had to really persist – going forward, then back – trying and trying – spinning wheels – to make it up one hill only to decide about a mile further that we should turn back after all.