The annual un-clenching

My annual almost-a-month of end-of-year, use-it-or lose-it vacation time is officially underway and I won't need to see my desk until next year. Don't feel too envious - this one big 6-month work project, a summer and fall spent dwelling way too much on how unbearably bad things were going last summer and fall, and exorbitant gasoline costs combined to prevent me and BeanSS from taking any substantive time off to do anything or go anywhere special all year up to this point.

Anyway, I'm trying to put all of that behind me and I hope to use the next few weeks to get the fuck out of this funk. It had better be successful, too, because work is going to start right back up as hectic as ever the very minute I get back. To that end, and to end that, I resolve to purchase more lottery tickets in 2008.

At any rate, for the next month, there will be more cycling but no bike commuting. I will engage in less-frequent weight lifting, and will consume beer in moderation. Dogs will be played with and walked. I will try, and fail, to grow a beard. I will endeavor to assemble no less than two "new" working bicycles from the heap of parts in my workshop. I may hit up the Santa Cruz Flats and/or the Sulphur Springs Valley to add a few new bird species - especially certain northern raptors - to the life list. I want to be free from grown-up responsibilities for just this little while.

Now, if it would just stop raining and being cold, I could get going on all of this.