Countdown to Christmas

We don't have our Christmas pictures done yet. We haven't started writing any Christmas cards yet. We haven't started packing for any trips yet. We're just waiting. And counting.

Has the holiday started yet?

We've had the Christmas concerts. James played his clarinet and his bass and had a wonderful time. I think. The girls missed theirs due to illness - or feigned illness (although the temperature probe displayed convincing evidence that there was some kind of immune-system action going on). Cheryl's been busily doing the Amazon thing. And I've been trying to finish up some things at work so I can avoid thinking about it for a couple weeks.

Good plan. Worked out until around noon today, when my work laptop suddenly lost the ability to connect to the work servers. Not sure what's going on with that. Probably a virus or rootkit or something noxious like that. The antivirus scanner didn't find anything. But even now, hours and hours later, the stupid thing won't connect to the network, so I can't do my usual work-from-home gig. Which means, even though I'm sniffling and coughing from my own little virus, I'll be going in to the office tomorrow to finish things up.

Yuck.

I've totally lost my enthusiasm for work lately. This end-of-the-year rush to finish things up - including the yearly performance reviews - stresses me out. It's all meaningless (shades of Ecclesiastes). Besides, I'd rather catch up on all the things around the house, including the dozen-or-so computer projects, the basement project, the garage project, and all the other little projects in-between. Oh, and then there are all those church-related projects.

Why can't they just send me a paycheck while I stay home and work on things that really matter?

One more day, and it'll all be over. Mostly. Except for the panic when we realize that nothing is ready for next week, and there's no time to get things ready. I feel so dis-organized. Actually, it's nothing but laziness. Laziness and procrastination. And stubbornness. With a little bit of confusion, distraction, frustration, and headache thrown in for good measure.

Saturday just can't come soon enough!