The way it is in December

Life just gets way too hectic and crazy during December. This one seems more hectic and crazy than most.

Work has been very demanding lately. I've had many things to cover, and there hasn't been much time for fun and relaxation. Heck, there is almost no time for fun and relaxation. Not right now. Unless you count the last couple hours of the day before I go to bed.

The basketball schedule has been manic. They shortened the season by one week this year, with the same number of games squeezed into it. Some teams are playing three games a week--one of our girls teams has [I]consecutive [/I]three-game weeks in late January. Someone is going to have to explain to me how that is good for high school kids. And I'm a one-person sports department, trying to cover everything. I try. I just get discouraged at times.

Of course, if we have a major snowstorm or a long period of subzero weather--cold enough to close the schools--then games will be postponed or canceled, and the schedule becomes utter chaos. Such things been known to happen. This is the U.P., after all.

My wife has been working six hours a day, five days a week at the call center. On Saturday, she chose to take an extra eight-hour day. (I was going out of town to cover an important boys game, so it didn't affect our time together.) She finally got out at 6:30, I picked her up and took her out for supper. She went to bed about 10:30--I stayed up a while later. But we had some cuddle time this morning--before I went off to the office to do some writing. This afternoon, the usual--as I watched the Packers game, she sat next to me, pulled a quilt around us and dozed off.

Earlier Sunday morning, she called her dad--they were going to drive him down for the operation a few hours later. Later, she told me he sounded "resigned" to the operation. And that tells me he was talked into it, as we suspect. I already warned the staff at the office; depending on how things go Monday, my schedule could turn upside down this week. You have been duly warned.

(The operation could be postponed if a blood test indicates his platelet level is not at a level it has to be.)

Because of the holidays, we have an early deadline this week. And I have plenty of sports to cover this week. It's a madhouse, I tell you. Usually my work is fun. Right now, it's not that much fun.

One other thing I can tell you about: our office Christmas party, which took place on Saturday night, a week ago.

Really, not a lot to tell. It took place at a local restaurant/pub. We sat around the bar for drinks for a while and talked among ourselves. Then we went in the back for a steak dinner. It was nice and orderly and conservative and dull. Just like our paper. You'll never see mistletoe at our Christmas parties. And if it happens to be there, nobody would know what to do with it, anyway.