Saturday, June 23, 2012

Time has come to a standstill

I just finished working my shift at the local library, my last shift before I leave for Orlando tomorrow. It was only 5 hours long, but felt like 50. Now, it's late afternoon, my flight doesn't leave for another 22 1/2 hours, and I have a slight case of the stir-crazies.. 
 
I've experienced this before, and I'll bet you have, too. It's the "Picked up my leave papers, but can't leave yet" syndrome.

It was bad enough if you were driving. You'd finished your last gig, you had your leave papers and you had a full tank of gas, but leave didn't technically begin until midnight. You had three choices:

  1. Wait.
  2. Split early and count on not getting caught.
  3. Get hammered.
 At various times over the years, I employed all three. Once, I combined #s 2 and 3 on a five hour drive from Little Creek to New York that took 14 hours because I fell asleep in the rest area on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. 

 But it was worse when you were flying. Your duties were wrapped up, you had your leave papers and you had your plane tickets, so, #2 above, "Split early and count on not getting caught" was not an option. You were stuck with:

  1. Wait.
  2. Get hammered.
Number one could be employed alone or in conjunction with #2, my usual modus operandi. I no longer practice #2, however, so I'm stuck with #1.

Okay, that killed ten minutes. What do I do now?




3 comments:

Paul Ostler said...

Well Frank you could try
3. Get Hammered
2. Try not to get Caught
1. WAIT ( wait because you didget caught being hammered and now you HAVE to wait and never get to where you were giong in the first place because your'e waiting for someone to BAIL you out!

Oh well.
Paul 'Ozzy " Ostler
Oompahman

Jack Rodway said...

It's called Channel fever, Frank. :)

Bob Nolan said...

Do what any good MU would go... put in a unit!