My Day
I've had a busy week. I'm receiving a new air traffic system at work to support. Good for me because it's job security, so I welcome it.
My days are pretty routine actually. I understand people are fed up with the sameness of their lives, the methodical mundaneness, but mine has never bothered me. I think it is because I look to be comfortable and in relaxed settings. The smallest change is a job for me, so in my view there can't be too many boring days, although change can be fun, the routine is just more relaxing. It's a give and take with me, depends on my mood.
Here's my day (weekday):
6:30 a.m.: Alarm goes off. I or Mrs. Lock hit the snooze. Most of the time it's Mrs. Lock.
6:39 a.m.: Alarm goes off again. Snoozed.
6:48 a.m.: Alarm goes off. Snoozed but I lie in bed staring at the ceiling calculating how late to work I'd be if I slept to the next snooze. Mind is still in unconscious dream land so I (mis)calculate I have plenty of time, hours if need be.
6:57 a.m.: Alarm goes off, finally it's shut off. This is the motivation not to go back to sleep. I put on my glasses and stare at the ceiling which is now in focus. Then I calculate how late I'm going to be.
7:05 a.m.: Still in bed, with my glasses on. I turn on the TV to get the news and weather. Hearing the voices clears my head and brings me more into consciousness.
7:10 a.m.: Time to get up head into the bathroom and take care of hygiene.
7:15 a.m.: Check the clock and think 'If I leave right now, I can be on time.' I still have plenty to do though.
7:20 a.m.: Get dressed, go downstairs to feed the farm. Fish get a pinch of flake food; cat gets Iams in the food bowl plus fresh water; rabbit gets a carrot from the fridge. Rabbit also gets pellets, fresh water and hay. He's manic about seeing the carrot, so much so, he sometimes falls out of his cage trying to get to it before I can get the cage door open. Try to keep my finger from getting between the carrot and the rabbit's mouth.
7:25 a.m: Feed myself. Bowl of cereal or on occasion, Pop-Tarts or both. If we have any bananas, take one for work. Watching the same news broadcast downstairs while I eat my breakfast. Keep checking the clock and know that if I leave know, I'll only be ten minutes late.
7:30 a.m.: Rinse out cereal bowl. Grab any lunch items I might need to take to work. Go upstairs, kiss the wife who's still getting ready. Head back downstairs, get in the Jeep and head for work knowing I'll only be 15 minutes late. Not bad.
7:31 a.m.: Once a week, during the drive, realize I have an empty gas tank and forgot to fill it up the night before. Have to get gas. I'm really going to be late now.
7:40 a.m.: Got gas and on the road again. I'm going to be half an hour late.
7:40 - 8:15 a.m.: Fight traffic to get to work. Listen to morning talk shows on the way.
8:20 a.m: Walk in to work, check on the systems. Make sure nothing crashed over night. If something did crash, it's going to be a busy (and short) day. Check work email, take care of any routine procedures depending on the day of the week.
Before 9:00 a.m.: Update Daily Simpsons.
9:00ish a.m.: Check personal email after immediate work needs are met. Log on to instant messenger.
9:00 - 4:00 p.m.: Surf the web - read email, instant message, read blogs, update blogs. Answer the occasional work phone call and/or email and keep an eye on systems. God bless system administrator jobs.
4:00 p.m.: Clock out. I had lunch in there somewhere. Usually a cold cut sandwich of some kind plus chips. Just eat at my desk while I surf.
4:00 - 4:15 p.m.: Fight the airport traffic to try and get onto the highway to head home. During the drive, listen to the radio or CD.
4:45 p.m.: Make it home. Pull into garage. Get mail and any newspapers lying in the driveway, grass, street or on the roof. If it's Monday, haul the empty trash barrels back into the garage.
4:45 - 5:00 p.m.: Head inside, sift through mail separating out my mail and wife's. Put junk mail in the shredder (80% of our mail), a real credit card offer graveyard. If the weather is nice, let crying cat outside and rabbit. God bless fenced in backyards. Clean out litter box. Turn on Maury to catch the only interesting segment of the show, the last 15 minutes. "So he isn't/is the father of your baby? Don't worry, you'll be on next week's lie detector test show." Dress down (get out of work clothes). Boot the laptop. God bless wireless networks. Log in to email to see if anyone has written me in the last hour while I was driving. Log in to instant messenger.
5:00 p.m.: Take the porcelain throne. Have lots of material to read under the bathroom sink. Finish up any hygiene events I may have missed from my rushed morning, shower or shave.
5:30 p.m.: Check to see if there are any TiVo programs I need to watch - yes, hours. Bunch of Seinfelds, SG1s, Aqua Teen/Sealab/Harvey Birdmans, Daily Shows plus whatever was on primetime the night before.
6:00 p.m.: Wifey gets home. Get a kiss. Wife gets settled in but doesn't dress down. Joins me to watch whatever I'm watching.
7:30 p.m.: We think about eating. Briefly discuss what we should have for dinner.
8:00 p.m.: Decide we really should eat dinner sometime. If we eat in, Mrs. Lock starts cooking. If we eat out, we take off for the establishment. If we need groceries, pick them up while we're out (usually falls on Monday somehow).
9:00 p.m.: Get home (or finish eating). Watch more TV/TiVo, play video games, get my freak on (to quote Mrs. Lock) or do our own thing. Whatever strikes our fancy. This is where we mix it up and fight off the mundane blahs. TV, video games, marital quality time or do our own thing which usually means one of us gets on Kazaa and downloads music.
10:00 p.m.: Try to get our butts in bed so we don't have to keep hitting the snooze in the morning.
10:30 p.m.: Get our butts in bed but open a book and start reading.
11:00 p.m: Lights out.
