Personal Care

While this year has been different because the pandemic curtailed our travels over the spring and summer months, I did take a week off at the end of summer because we schedule the time before school as family time. We could not go to the family cabin this year, but it did help reset my expectations for the rest of the year.

I am rolling off of a client this week. I have a week of PTO and holiday to adjust to days of uncertain work. On the other hand, they are also days when I can trust myself to develop new skills. I know that ReactJS is the current front-end juice, I still believe that HTML and JavaScript are the only viable technology for long term development. Libraries fade, technologies evolve.

I have most of the following month to myself. While I am trying to bank as much PTO as I can roll over to the next year, I need to minimize my impact on the company that sustains our family. I am aiming for a three to four weeks backpacking with my sons after their high school graduation in May. That will be tight against my goal of a week of PTO in case I get terribly sick.

I listened to the Rework podcast tonight. Take Some Time Off is a decent argument for regular time away from work. While the kids were in school we structured our time off around their academic schedule. My wife would discount the decisions of parents to pull their children out of school for family vacations. In hindsight I think unstructured time with the family is beneficial. I wish we had pulled the boys for extended spring trips, the mountains are beautiful when school is in session.