Speaking of E, he lives in San Fran and I've always wanted to visit there. And if I'm visiting friends, I want to go visit A down in Dallas. A just bought a new house and I always enjoy spending time with his family.
In addition to these longer, more expensive trips I also want to hit up Chicago again with my local buddy A. That would be the easiest as we could quite easily head down Saturday morning and return Sunday evening. I wouldn't even have to talk time off for that trip.
A little quirk came up in scheduling at work recently. As a union member there is a pretty strict way of taking vacations. There are two vacation books per year and you put your 'request' in them. If anybody is asking for the same days off and it will affect the scheduling then it goes by seniority. I'm no longer the newest nurse at the prison, but I'm still fairly low on the totem pole. By union rules the vacation book has to be available for a month before it's figured into the schedule.
Thank god for our new scheduling supervisor. She forgot about that little rule, so our vacation book will be coming out AFTER out next schedule is set. She sent out an email asking for anybody's requested time off between late April and late May. That got me thinking about utilizing that time for a vacation as I'll be far more likely to get the wanted days off.
And so long as I was thinking about taking time off I checked to see how many vacation hours I have. Since moving up to the RN12 position I now get 4.7 hours of vacation time every pay period. I took a day off for my recent Chicago trip but otherwise haven't taken any time off since November (back then I had to take five days off just to watch the Michigan Ohio State game!). It seems that I have over 60 hours of vacation time!
Going to San Fran is... well it's expensive. If I fly, I want to fly first class. No, I'm not some elitist pig that demands first boarding or elite service. I just want that nice big seat and it's worth the extra money. So flying out to San Fran will cost me about $1000 round trip. After putting cash down on Ginger and more recently buying my 1911, I don't have a lot of spare cash sitting around. I DO have my credit card (recently paid off), but spending $1000 just to get somewhere is still on the steep side.
By comparison, flying down to Dallas only costs $500. First Class. So I figured it would be easier to just fly down there and visit with A and his family. I asked A what weekend would be best and found out that he doesn't have much (if any) personal time available. So while he'd be free to hang out on any Saturday/Sunday he would be hard pressed to get another day off. For a visit, two days is fine. But if I fly down he'd have to get me from the Airport and get me TO the airport. If we're to actually have two days, he'd have to pick me up Friday and drop me off on Monday.
Being a good friend, he said he could easily call in 'sick' on any Friday and that he would figure something out for getting me to the airport. Well... I really don't want to put him out. He may not love his job, but he does NEED to keep it. And it's not as though he lives near the airport... a cab ride would be ridiculously expensive.
If only I could have MY car there, then this would be purely academic.
waitasecond
I COULD have my car there. I did just plunk down a large chunk of change for a comfortable mid sized sedan. While driving Fiona down would have been quite the squeeze, Ginger is FAR more roomy and comfortable. Add in her hybrid milage and it wouldn't even be that expensive. The only problem I could see is the time needed. A flight is more or less a half a day affair. Getting to the airport, waiting around for an hour, boarding, the actual flight, and disembarking all add up to around 6 or 8 hours. Driving from my door to A's door takes about 15 hours. Add in the time for several stops and stretching the legs, and it's only twice the amount of time.
Add everything together and I'm sent an email to my scheduling supervisor for ten days off. Four of those days are regularly scheduled off days. That leaves 48 hours of vacation time. I will have two days off before heading down, a day to drive down, Friday/Saturday/Sunday there, a day to drive back, and another few days off before heading back to work. That way if, for whatever reason, I decide to stay an extra day or so I can.
16 hour Road Trip!?
Oh HELL yeah!
I'm already planning on what to do during that time. I'll have to download a bunch of pod casts. I'll have to program Ginger for several good Sirius radio stations (I am still in the six month free period). And of course I'll have my trusty iPod for all the tunes. Driving down will also make several things easier. A is my 'gun buddy' and I'll be able to bring my gun down without issue (just locked it up in the trunk). I'll be able to bring my Remington 870 shotty as well. I won't have to worry about fitting everyting into an overhead storage bin on the plane or pay the extra to check in some luggage. I won't have to worry about being quiet next to some stuffed shirt flying first class (everyone knows they are all assholes anyway!), and if I want to stop for a snack I won't have to pay $12 for combos and a can of warm soda.
Win-Win-Win!
Speaking of my 1911. I did buy it. It looks and feels fantastic. It's not nearly the looker that my brother's Kimber is, but it's still a fine looking gun. The parkerized finish is in great condition and the mahogany grips look brand new, and it just looks fine. The only 'beauty' issue is all the text on the slide and frame. ATI didn't want anybody to forget that it's one of their guns.
The whole thing just feels solid and good. I've had it out and played around with it, but havne't been able to load any rounds into it yet. That probably won't happen until this coming weekend. It will be fun to take it out and compare it to R's Kimber. What does a $900 difference in purchase price feel like. I can say this already... his frame is aluminum, so his 1911 is FAR lighter than mine.
Oh, one issue did come up. I'm hoping that it's not a huge issue. When I got the purchase permit from the local sheriff's office they kind of screwed it up. I got the standard three copies; one for me, one for the seller, and one to mail back into the state police. One part of the permit requires the sheriff's signature. They used a stamp to put his signature on all three copies... but they missed on one. The sheriff's signature is where the model of the gun goes on MY copy. I want to make sure there is NEVER a problem with my gun's documentation, so I'm going to drive it back down to the sheriff's office today and make sure it won't be a problem.
I haven't even fired the gun yet, and I'm already looking at 'improvements'. If this were a higher quiality gun I probably wouldn't consider doing anything... but this is a cheapo. I can easiy see a new trigger in my future as well as some interesting grips. I'd love to add some adjustable sights, but that's one of the downsides of this gun... the sites aren't easily changeable. It would require a trip to the gunsmith and that alone would cost $100 - $200. That's not including the price of the sites themselves which seem to vary from $50 to $300.
Yeah... I'll put $50 into a trigger. I'll put $50-$100 into some cool grips. I WON'T put $400 into sites for a $300 gun. If I get to the point that the basic sights are a problem, I'll just put this gun up for sale and buy a better one.
If you can't tell... I'm REALLY excited about the gun!
I guess that's it for now. Talk to you later!
No comments:
Post a Comment