The implementation date kept sliding too. When that date moved from October and into December, they took away everybody’s Christmas and New Years breaks. You see, for 4 weeks before and 3 weeks after an implementation date, nobody can take a vacation, just in case we were needed for something, anything. Unfortunately, the project included a phased implementation, so that window covered the beginning of November to mid January! I always saved up vacation days to take a large break at the end of the year.
To make matters worse, for me, and a few others, we were executing test runs of the system. Due to various reasons, we didn’t have any automated features to page an on-call person; we had to manually watch the programs’ statuses. (I had the dubious honor of starting my shift at 3:00 am, my time, which totally threw off my schedule.) Of course, we were in the middle of such runs on Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, and that really got under my skin. We were given Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day to take off, but I was losing the bulk of my 2003 vacation days.
My manager graciously allowed me to take the 11 days I lost during the first 3 months of the year. I quickly planned to take a week as soon as the current implementation window allowed—the last week of January. I usually hang out around the house, reading, watching videos/DVDs, playing games on the computer, working on odds-n-ends projects, whatever. In other words, I turn my vacation into extra, extra long weekends. I usually do not go anywhere special, but this time I really wanted to do something, but what?
Dad went to Arizona many years ago, and he came back saying it’s so beautiful out there. Ever since, I wanted to go out there myself. I thought January would have been too cold to visit the Grand Canyon; there must be something else to do in Arizona. I went to the web to find the some Arizona tourist information and found the official website of the Arizona Office of Tourism. I ended up on the Arizona Dude Ranch Association website. That would be cool. Dad & I could spend some time together. (Dad’s health has taken a turn for the worse last summer. His only kidney has begun to fail, so he could be on dialysis soon. And he has something funny going on with his heart that the doctors can’t figure out. You never know how much longer you have, but sometimes you can see the end coming.) The Rancho de los Caballeros ranch near Wickenburg looked most attractive! They have horses to ride, desert tours, nature hikes, shooting ranges, even a hot air balloon! This is going to great!
I logged on to Expedia (.com) and bought the plane tickets and arranged for a rental car. I chose a trip from Lansing to Phoenix that had a connection in Detroit and left Lansing on Monday close to noon; that would give Dad enough time to drive to Lansing. The trip I chose from Phoenix to Lansing had a connection in Minneapolis and left Phoenix the following Friday around noon too. I called to make reservations with the ranch. I printed out several maps of Wickenburg and Phoenix. I even used several mapping websites to layout driving directions. I was all set to go! Dad was very excited too!
By the way, a funny thing happened: the implementation date slipped again, and we were running another cycle of tests during this week. But I took my vacation anyway!
