I am getting excited for the idea of a weeklong break. Every time I take a week off it seems to be a little bit of a catch-22. Either we have money because I work too much, but then I can't afford to take off. Taking time off but then worrying that renting a spot for a week in Corpus for our RV and the whole hassle of moving it is going to cost too much. We usually opt for the Corpus Christi vacation and a little credit card help, if we do fall a little short.
We are not relying on credit cards anymore. This year, Wife and I talked about it and although we told my folks we would join them in Corpus, with my leg, it seems like a fool's errand as I can't even get my leg wet, so what is the point of getting close to the water? Instead, we are taking advantage of living in the eleventh biggest city in the United States and entertaining my family for a couple days. I like the idea of hanging out here in town, as I rarely take a whole week off and stay home.
Part of the reason I am enjoying the week off is because I am under new-ish management. Even though this year Spring Break falls on a long week for me, meaning if I want to take the week off, I need to take four days off, and because I work a 12 hour shift, that leads to burning 48 hours and then because I get paid time and a half for last eight hours, I really need to take 52 hours to keep my check the same. My new supervisor is ok with us moving days around, so I can consider the Spring Break week my short week and only use 36 hours and not worry about losing the eight "overtime hours." This means I'll work the long week the week after I come back from vacation, but I don't mind that. Using only 36 hours and thinking forward, I'll do the same the week of 4th of July, and with the holiday pay, I will only need to use 28 hours, and Thanksgiving week when we get two holiday days or sixteen hours vacation, I'll need 20 vacation hours from my batch to take a week. Those three weeks only amount to 84 hours of PTO, or Personal Time Off. We get 160 hours a year, so I will easily still have 76 hours to take two weeks off during Christmas, if I want. Normally, it always seems like Spring Break and Thanksgiving have always been on the long week, and I hate the idea of burning up to 52 hours to keep my paycheck normal.
So, I will take a few weeks off and it should even be relaxing as I won't feel as I am consuming all my PTO in large chunks. I could theoretically take five weeks off, although that just sounds crazy to me. I want to kind of wait and see if Wife ends up getting the raise that she deserves for all the work she is doing, before I decide to take so much time off.
Knowing we are going to be here means I have to start thinking of activities to do with my family. I think if my brother comes with his family, it might be fun to take them to the skydiving place where you jump into an air tunnel and float in the air, much like jumping off a plane and then opening a parachute. We could possibly rent a boat for an afternoon, but that might be too expensive. We could take the drive to the San Antonio Zoo, the kids always like that, and my sisters kids are the perfect age to enjoy that, if they don't have to be playing with some sort of ball during the break. I always overthink this stuff as ultimately, they end up coming for the weekend and we end up just going to the mall and eating out. We are fluid, so whatever we do will be a fun different pace than week in and week out, plus Wife will get to be here all week.
No comments:
Post a Comment