Rewinding The Last Few Days

It appears these days I disappear on my days off from work.  I am just not on the computer at home much like I am for 10+ hours a day at work.  It was a very busy day and a half off.  Let’s rewind:

Wednesday I worked overtime until 8pm.  Kenyon had proposed a date nite to see the recent Star Wars movie Rogue One.  So I countered his proposal with dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  I have been craving ribs and it just so happened the restaurant was next to the movie theater.  The nice part of working night shift is that I have a lot of my daily points left early in my evening so it wasn’t an issue to have a high point meal.  We talked on our way to the restaurant and decided we would say yes to rolls but no to popcorn.  So this way I could allocate my points accordingly.  The ribs were good but slightly fatty.

The movie was good but I am always a bit confused.  I can’t keep straight all the names and terms and galaxies.  I made a quick run to the bathroom and then to refill the soda and was telling the gal at the concessions I was confused.  She tried to connect the dots but it didn’t help.  If you are confused as well, I am being told Rogue One is Start Wars 3.5 meaning it is to bridge the gap between the “new ones” and the “old ones.”  I hope that helps.

On Thursday we had plans to get down to the Capitol for the House Committee Meeting’s vote on Rule of 80.  Currently our retirement is Rule of 90 meaning that your years of service plus your age have to equal 90.  A House Bill was proposed to make us Rule of 80 so we can retire earlier.  The fact of the matter is our skills decline and we just can’t stay in our job until we are 70 years old.  It just isn’t safe to have a dispatcher with declining skills on the air.  So, if we could get Rule of 80 passed, it would allow a dispatcher to retire earlier.  I’m not even sure if Rule of 80 would allow me to stay in this job as long as I need to for full retirement.  It all just depends on my skills.  I am one of the lucky ones in that I started my career with the State of Idaho in 2001 so I will be able to retire when I am 56 years old. 

Anyway, we had a really great turnout but the House Bill 21 did not pass the committee floor and thus is no more.  We will be trying for a Statewide dispatch certification next so I’ll be back at the Capitol later in this month.  Since we paid the meter for two hours and had only used about 30 minutes of it, we stopped into 10 Barrel so I could drown my sorrows in a beer.

 

I only drank part of it since I had an appointment with my trainer and a workout scheduled a short time later.  We also shared some chips and salsa and the corn chips were fabulous.

I went to my training appointment (more on that in a few days) and then ran home for a quick change as we had an appointment to meet with a gal to discuss Europe travel.  We also had a phone conference call with the travel agent we have been talking to at Global Travel.  We met up with this gal Tara at Panera Bread in Meridian to discuss a travel program she is a part of where you spend money on points and/or the cost of your membership equals points and then you use them for reduced travel.  While it all sounds nice, it isn’t what we are looking for on our current Europe travel planning.  But I do appreciate her talking with us.  Instead of eating at Panera we got a Papa Murphy pizza and headed home. 

I ran some Jamberry stuff over to my friend Danielle and we visited for a bit.  I love our new house location as it is more central to my friends.  I spent the last few hours of my only day off watching TV and clearing out shows from our TiVo.  Kenyon noticed my shows were old when he heard an advertisement about the inauguration.  Yep, I was watching shows from January.  My time lately has been used for binge watching Gilmore Girls.

My coworker that is pregnant with twins is now on medical leave so I am working an overtime shift tonight.  It is my usual night to work but since I worked Tuesday in exchange for Friday off, I did have another night off this week.  Instead I am here for 10-hours of overtime and now working a 6-day work week.  I am more than happy to pitch in when it comes down to a medical need.  I am sending well wishes to her and her babies.

I hope you all have a great weekend.