First week back at work

This was my first week back at work since Alice was born. It was the longest time I've had off from school or work since I started kindergarten oh so long ago. Work funnily enough is pretty close to the way that it was before I left. Some things changed, most didn't. New people are there, so old ones have returned. I've actually found it easier to get back into it compared to being off for a couple of weeks. There's been no "catch up", everything is pretty much fresh. That part has been good.

It's hard every day to say "bye bye" to my girls. I usually start to get bummed out in the early afternoon. The Monday was the longest that I had spent away from them since Alice was born. It's strange, but it's a new reality. Would I rather figure out a way to be paid to be full time at home with everyone? Yes. In a heartbeat I'd take that choice, at least when there are young ones at home. I've now answered a question pretty definitely for myself - I will be okay with retirement... anytime now. *cough* freedom thirty *cough*

This is the start of things becoming more difficult - as Laura goes back to work, as Alice starts daycare, etc. I think that we'll do okay and be able to deal with issues as they come up.

It was nine months more than I had ever hoped to be off and it was great.

Observing the universe from your spaceship

On boingboing they have a post about someone who makes rocketships from metal and glass. I agree with one of the comments - the picture of the first one ship with a single chair in a room of mostly glass is how a spaceship should be.

The enlarged pictures on the artist's site help you really imagine being on a ship like that. Being able to step inside a ship that could take you to any place, or time, and just watch the universe unfold. I can't think of a better form of entertainment than that, nor a greater source of wonder.

12 weeks

I was talking to my cousin from Toronto and she was telling me that her decision to work from home means that she gets the equivalent of 12 40-hour weeks of time since she no longer commutes. That sounded ridiculous to me, so I had to redo the math.

Looking at some random websites, they say there is 250 working days a year. Take off 10 fed holidays, and 15 days (3 weeks) of holidays, that works out to 225 days per year. 12 weeks * 40 hours / week gives 480 hours. 480 hours / 225 days gives a total commuting time per day of 2.1333 hours per day, or 64 minutes per direction.

That's sad.

Let's go the other way. When I was going to school downtown, at best my commute was 48 minutes. When I starting driving the whole way it was closer (or more) than an hour each way. Worst time was during a snowstorm and it was 2 hours one way. Assume the same number of working days, 48 minutes per way works out to 1.6 hours / day which gives us... 9 weeks per year as a lower bound. Just commuting.

These days I bike or take the bus to work. Both usually take 20 minutes, although the bus can take much longer if there is traffic. Assuming that I work 5 days a week, that works out to 3.75 weeks per year. I actually work compressed (I work longer per day, taking every other Friday off), so let's reduce the number of working days from 225 to 200. That drops the number to 3.33 weeks per year.

Looking at the stats for average salaries, let's assume that people are working for 60k $ / year. 12 weeks of time works out to 13846.15 $ / year. Let's say you are making 100k $ / year, that works out to 23076.92 $ / year. Redoing that calculation for 3.75 weeks / year gives me 4326.92 (for 60k) or 7211.53 (for 100k). Interesting numbers, but made up numbers.

If you consider your commute to be "your time" and you value it at practically zero these numbers don't really make sense. If you consider a commute to be unpaid employer time, well that sucks and here are some numbers about that.

Sometimes it's just fun to do some back-of-the-envelope calculations.

All Good Things...

This is my last week off before going back to work. Alice is crawling around, pulling herself up on things and doing some minor "cruising" of the furniture. I am going to miss being at home to witness all the developments. I'm honestly a bit sad, but the time off is still far more than I ever expected or hoped for. It's okay to be sad when something great ends, even if you didn't expect it in the first place.

I'm not sure how this whole "working" thing is going to go schedule wise. Everyone else figures it out, so I don't think that it will be too difficult to figure out. If I can handle it without requiring copious amounts of coffee, I think that I'll try to shift my working times earlier in the day so that I have a hope of getting home early enough to play with her before going to bed.

In the last couple of weeks I've been trying to totally repaint (ceiling, walls, trim) 2 bedrooms and rip up the carpet. It's funny when you have nine months to do something and then it comes down to the "deadline" and I still don't think that I'll get it done before going back to work. What would I rather do: paint a room or play with my daughter on the floor?

Good Great times.

How to catch a nap

We read Alice stories a lot. Every time before going for a nap, bed time, or even just because. We have some of the standards from Dr. Seuss and Sandra Boynton. We also have some others that we've discovered that I, uhh, I mean Alice, enjoys.

I read How to catch a star by Oliver Jeffers at least once a day. Usually around 3 times a day. I think that it's a good length, interesting story, and most important is that it has a space ship. Every good story has a space ship in it.

The second lesser known book (to me) was Big Bear Hug by Nicholas Oldland. Funny, nice art, and lots of room to "tweak" the story as I go. The only issue right now is that we have a non-board version of the book which means I have to hold it really far away while still making sure Alice doesn't decide to jump off my lap or rip off my mustache. As little girls and monkeys are known to do.

Good books.