Weekend of Woe

Holiday weekends are supposed to be fun and relaxing, right? This past one was anything but. Friday night consisted of everyone being in such a foul mood that we cancelled our plans to play cards. I'd been looking forward to trying out the new Magic variant, Planechase, but it was simply not to be. I was understandably disappointed.

On Saturday, we went to an SCA event and I wound up fighting worse than I have in a while. My heart just wasn't in it. Got hit in the same spot where I cracked a rib last Spring and also ended up straining a muscle above my left knee. Both still hurt more than they should right now. Thanks to my weakened leg, I learned an important lesson in balance and tempo when I tried to shift the weight off of it just as my opponent was launching a shot. With all my weight going forward onto my front leg, I couldn't back up to avoid the hit. It was nice to see everyone at the event, but by the time we went home I was not in the best of shape.

Sunday we did manage to sleep in a bit and get some rest. To be honest the first half of the day is kind of a blur. I know I finished off the book I've been reading (Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson), which was good. In the evening we finally got to play the new Planechase set. Played two games, lost two games. It was a preview of how Monday was going to go.

Monday (Labor Day) morning around 4:30am, my pager went off. There was an issue at work and since I was the on-call person until 7am that morning, I got to try and deal with it. Well, it turned out to be something I couldn't fix, but that didn't stop me from trying. For three hours. By the time 7:30 rolled around, I was at the end of my rope. I left messages for my bosses, telling them I had done everything I could and it was the next guy's turn. Then I went back to bed and dozed fitfully until about noon. Not exactly restful sleep. Then I got up and we got started putting together the step-son's new basketball goal. Little did I know that these new goals require a mechanical engineering degree to assemble. It took us close to four hours of sweating, cursing and the occasional bit of improvisation to get the stupid thing done. Then I had to run to the store for light bulbs, break out the ladder and replace all the bulbs in our stairwell ceiling fan. This generally requires leaning out over a long drop to get to all of them. Did I mention that tall ladders give me serious vertigo? I was shaking and sweating even more by the time that was done. But, no rest for the wicked! I barely had time to shower before we had to head out for Shakespeare in the Park. They were doing "The Complete Works of Shakespeare: Abridged". It was funny, I will admit. Under better circumstances, I might have enjoyed it more. As it was, it took me a while to relax and appreciate the humor.

This morning, I get to work and find out that the problem that had plagued me the previous morning had taken three people until 9pm last night to fix. The client had been down all day and was not happy. I kind of feel like it's my fault somehow, even though I know it's not. So much for being refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the week after a holiday weekend. And it doesn't look like things are going to calm down for the next several days.