Slack Week

Welcome to Ken's favourite week of the year. Special bonus extended edition!

I am off tomorrow; from New Year's Eve at 3:30 p.m. to January 4th at 7:00 a.m., and ALSO January 6-7. That latter is a weekend. You know, a "weekend", that thing defined as "the period of time (much of) the rest of the world looks forward to; utterly meaningless to those in retail (among many other, much more important, professions").

I have no idea what's happening on those days off. There are people I may or may not see, things I may or may not do..and still one or maybe two Christmases to have. I know what's NOT happening: I'm not going to work.

You know, in hindsight, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. It seems horrible when you're in it, but it's almost eerie how much better shape we are in this year. To wit: as I write this, my freezer has a single skid of product in it--and that product isn't even mine, it's thaw and serve bakery.

This is unheard of coming out of Christmas. There "should" be at least three skids of turkey, a like amount of thaw and serve, probably a skid of grocery overstock. One year we still had turkeys towards the end of February, even after discounting them. Actually, of course, there SHOULDN'T be any of that...and yet there always has been.

We are on process. This makes me very, very happy. It will be my job now to keep us that way.

But that's work, and I'm not thinking about work. I'm thinking about this last week of 2017.

My next blog will be the year end one. I struggled with it last year; it's going to be even harder this year. Even explaining why that is requires a great deal of thought. I'll get back to you.

In the meantime, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. I hope every can now sit back, relax, and reflect on the year past and the year to come. Any day can be Thanksgiving, you know, and the end of the year is an excellent time to give thanks for the joys and sorrows we have lived through. Sorrows? Yes, of course you should ALWAYS give thanks for sorrows. For one thing, they're lessons that make you grow.  For another, sharing them yields growth of a different kind--growth in relationships.

This is a week to read. I don't make enough time for dead-tree reading anymore, but I'm being drawn in spite of myself into SLEEPING BEAUTIES, by Stephen and Owen King,  which was gifted to me by a stranger.

You read that right: a friend of a friend gave her spare copy of this book to me upon meeting me for the first time. Just in case you think random kindnesses are rare in the world...that was only one of a great many I experienced this year.

We're going into the deep freeze: we're going to see temperatures and windchills here this week that we haven't experienced for three years. So cuddle up with a book, a tea, a love, or all three, and cocoon yourself.

See you soon.