Sunday, September 21, 2008

There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (Time)

My free time is very limited. I can't sit by the computer all evening like the "good ol' days". I work full time, sometimes more than full time. 90% of the time is sitting in front of a computer figuring out Medi-Cal and Food Stamps and trying to help people negotiate their way through crisis. We have nightly family dinners here, then it's bath and bed time for the little ones, with an occasional melt-down on the side from the teenagers. When all that is done and I should be sleeping, there is a short span of time to watch the days news. I usually doze off. Then the lights go off. Invariably, I wake up in the middle of the night: The cat, one of the little ones, sprinklers going off when they shouldn't, or worries that wake me up and keep me up. That's when I go to the computer and usually watch documentaries. Just finished the 17-hour "Jazz" by Ken Burns, watched in 20 to 40 minute segments mostly in the middle of the night. During the weekdays, the only waking hour computer time at home is between dinner and bedtime, and sometimes that doesn't even happen.