Friday at Five

Have I mentioned I work from home? :>) Now stop that, it really doesn't become you. It's not all the time, and I travel a great deal, so there is some compensating aspect to the overall picture. It's not all fun. Let's have a show of hands from all of you who think travel (on business, mind you) is a lot of fun. Not these days. But let's get back to the work-at-home experience.

With no interruptions from people showing up at the door, or stopping to chat at the coffee pot, you can get swallowed up by work. Happened to me today--I started writing an outline for a little talk I have to give soon, and the next time I looked at my watch the day was almost gone. It gives me pause, when things like that happen. What's going to engage my attention like that in a few years? Reading a book? Playing a word game? Not likely.

I don't find myself looking forward to the day when I don't remember what day it is. Life has had a shape for all these years that I have been working. I once thought working from home would be a form of transition to my second half of life. I would get used to a life without commuting (it's true I have, but it has been replaced by travel to some extent and travel doesn't have the rhythm that commuting has--books on tape for the drive or a favorite radio show at drive time). When I commuted 60 miles eah way, I could have those things. when I took a bus downtown, I did homework for graduate school. I haven't been able to make travel work out that way.

Anyway, I missed commuting in a few small ways, but having the time back overwhelmed those misgivings. The thing is I have found I could get absorbed just as easily as when I was in the office, and I had fewer interruptions. So what happens is that Friday at Five sneaks up on you. How do I get that kind of absorption in my life after I leave the first half?