I was filling out my leave slip for the four days I was away preparing for, attending and recovering from Dad’s funeral, and just discovered that federal employees don’t receive any special bereavement leave. We can use our sick leave for that purpose, but I’d used all but 12 hours of sick leave over the past year visiting my dad in the hospital and getting tested as a potential kidney donor. So I had to take two-and-a-half days of annual leave out of the four I had left. I haven’t had a vacation–with the exception of the long weekend I took to visit Roger and Raymond in Tucson this spring–since I started this job. And with a day-and-a-half of annual leave to my credit at the moment, it doesn’t appear that I’ll be doing so any time soon.

When I got to work this morning, I walked in my office and sat down at my desk; I hadn’t even had a chance to check my email or voicemail when I got a phone call from the executive director. I thought she might be calling to welcome me back and express her condolences. I really should have known better; I suspect her Myers-Briggs is not inclined toward F on the Thinking-Feeling axis. True to form, she was having a crisis and needed me to sort it out, stat. On the positive side, it did keep my mind occupied for the next several hours.