Busy, busy, busy at work. Packing boxes, saying goodbye, cancelling contracts, helping my Seattle brethern deal with the weirdness of supporting the office, wrapping and sorting cables, doing month-end reports for no discernable reason, helping lost souls who keep coming back, chatting with bored or otherwise dazed-by-the-end-of-it-all hangers-on ... Keeps me hopping, it does.

Through all of this insanity, the vision of me swooshing down the slopes of Sunshine Village has been keeping me going. The idea of skiing while the rest of the world (including my family) toils away at work (or school) appealed to me greatly. Now, a new variable has been thrown into the pot - a wife with a lull in her employment, concurrent with my semi-retirement.

Suddenly, things have changed. Due to influences beyond my control, I'm now shopping for an escape from winter; a way to flee from the snow that I thought I desired so much. I am now seeing myself in shorts and cotton shirts. I want sunshine. I want scuba diving in a shorty wetsuit. I want white, sandy, endless beaches. Aruba is a possibility. So is Punta Cana. I also want an affordable way to get there.