My boss informed me a couple months ago that I had 30 days of vacation stored up and needed to take some. I mentioned this to my wife and she scolded me for not taking enough time off the last couple of years. Laughter ensued when I reminded her that she struggles to find even one day off every two week as she grows her horse training business. At least I take weekends off.

Most of the time.

I scheduled a few days in August and September, and enjoyed the time off, but I put off any more scheduling until I got another note from my boss two weeks ago saying I needed to schedule at least 16 days off before the end of the year. I've got a busy schedule, with 3 more trips between now and the end of 2013, along with a few other work commitments, so it's hard to actually find that many days in my schedule. I somehow managed, and while it's all in one and two day segments, I did schedule 17 days before the end of 2013.

I do know vacation is important. Life is short, and even though I really enjoy my job, I do need to get away and spend time living the rest of my life. It's entirely too easy to get caught up working too many hours in the technology business, voluntarily or involuntarily. We need to make sure we take advantage of our time off and get away from the stress of our careers. I encourage each of you to make sure you are taking your vacation each year and getting time away from work.

This starts tomorrow, with two days off this week, and continues through November and December. As a result, I'll be gone quite a bit through the end of the year. I've got a few guest writers and some re-runs, and I hope that people still enjoy the newsletter each day. If not, let me know, and we'll make better plans for next year.

As a side note, I've had 4 friends pass away in the last 3 years. All were under 50 years of age. Life is truly short.