N37° 07.248′ W121° 40.397′

Working two jobs has been pretty rough. The low point was the 19-day stretch with one day off. During that time, I had two 12.5-hour work days (the others all 8 hours), and a few days of classes where I had to be “on” all day and hike as well. After the tail end of all that, my mother arrived in town for a visit which didn’t go notably well, and it’s rarely possible for me to completely relax while socializing with company. I felt a little like Joe in the picture above, clinging on tightly and trying not to go crashing downhill…

I left from work on Day 19 and had to pick up things and go straight to my daughter’s birthday party. I was pretty frazzled. Burned out really. All the telltale signs of your standard exhaustion were in evidence. It took all weekend, and then some, to recover.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the REI instructor job has to go. I like the job, and the extra money – such as it is – it brings in, but it’s far too much work for a job that barely pays. I’ll really miss it in many ways, but it’s time to move on.

On a positive note, I’ve somehow ended up with a full weekend off here and there the last few weeks. It helped that a few classes had been canceled due to various issues. This weekend was a good one, and because I’ve not posted a new entry here for a while, I figured it deserved some pictures. Some friends and I climbed El Toro in Morgan Hill on Saturday afternoon, and I spent some time on Sunday driving some of the familiar backroads there. It’s nice to have something to write about again, enough spare minutes to get it done. I’d really like to see this trend continue.

It’s going to be a long six-day work stretch this week though. I’ve got some fun things to look forward to in April, including the backpacking trip at Henry Coe, but there’s also an awful lot to get done. Deep breath, forward march…