The First rule of Warehouse...

See the floor? Sweep the floor.  That's the first rule of warehouse, and it's a good rule because you really never know how long it's going to be before you see that patch of floor empty enough again to run a broom over it.  It's my rule, and I follow it.

As it stands right now I'm looking at a lot of clean floor.  My life at the moment isn't nearly as full as it has been in years past, pretty much everything will fit on the shelves with room to spare.  It seems almost empty by comparison, even though it's really not.  The job is done, the kids are raised, the wife has gone on and I'm standing here looking at what's left now that for the first time in a very long time my motives are truly just my own. 

I did this once before as a matter of fact.  That was 1974, and I stayed on base through the holidays.  I remember, sort of, what I was thinking then.  I was thinking how empty the holidays always felt, how they always carried that sour tang of exclusion.  I beat them to the punch that year,  I Scrooged that Christmas bigger than Dallas. 

This year Christmas isn't getting scrooged, this year the kids and I agreed we'd celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7th along with the folks on the far side of the world where Jesus is remembered by the Eastern Orthodox people rather than the Roman Catholics and Protestant churches.  Just works out better that way for us since the son will be working open to close so some folks with kids can spend the day with their families and there's a good chance the daughters will be pulling half shifts as well.  By the seventh those who are celebrating now will be back and time off won't be hard to come by.

So this year while the rest of my land is celebrating what I'm doing is looking at all this clean floor and wondering what should go back to fill it, and I suppose it's fair to say I'm being a bit picky.  As of right now the only promises hanging are the ones I made to myself.  They were always the last ones considered anyway, I knew I'd understand.  And I did.  But now it's my turn, and the very first thing I want to put back is a good plan that actually reflects the me I've become during those years of keeping the promises I made to the other folks.  I think that's probably the best thing to do, really, now while I've got the chance figure out what should go where since there's a good chance I'll never see this much clean floor again.