Thursday, November 15, 2007

I Need a Thanksgiving Equivalent of Bah, Humbug

Why do so many people feel a need to travel long distances on Thanksgiving? I’m not that into the whole Thanksgiving thing anyway, but to put up with the congestion, delays and other headaches associated with air travel during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend seems just nuts to me.

We will be traveling on Thanksgiving but only because we can do it by car and are only going less than two hours away. Otherwise, we would be staying home.

I understand wanting to get together with distant family, but why does that have to happen on Thanksgiving? If the point is to be with loved ones, you can do that any time of year.

What’s really odd is that this happens all over again just a few weeks later at Christmas.

1 comment:

JeromeProphet said...

You asked, so here's my explanation.

Thanksgiving is a national holiday.

Many get the day off after Thanksgiving too - I do.

And those who work for companies, divisions, departments, units, etc., with enough staff, and who have enough seniority can take the Monday through Wednesday before Thanksgiving off.

These people get home on the Friday before the Thanksgiving week even begins, and they won't return to work until the Monday following the Thanksgiving weekend.

And how many vacation,or personal days have they used up?

Three.

Just three vacation days, and they are off NINE days, and start back to work ELEVEN DAYS after they last left it!

That's quite a deal.

They make arrangements to have other people water their plants, and do a little dusting of their PC monitors.

One day after dozens of people ahead of me retire, or die I'll be able to have such a sweet deal.

These same people do the same thing during the whole Christmas through the day after New Years Day week.

They complain about how they can't focus on work when they get back, and flash a sneaky smile.

They talk about the Turkey at home, and how it compared with the Ham at their brother's who lives in Iowa.

They also get the best parking spots at work, get the best window views for their cubicles, and usually get the best weeks during the summer to take off.

They tend to complain about how things were better long ago, and how happy they will be when they retire in a few years out in Arizona, or Florida.

Does that answer your question?