A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a new work schedule. It’s referred to as “five-four-nines”. What that means is, one week you work five nine-hour days. The following week you work four nine-hour days. At that point you have 80 hours, so you get that Friday off. In other words, instead of working eight hours a day I now work nine hours a day, but in return every other weekend is a three-day weekend. And actually, it gets better than that. The government already gives us 10 holidays a year, seven of which remain (most of which are Mondays). If those fall on my short week, that means I get both Monday and Friday off. Even better, if those fall on my long week, it means I get a four-day weekend (getting both the Friday before the weekend and the Monday after the weekend off). All of this for simply getting up an hour earlier every day!

Of course, there are some downsides. First of all, this basically dumps Mason on Susan in the morning. This is working okay at the moment, but after the new baby arrives we’ll see how well it holds up. This also means Susan and I now drive to work separately every day as well. That takes away the hour or so I used to see the two of them every morning (I leave before they wake up) as well as the half hour ride home every day with them. In addition to that, that also means twice the gas bill since we’re drive two cars to and from work every day. Normally that wouldn’t be a big issue but with $2+/gallon prices, it adds up.

Maybe I’m just in a crappy mood this morning. Basically to get every other Friday off I’m giving up an hour and a half of family time and doubling my gasoline bill. All that for a day off that I get to spend alone since Susan and Mason will both be at the FAA. Irony, love it.