The price I paid

 Turns out, I had to pay market price for having missed a couple of days of work on short notice to take a class last week. 

 I'm down to 2 more watches here on the HQ and then it is time to go home... but I'm not going home. For the first time in more than two years, I am working over on my off time, leaving the HQ to go fill in somewhere else... two somewhere elses, in fact. 

 I used to work a LOT of overtime. For a few years I was only taking 6-8 weeks home each year, working 10 weeks, going home for 1-2 weeks, repeat.  The money was great, but no matter how much I made, I wanted more and while my family life stood up to the challenge without undue strain, I found that the value of my time had increased while I wasn't looking, and all the OT in the world wasn't worth what I was being paid for it. So I stopped, took the loss of income in stride, and made do with just my salary. And it's been sufficient. Granted, my lifestyle is getting less fun these days, inflation and all, but I'm also getting older anyhow and we had the foresight to buy a home that we wanted to enjoy while I was running around working like a cat trying to bury a turd under a marble floor.  Seriously, I don't enjoy leaving my home. I have my pool, my shop, my jacuzzi and my family there. No real need to go out. 

          But this time I AM working OT.  I missed those days last week and inflation sucks and my wife and kid are busy with work and such... plus, spring is coming. The snows and ice are mostly over and it's not time yet for the sun to bake our balls off at work, so now's the time, and no need to do it again for a while.  It makes the value of my trip home, and the airfare, tuition and such a lot easier to stomach. I had that one great night with the fam, so I'll muscle through the next tour... and with my kid graduation high school in May, I'll be taking an extra week off at home to soothe the burn of having worked OT, too.