Slave to the (Recent) Grind...

(My apologies to anyone who now has Skid Row's Slave to the Grind stuck in their heads... Like I do...)

As I mentioned earlier, the new laptop that we bought on Sunday has a glitch. A quick call to the SuperMegaTelcoMart where it was purchased indicated that it was still under their 14 day return policy, and that I could bring it in and have it repaired or replaced. So last night I boxed up all the pieces parts and dragged it back to the store.

The customer service dude booted it up, saw the error message, and called over a manager. He took a look at it, authorized a replacement, and sent another associate to see if they had one in stock. Needless to say, given my rather Murphyian luck, a replacement was not in stock, but expected on a shipment coming in today.

What this (long-winded) explanation means is that I left the new laptop sitting in the original packaging last night, as there's just no reason to unpack it only to pack it up again tonight. Which means that we're back down to one computer, the cranky old machine in the office on the second floor (the room over our garage).

In just three short days, I got into a new routine with the laptop. I'd get the kids up and dressed, get them downstairs and seated for breakfast, and then pop the laptop open and read the news while drinking my morning coffee. I like this routine - I can still read the latest news and blogs, but not have to leave the children to their own devices to do it. Three short days. And this morning I had to bring my coffee cup up into the office so that I could continue the routine. I grew accustomed to the laptop in half a week. This is rather disturbing, especially given the typical "luck" I experience with home electronics.

And, naturally, I started thinking about routines in general. With kids, it's good to get them into a routine. They seem to do better when they know that they're supposed to do "X" at "Y" time (it helps even more once they can tell time!). We note everything on the calendar, such as what the "special" of the day is at school (their library/gym/computers classes are called "specials" and they have a different one every day of the week). And then there's the extra-curricular activities, the soccer, karate, Cub Scouts, Daisy Troops, swimming, gymnastics, etc. Every day they're out the door and on the go; every day has its own unique routine.

Remember one thing, though: You can't spell "routine" without "rut"...

We should endeavor to shake things up; to get out of the routine; to escape that daily grind and do something different. Go for a walk at lunch today. Screw the prepared dinner plans and take the kids to McDonald's - on a school night! No one remembers the routine later on in life. They remember the one time you took off for the weekend and drove to DC just because one of the kids was curious about the Lincoln Memorial that they were learning about in school. Have fun - this is the only life we get. Live it to the fullest.

That is all.