Cliff's four-day work week

I don't even remember when Cliff started working the four-day work week.  It seems like at least a year, but who knows.  
We've learned to deal with it because, you know, he always gets a three-day weekend.
That sounds good, doesn't it?
Except that for four days a week, he gets up at mid-morning, eats breakfast, goes for a walk, eats dinner, and goes to work.  Oh, and on Friday, he's so tired he's a zombie.  
He and Tony, the guy he rides to work with, are given the choice of going back to a five-day week every three months.  They've decided that when the time comes to make that choice, they're going to go back to a five-day, eight-hours-a-day, work week, at least for three months; because they do have the option of going back to four-day weeks if they want to.
I've learned to deal with either schedule.  What's time to a hog?
A hog, you ask?  What are you talking about?  
This comes from an old Jerry Clower story:  A salesman approached a hog farmer and said, "Mister, if you buy my hog feed, your hogs will go to market two months sooner."  
The farmer answered, "Oh well, what's time to a hog?"  
So we'll see how Cliff and Tony do, going back to a regular schedule.  One thing about it, no matter what his schedule, Cliff only has to make it until next June.  Then he retires.

Cliff's work schedule

For over a year, Cliff has worked a four-day workweek.  He works from 3:30 P.M. till 2:00 A.M.  He sleeps until 10 o'clock each morning, takes about an hour to wake up, and then we take our walk.  And then it's time for me to make lunch.  By the time we eat, it's time for Cliff to get ready for work.  
The upside of this schedule is that we get three-day weekends, which would be great for trips to St. Louis or Arkansas on the motorcycle.  Except that for the past year, it rains on weekends, EVERY cotton-picking weekend; riding a motorcycle in the rain is not only no fun, but it's dangerous.  Still, Cliff gets three-day weekends.  He can work on his tractor project.  Unless it involves painting, because it rains, most weekends.  You can't paint when the humidity is high.  
From the time Cliff's place of employment started allowing the four-day workweek, it was voluntary.  Some of those volunteers work Monday through Thursday, others work Tuesday through Friday.  Many people who tried the four-day week didn't like it, and went back to five eight-hour days.  So now, on Monday nights and Friday nights, there are only three people working for those two hours after midnight.  Obviously this doesn't make a lot of economic sense for the company.   
Cliff has a feeling the four-day, forty-hour week could very well become a thing of the past.  
Both of us have mixed feelings.  
Yes, the three-day weekends are nice.  But the four days Cliff works, there's no time for anything except sleeping, eating, and his going to work.  There's precious little time for a motorcycle ride before work.  
I'm a morning person.  If I'm going to do any housework, I'd prefer to do it early.  But Cliff's in bed until 10 o'clock, so I can't run the vacuum; I can't do laundry (the washing machine is near the bedroom).  Then he gets up and I fix breakfast and sit and watch the news with him.   
Even Cliff agrees that if he's forced to go back to working five eight-hour days (evenings, I should say), it wouldn't break his heart.  
Whatever happens, we'll deal with it.  

Rethinking Cliff's new work schedule

Added later: I was an hour off on his working hours. He'll work 4:30 PM to 3 AM.

Cliff was so happy telling me about his upcoming four-day work-week that I got caught up in his excitement.

Later, after he'd gone to work, reality hit me.

He'll be leaving for work at 4:30 in order to clock in at 5:30 P.M.

He'll be getting off work at 4 A.M., arriving home at 5.

If he goes straight to bed, which is what he's always done on his 3:30 PM to midnight shift, he'll be sleeping until noon or so. He'll be a day sleeper. Sadie mustn't bark. I mustn't drop things in the kitchen.

He'll be going to bed about the time I get up for the day.

In order to make full use of those three-day weekends, Cliff would have to get on a whole different sleep schedule for the duration of the weekend, then switch back for the work week. That isn't an easy thing to do.

Then there's the issue of meals. Breakfast at noon, or before going to bed in the morning? Two meals eaten at work?

I hope this whole thing works out.

I hate change. But of course, in the current job climate, I'm not stupid enough to complain. After all, he does have a job, and it's a good one.

Random pictures, random happenings

When Rena was visiting during Thanksgiving weekend, her dog Angel got tired of Sadie and Mindy bugging her. So she got on her mom's lap and burrowed under the afghan.


This is Sadie yesterday, chilling out.

It was ten degrees yesterday. Cliff, Sadie and I walked anyway.

Believe it or not, with the sun shining and no breeze at all, we worked up a sweat before we were done.

Now this is something I had never seen: Ten degrees, and moles had been working under the snow!

We also saw mouse tracks and deer tracks, and snow geese flying overhead. It was one of the most enjoyable walks I've had lately.

Cliff got some news at work that he considers almost too good to be true: Management is going to allow his department to work four ten-hour days per week rather than five eight-hour days, which will give him a three-day weekend every single week! This starts January 5. They experimented with this once before, but it didn't last. We sure hope it's permanent this time.