Teledyne gives us all of four three-day weekends a year:
- Presidents’ Day in February.
- Memorial Day in May.
- Independence Day in July.
- Labor Day in September.
Other than that, it’s two days off at Thanksgiving, Christmas Day [or the day before|after if that falls on a weekend], and New Year’s Day [see Christmas Day for timing]. Employees that are on-site at NASA get Martin Luther King Day off; we get a floating holiday in its place, largely because corporate prefers to give us a day off in February rather than another one in January. Yeah, that leaves me a little frustrated every year—not for the no-day-off, but because I’d rather celebrate King than Washington and Lincoln. You may say that my sense of history is skewed, but I’ll just argue that I’m a lot closer to King’s ripple in the ocean.
As such, you’d be right in thinking that I treasure my three-day weekends. Last year, I spent two of the four at weddings—first my brother‘s [Memorial Day] and then Brandon and Sarah’s [Independence Day]. This year, I hope to spend the other three doing exactly what I did this weekend: puttering around the house, catching up on things, and generally chilling out.