I am feeling at sixes and sevens as my partner’s grandmother used to say.  It is the summer but it doesn’t feel good to take time off since productivity has been low. 

It isn’t like the old days when you were rushing around before vacation and leaving phone numbers where you can be reached while away and all the time thinking, “I deserve this time off, why can’t people leave me alone?”  Once I closed a deal near a beach (I stepped away so other vacationers couldn’t hear my drill sargeant shouts) and, according to a colleague with whom I spoke after my vacation, my rapid fire instructions (ok, yelling) were punctuated by the sounds of sea gulls, much to the pleasure of some on the phone. 

Now we are afraid that our blackberries WON’T buzz or beep or vibrate or whatever.  So, I just put mine on quiet so I control the silence, and not the economy.  (Little petty victories are important.)