I have zero chance of making the WSV50 team but a sllight chance (very slight) of still finishing well enough at the SN to be an alternate.

Or rather... I did. I may not be able to participate.

This is NOT an April Fools Day joke.

Once again, my employer has drawn a bullseye around my vacation and fired shots at it.

There are certain events which involve contracts with subcontractors who perform work that requires someone in my position to be on site. I am the only person in my geographical area who can perform this task and... naturally... the date for my area is the week before and the week after July 4th.

How lovely!

[Pause for a moment to bash my head against the desk multiple times. It does NOT make me feel better.]

If there is no schedule slip (and there is always a schedule slip), I could conceiveably run everything perfectly with no errors and escape Wednesday night, fly out that night, and fence DIA (if I qualify) and then WSV50.

If I cannot fence one day prior to WSV50, then I may as well pack it in because without a screw-up day, I'll fence badly. Especially if I'm going to be working 12 hour days (or longer) leading up to this event.

Why, why, why did July 4th have to fall on a Saturday this year? That makes our closure day Friday and if I had Friday to work, I could get a lot more accomplished and increase the likelihood of being finished in time.

Thre's also the problem of stuff that needs to be done after the contractor leaves but I think I can make arrangements to work around that problem and then just work like hell upon my return.

Maybe. I don't know yet. My supervisor told me that it's going to be hard to find someone willing to travel and to cover for me at that time of the year. Most people have their own vacation plans.

Damn it!