I had blocked out some vacation days next month to visit my out-of-town brother and sister-in-law, who recently relocated from California to North Carolina, placing themselves within a long day’s drive.

I just got off the phone with my brother; I decided, for various reasons, that this isn’t a good time for the trip and I would shoot for visiting them some time after the first of the year.

But I am actually in good shape with vacation days, and so I’ll probably keep the days I had booked next month. It will be a nice time off — although I need to spend part of it working on the housekeeping disaster that is my apartment. If I had children, DHS would have taken them away from me by now.

Maybe I’ll do a day trip somewhere — to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville to see their new expansion, for example.