It is a beautiful day in the northern suburbs of Chicago. A quarter century ago, when I was a staff editor at a monthly trade magazine cleverly titled, Hardware Merchandiser, this was the kind of a day that would compel the magazine’s editor to come back from a lengthy lunch and announce:

“This is too nice of a day. Everyone, go home and enjoy!”

“Yes!” I’d think to myself, “Freedom!” It wouldn’t take long to power down the IBM PS/2 (just had to be sure not to leave the 1.44 MB, 3.5-inch floppy in the disk drive). A few quick good-byes, and then an afternoon of fun in the sun.

Haven’t had a boss like that since. Of course, none of my other bosses got fired, either.

Today, I settled for a walk during lunch, and an immediate getaway at 5 p.m.–after logging off of the Dell Optiplex 755.