Today in 1941:

Ted Williams enters the last day of the season with a batting average of exactly .400, and a meaningless doubleheader left of the schedule. His manager offers him the day off to preserve the feat, but Williams declines. He goes 6-for-8 in the doubleheader and finishes the season batting .406.

Today, more than ever, I wonder how he could do it.

In terms of political schedules, my recent work has been average...or less. I've worked 47, 50 and 50 hours the last two weeks. Last weekend I had Saturday off for the first time in a month. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I love my job, I love the chance to make a difference and I love having teammates who believe in and count on me, day after day. But it's exhausting.

I'm still trying to find the mix of fun time/rest time/work time to recuperate effectively. Take last week for example:

Sunday - 5 hours
Monday - 11 hours
Tuesday - 8 hours
Wednesday - 11 hours
Thursday - 8 hours
Friday - 7 hours

Coming off a 51 hour week, I really didn't feel like doing much of anything on Saturday. And I didn't. I laid around my apartment all day Saturday. Sunday, I laid around someone else's apartment and watched football. You'd think, given that much rest, I'd have been fired up and ready to go Monday morning.

I almost fell asleep at my desk Monday morning. I snored endlessly through the night last night (or so I'm told). I couldn't answer the bell this morning. I managed to get in 6 hours during the day today, and will put in another 2 tonight. But I'm absolutely exhausted.

Someone out there must have gone through this before. How'd you get through it?

KL