Fur-cation

Today marks the first day of my five-day furlough. Like hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses across the country, my workplace has mandated furloughs for employees across the board over the next six months.

Ask anyone who has taken one of these things and they'll tell you they don't know how to feel. On one hand, you're away from that daily headache called work. On the other hand, there's no money coming in. In fact, this is the first period in which I have gone without pay since I was between jobs in college.

When I think about it that way, I get depressed. So I'm not gonna think about it that way. I'm focusing totally and solely on the vacation part of it. I have an entire week of being able to do whatever I want (if doing whatever I want doesn't involve spending any money). I already have a list of possibilities, and I'm really starting to feel carefree about the whole matter.

It definitely means more time to devote to the blog, and since I am not weighed down by the daily pressures of work, you will probably see a lot more goofy, wacky posts in the next few days. I hope to have at least one humorous or semi-humorous or just plain silly (depending on your viewpoint, I guess) post a day.

Also, I have another milestone post coming up this week. And there will be a contest involved with that post. So get ready for that.

Meanwhile, to kick off the celebration of "fur-cation," I thought I would examine the many examples of "floating heads" cards that bloggers love to feature on the intertubes. I wish I had a bunch of early '60s cards to really display floating heads in all their glory. But I don't. So I'll have to make do.

Some people find the floating heads cards creepy. I personally think those people have watched too many horror movies. I don't like horror movies. I don't understand why anyone would want to be creeped out. See what you've done to yourselves? When I see floating heads, I just see silliness.

The best thing about floating heads is anyone can be a floating head:

You can be a player.

You can be a league leader (wow, Jeff D'Amico fell off the face of the earth. I barely remember the guy, and he was around as recently as 2004).

You can be an entire team.

You can be an entire team, including the manager. And you can be from either Chicago franchise.

You can be a member of the coaching staff. Even a guy named "Salty" can be a floating head.

You don't even have to be on a baseball card. You can be a floating head on a pocket schedule.

Yes, Davey can be a floating head, too. We won't hold the late 1990s against him.

So there you go. A quick, brainless examination of the wonderful tradition of floating heads on baseball cards.

That will do for now. Except for one thing. You may have noticed that poll on the sidebar. Yes, I am thinking of changing my template. Yes, I plan to respond to whatever gets the most votes. And if my calculations are correct, the most votes say to "Go nuts."

So that's what I will be doing ... going nuts. Within my limited creative skills anyway. I will be doing that beginning with my next post. I hope you like it.