Mon Jan 05, 2009
Winter Vacation By The Numbers
I posted earlier today that it was back to work day after a long restful two weeks of lazing around. I discovered when I got to work that I was far from the only one who had the same sort of winter break. As my friend Mark said, "It's the whole reason we live here. This beautiful winter weather. Who wants to stay inside?"
But on reflection I decided that I had in fact accomplished quite a bit over the last two weeks. When you count it all up, it was really quite an impressive list of things that I'd achieved.
Twelve: Total working days taken off. Gotta love the education business at times like this.
Eleven: Species of birds seen from my front porch one morning as I sat reading the newspaper. Ladderback woodpecker, common heron, osprey, parrots, doves, mockingbirds, boattail grackles, oriole, blue heron, redtail hawk, and seagull. Despite repeated hours spent on the porch I was not able to top that figure.
Ten: Levels of Command and Conquer completely and thoroughly well, conquered. The shocking thing? This was the computer application I spent the most time with during the holidays.
Nine: Hours reading in the backyard. At least. Mornings, afternoons, this time of year it doesn't matter. You can read outdoors any time of day.
Eight: Shooting stars seen while sitting in the back yard when it was too dark to read. Really.
Seven: Total trips out jogging along the gorgeous South Flagler Drive during the holidays. See Number Six below.
Six: Varieties of pork served at the annual family Christmas day brunch. Sausage gravy with biscuits (required), country ham, spiral cut ham, sausage and cheese puffs, bacon, and link sausage. When did my family become swineherds?
Five: Hours spent at the beach.
Four: Manatees sighted swimming in the Lake Worth Lagoon while out on my morning jogs. Probably the same one each time, but still.
Three: Lunches at the wonderful Dune Deck Cafe' perched on its overlook above Lantana Beach.
Two: Trips out on the boat.
One: Great freaking vacation.
Get On Back to Work
Well, here we are. January 5th and my winter vacation has run its course. It's been an unusual one for sure, since for the first time in a very long while I actually took the entire two weeks and did essentially nothing. This was a major departure from my behavior over the last 10 years where every extended time off from my day job was filled with some other kind of work--writing books and articles, working on the house, speaking at conferences and on and on. Even when not actively working I've been in this heavily-connected, always-on worldwide community of people that are available 24/7 through a newsgroup, blog, and now, God help me through the wonders of twitter, right in my pocket.
Disconnecting from all of that isn't easy, but over the last two weeks I've set out to unplug, turn off, and slow the heck down for a while. And while my Puritan work ethic stabbed me occassionally with pangs of guilt for having nothing more involved in my day than some time sitting in the sun and reading, it's been a good time for me to relax, pause, reflect, and just rest for a while.
But now the trips to the beach, the time out on the boat, the long afternoon naps and the lazy days of winter are over, and it's time to get back to work. Lots of projects and deadlines are sitting in my cubicle waiting for me, and I expect a low hum to emit from our mail servers as everyone goes back to work today and starts the process of grinding away once again.
For me, I think I've learned some lessons about achieving a better balance between work and the simple human need to slow down and rejuvenate from time to time. It's been fun and relaxing, but now it's time to get on back to work.
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