1. Vacation is the time of year that everyone looks forward to: rearranging schedules, saving money, buying the right outfits, notifying the right persons (paper person, mail person, utility person, robber person, etc.…), boarding animals, and on and on and on. Throughout my daughter’s formidable years, my family and myself would make our yearly trip to the beach. It was fun watching the kids play in the sand, swim, and do all the other fun things that kids do. Now that they are grown, I’m not as excited about taking a vacation as I once was. I’m sure that I’m probably the only person that really believes that planned vacations are not for everyone.
   
2. I just came off vacation that we had planned for months…nice condominium, golf outings planned, clambakes, great seafood, sunbathing, etc. Of course, to paraphrase John Steinbeck, "…all great plans of mice and men…go asunder…" and this was my mantra for the few days that I was in Florida. We had leased the condo for one week. After just two days, my thoughts of a great vacation had subsided, just as quickly as my excitement to go had sprung.
   
3. The trip started off all wrong from my point of view. Normally, our group included my Mom, my daughter, my sisters and their families, and myself. Well, this time my Mom was not feeling well, and thus, did not go. My daughter had only one day off, so it left me, my sister, brother-in-law, and their two kids. Now, that made five people, thus, making me the odd man out, or so I thought.
   
4. The first day wasn’t bad, as that was travel day. Day two and three we golfed. Now, understand that I had not hit a golf ball in 20 years. Also, I did not go to a driving range prior to teeing off. From the first tee, I managed to "hack" my way into total obscurity. What’s really embarrassing, is to have four old timers pushing our threesome. I was so bad, that I was never on the fairway in regulation (that’s golfing humor)!
   
5. On the third night, my niece and nephew rented two movies, thus using both VCR’s and TV’s for the evening. This "rattled" me, as I couldn’t hoard the idiot box with my never ending watching of sporting events and sitcoms. In addition to this, my nephew (24 years old, Aubrun graduate, knows everything) had a smart retort to everything that I said. So, on the fourth day, I packed up and came back to my beloved Huntsville.
   
6. Maybe, I acted a little hasty in cutting my vacation short by four days, but I knew that if I stayed any longer, I might say or do something that I would regret later.
   
7. In the work force, we are given paid time off or vacation (a benefit) to use as we deem necessary. We are encouraged to use this leave, so that we don’t suffer "burn-out" in the work place. I guess that I prefer 3-4 days off at a time vice 9-10 days. Of course, at my age you also have to factor in retraining into the equation, if too much time off is allowed. This retraining, on average, is from 3-4 days, so a week off is actually two weeks for us old timers.
   
8. Another reason for not taking weeks off at a time is that I’m afraid I would be laid-off while away from my desk. Of course, along these same lines, you cannot be terminated if you’re not there to physically accept the lay-off notices, can you? This is analogous to the tree falling in the forest…(Tell the General Motors story…)
   
9. During my tenure (6 years) in the Navy, I "steamed" half way around the world, and saw some really exotic places (Hong Kong, Singapore, Guam, Sasebo, Yokuska, and Tokyo Japan, lovely Olongepo City (Philippines), Hawaii, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, etc.). Also, I have worked in different cities in the US (Chicago, Omaha, San Diego, LA, Las Vegas, Birmingham, etc.), so its not as if I’ve missed anything by having a desire to travel all the time. It’s just that I don’t get as enthusiastic anymore about taking time off to visit places that I’ve never seen. Anyway, I’ve got 63 channels on Comcast of mindless dribble that allows me to travel the world and visit at my leisure.
   
10. Now, please, don’t label me as the Grinch that stole summer vacations, its just that I have stepped aside and let younger folks do the vacationing. This is just the natural evolution of getting older, and letting someone younger take your place. All a part of life…

 

Thank you Mr. Toastmaster…