Today was my last day at work for a couple of weeks.  I still have work to do, but I am no longer on any kind of clock other than one meeting I’m supposed to call in to tomorrow morning.

I don’t take traditional vacations very often.  You know…the kind where you get on a plane/train/boat and go somewhere a long distance from home.  There are lots of reasons why this is the case.  Firstly, we have a house full of cats that are more our children or our demanding house guests than something so crass as a “pet”.  We can’t very well take them with us: most hotels frown on guests with six cats.  And it takes a lot of arranging to find someone trustworthy enough to care for them who has time to do so that just happens to correspond to when we want to take our vacation. 

Secondly, I’m not really that fond of travel in the traditional sense.  If I could basically put my house on wheels, I suppose travel would be okay.  And if I had virtually unlimited time to bumble around, no rush to get home, and plenty of time to recover afterwards: in other words, my next vacation will be retirement.

I’m exaggerating a bit.  Irene and I do occasionally go somewhere for a day or two.  And I expect that we’ll take a couple of longer trips, maybe a cruise or something, in the next decade.  But most of my vacations take place in my own home or the back yard.  I get to sleep in my own bed each night, and I like it that way.

For this vacation, my friend Chris is supposed to be coming out to visit with us.  He and I will definitely go to the airshow (the tickets are already bought).  I expect we’ll probably go out in a boat of some kind (although if it has a sail on it, I’ll be watching from shore), and possibly visit a museum or the like.  Undoubtedly we will go somewhere and walk some vast distance, I will probably get too much sun exposure, and there will almost certainly be some time with me drinking beer and Chris drinking Pepsi talking about the old days.  Those days back when we did adventurous things like roll 20 sided dice and draw maps of dungeons that only existed in each other’s imaginations.  And quite likely there will be some computer games somewhere in there, probably more than Chris wants to play and not enough for me.

To someone who travels the world, parasailing, mountain climbing, and bungee jumping their way to whatever nirvana awaits them, my idea of a great vacation probably sounds pretty dull.  But I am very much looking forward to it.