When you read this, I will just have gotten back from
vacation. A week at the beach with
family.
When I first went into practice, vacations were rare. They just didn't quite fit into the
budget.
When the kids got a bit older, we usually went somewhere for
a week. Never more. We did some pretty cool things because my
wife was a travel agent back then. But
heaven forbid that we would take a second week.
Maybe a long weekend now and then.
Since 2005, we've taken an annual vacation with our kids and
their spouses and finally their children.
On this trip to the beach, there were 12 of us. That's been the case since 2013 when we took
our preemie 3 month old with us. We must
have been insane that year.
Twelve people. We've
done this enough that we all have our routines and get along amazingly
well. I'm the chief cook (really). There's nothing I love more than to get up
and have breakfast ready for everyone as they rise from their slumbers. I generally visit the grocery store every
day. These people eat a lot!
Every morning, the kids get up with me and we all try to be
quiet and let the "adults" sleep.
Finally, somebody gets hungry and that's when the kitchen gets cranked
up.
With twelve of us, dinner out is a bit problematic so we end
up cooking in most evenings. Again,
yours truly is in charge. Nobody
complains.
For me, it is time connect with the family. I know for a fact that I work too much and am
generally gone more than I need to be.
My wife, the saint of the family, is there for everything for those
grandkids. Me, not so much.
Work, career, bicycle, farmwork...I let lots of things get
in the way. But not this week. They get my all this week. And I like nothing more than to enable them
to have the time of their lives.
I got this idea from Harold "Sonny" Lambert many
years ago. Take everybody on your
vacation. Make it easy for them to go
(or hard to turn down). Let the cousins
get to know each other better.
Oh sure, I need a bit of an escape from my normal routine
from time to time. It does me good. I hardly looked at the clock this week. We ate when we were hungry and slept when we
were tired. I was barefoot or in sandals
almost from the time I left the house until I got home yesterday.
I don't lounge on the beach much when I'm there. I have a friend whose ideal vacation is to
pull a lounge chair to the edge of the beach and read a book while drinking
fruity thingies. Not for me.
As begats my lifestyle, I was always doing something. Oh,
occasionally I let my mind roam a bit and I did read a good book while gone.
But activity was the order of the day.
You could count the time my backside was in a lounge chair in
minutes.
Usually by this time, I've segued into some point or
other. Not so much today. What you get today are pointless ramblings
about my vacation.
Or maybe the point is that we all need vacations from time
to time, maybe just for different reasons.
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