The drive out and back is best done in 2 days, but we saw fit to complete it in a single session on both the outbound and return legs. We rented Saturday to Saturday and got up very early yesterday to say goodbye to family and the ocean and make the drive home. It's a holiday weekend in the U.S., so we arrived back home to cookouts, high school graduation open houses, and the usual summer kickoff events. Which is a little weird - my vacation is "over" but all around me the party is just beginning.
We'd been looking forward to this trip for quite awhile. The past 6 months here have been a sprint with the job, house, and other "real life" problems. I went to the ocean with only 3 main objectives:
- Sleep a lot.
- Drink a lot of coffee by the ocean.
- Read a book.
I accomplished all my goals. Book of choice was Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, which I first read in high school and try to pick up every 5 years or so. The coffee was mediocre, probably due to the local municipal water quality, but I drank it anyway.
The house we rented was oceanfront. From the deck, we could watch the tides coming and going maybe 50 yards away. We made up our daily agenda as we went, but I spent a lot of time just sitting and reading or watching the water. I'm not one to sunbathe or sleep on a beach, but a comfortable chair within a short walk to the coffee pot (or fridge, for beer) and an ocean breeze is a good way to spend the day.
The first few days, I was jumpy and generally bitchy about perceived offenses committed by my family members. By about Monday, I found my irritability draining out of me as I caught onto island time and cared a lot less about things that the others said or did. I felt more like myself than I have in awhile.
If you've never truly experienced island time, I highly recommend it. In western civilization today we live such regimented lives in a world of schedules and rules and routine. But left to our own devices, it's interesting to me how quickly those rituals fade in importance. Some structure, I suppose, is a good thing over the long haul, but the lack of almost any obligation was liberating.
I had my laptop with, but didn't sneak away much to spend time on it. I bounced through EVE every other day or so to check on things and read EVEmail. The time away was good and I came home with a short list of goals that I'd like to accomplish.
I plan to ease back into reality. I spent this morning brutalizing some Serpentis and have AE4 on deck. When the dew burns off, I need to mow the lawn. We have some tuna steaks for dinner that will go on the grill. I have very little idea of what I'll do tomorrow, and right now that's fine with me.
But for now, it's time for more coffee.
No comments:
Post a Comment